Time for the 30K Service, and the prices are pretty outrageous, depending on plan. Anywhere from $535 to $846 to $1634. Any opinions on If it is really needed, since I've had all of my previous scheduled maintenance on my prepaid plan? Any input is appreciated.

Scott

 

If you read the maintenance schedule in your owner's manual, it's easy to see that $535 is a complete ripoff (and the other numbers are criminal activity). That schedule calls for 'inspecting' a bunch of things, most of which can be done with a cursory look, or not even inspected at all, which I suspect is a common practice. So it's basically an oil change, air and cabin filters (unless already replaced), and brake slider pin lube. Tires are likely almost done, so no point in rotating them. If you don't DIY, then find a good, honest Indy shop to have all of your future maintenance and non-warranty repair work done. Buy the correct Mazda oil filter and the oil specified in your owners manual, and bring it to the shop for the oil changes.

 

Excellently stated. That is exactly what I am going to do for the 30 and 40K services.

 

In the service bays we called it a "wallet flush" when a service advisor sold a bunch of fluid flushes on a vehicle. I'll leave it to you to research in these forums or other trusted sites if any are worth doing before 100k miles for your own piece of mind. FWIW I put a bottle of "Techron" in the tank and change the oil/filter every 5000 miles and call it done. (At 15 I'll add checking/replacing air & cabin filers.) I might do trans at 60 if I still have it then.

Uggg. I just remembered my wife's Equinox tripped 100 this year so time for me to practice what I just preached. I'd scheduled to drop it off for oil service so I'll call Jason at my old workplace and add trans, coolant and spark plugs to the ticket. (On second thought it's a V6 and the intake has to come off to change the plugs; I haven't gotten greasy since March so I'll save that 2.6 Hours labor and do it in the driveway when the weather starts cooling off a bit in about 1-1.5 Hr since I did so many GM V6s in my time. pro tip.. don't fully remove the intake; just what you must to be able to bungee it up out of the way)