Service Schedule - Miles or Maintenance Minder?

[OhioCivicOwner]

I have a 2007 Honda Civic EX with about 72,300 miles on it. I need and oil change with the B13 service. I've been going between two different dealerships depending on which one has screwed up and frustrated me less the last time I had my car in. One of the dealerships is telling me that I need to do a 60k mile major service and might as well go ahead and do the 75k mile mid-range service as well - they didn't happen to mention the 60k major service the 3 times it's been in their shop since I passed 60k miles. The other dealership says the newer Civics with the maintenance minder just tell you what they need and there's no need for the services based on mileage. They said it's just a way for the other dealership to get more money out of my car. My owner's manual says absolutely nothing about the service based on mileage - whether to do it or not.

Seeing as I just dumped my entire last 3 paychecks for odd and completely un-related problems for my car, I'm not really wanting to dump more into it if I don't have to. I do, however, understand the importance of regular maintenance and want to do the necessary service to it so that it will hold up longer and cost less in the future. I really don't want to not do necessary service on my car, and I also don't want to dump unnecessary money into my car, what's the real story here? Do I need to do service based on mileage or not?

Thank you in advance for your response!

 

[RonJ]

This does not answer your question entirely but is highly related:

1. Buy the service manual for your car. It tells you maintenance schedules. I'm surprised the Owner's manual doesn't.
   
2. Do routine maintenance and repairs yourself.
   
3. Save lots of money.

 

[lethal6]

A 60k is going to be oil change, air filter, cabin filter, spark plugs, brake flush, and trans flush if it is an automatic. During which they do a full inspection of the car to see if anything else needs attention. A 75k by Honda's standards is just an oil change and the inspection being that it is just a "minor" service. I don't know why they recommended that you do the 75k on top of the 60k being that the oil change and the inspection is already included in the 60k and it is a "major" service schedule anyway?

All of this stuff you can do, especially on one of these things. It's cake. Like RonJ said, buy a service manual and go to town. Save yourself a ton of money.

To answer your maintenance question, I would recommend most definitely doing it by the mileage. They wouldn't have mileage interval services if they didn't recommend them. I don't know anything about the owner's manual for the 2007 Civic, but every service manual I have ever seen for any car tells maintenance intervals. I thought the owner's manuals did it too?