Dealership Experience

I would be very careful on buying an aftermarket warranty. They will use anything against you to get out of paying. I don't know any I would trust. For me, the only warranty I trust is a Toyota extended warranty. Of course it is to late for that in your situation. We put money in to a checking account that is set aside for car/truck repairs or house repairs. If nothing breaks it keeps building. If something breaks it pays the bill. This has worked for us since we were young. Good luck.

 

Stevenson Toyota.

I had to leave my Tacoma with my dad for a week because I needed surgery. I mentioned a long time before, to my dad, that the water pump was leaking and it needed a timing belt.

I was in no condition to wrench on anything for several months after surgery so my dad, very generously, dropped my truck off at the dealership to have the work done.

The dealership did a really half-assed job (hose clamps out of position and loose, bolts loose on the belt cover) and they convinced my dad that my brakes needed cleaning and adjusting.

My dad had no patience for cars, he definitely wasn't a car guy. The dealership took advantage of an old man who didn't know any better. My dad agreed to the repairs because he was trying to be very generous and helpful while I was crippled.

The dealership didn't do anything on the brakes. The drums were still rusted on. I saw the receipt, they charged him $50+ and did nothing. I called the dealership to raise hell. They denied doing nothing and made up a story about how they used tubing to pump break cleaner into the brake drum through the adjustment slot.

Since I didn't pay, I really had no path for recourse. All I could do is tell them they were full of it and shame on them for taking advantage of an old man. I was pissed.

You really are at a mechanic's mercy if you don't know what questions to ask or what services you absolutely don't need.

 

Thanks guys, I just can’t in good conscience walk into that dealership ever again.

I’ll just go without a warranty and keep up on maintenance.

 

there’s a place here called “The Shop” the owner used to be the service manager at Toyota and they specialize in Toyotas. I’ve gotten a couple recommendations for them.

 

For the benefit of anyone around the Houston, TX area, I know there are a LOT of disappointing dealerships in the area so I wanted to mention that Joe Myers Toyota has an outstanding service department. I bought a 15 year old Tundra and knew there were a few things due, so I took it in to the dealership. They were honest and professional and didn't try to get me to do anything that wasn't actually necessary. And since I had a couple of the additional recommended services done, they did my oil change for $65 instead of the quoted price of $100.

 

Metro Toyota (Cleveland)
Outstanding., easy, hassle free, and a great experience. Never could say that about any dealer (in fact, detest Premier in Amherst (crooked as it gets)), but would recommend Metro and staff (Ken, Chris, & Tony) to family and friends.

 

Glad their service department did well for you. As far as the sales team, Joe Myers is the one dealership that I will under no circumstances give an opportunity to get my business again, ever. One of the very few places where I’ve ever lost my shit on a customer service employee.

 

I haven't had many positive experiences buying from Toyota dealerships in Houston. A salesman at Gullo called me a liar when I told him the deal I was considering at another dealership. I pulled the salesman's card out of my wallet and told him to call him and ask. Then I insisted on only dealing directly with his manager from that point on. The even worse issues we had at Mike Calvert Toyota buying my wife's 4Runner would be way too long of a post...

 

I really hate it when a good product suffers at the hands of ignorant people who manage it.

 

This happened earlier this year:

Problem - 2020 Tundra, 40K miles, front differential developed the well known harmonic whoosh sound. Sound and vibration won’t away, except when engaging 4x4.

Took the truck to Fred Haas Toyota World in Spring, TX. Described in detail the issues to the service manager and drop off the truck. Two hours later, I received a call from the manager saying they drove the truck and found nothing abnormal. They proceeded to tell me it was a $192 diagnostic fee.

I go to pick the truck up and on the way out, it is obviously making the sounds. I check my dash cam footage at home and can hear the sounds on the techs test drive. The test drive was 15 minutes long.

I provided the old TSB and they didn’t budge. I debated on pushing them to fix it, but came to the realization that I didn’t want an incompetent lazy potato of a tech touching the truck and making it worst.

Swapped the needle bearing with an ECGS bushing and the problem was resolved. It confirmed to me that I made the right decision.

I’ll never use their service department again.

 

My issues with the Lithia Toyota of Billings regarding their sales and finance dept are pretty well documented, but after reading yakeng’s service experience I’ll share this.
I took my Tudnra to Jiffy Lube to get the fluids checked and the tech tells me my passenger side CV axle boots is destroyed and there’s grease all over my truck. Weird as I’d had the truck a couple weeks and it was “Toyota Certified” which is supposed to mean it’s been inspected and certified (and comes with a warranty). I go back to Toyota and they say too bad. I get that the CV axles aren’t typically covered under warranty…but they tout their 60 day no questions asked bumper to bumper warranty on every used vehicle they sell. I remind them of that and they finally agree to fix it. Then they tell me their CV axles are on national back order and they are gonna replace it with an aftermarket axle.
Get the truck back that afternoon and it’s still obviously wrong, take it to another shop and they tell me the installation was done right (while cleaning up all the grease the Toyota Tech left on my truck), they tell me they think it’s just a bad CV axle.
I have Juffy Lube check the alignment (and watch them do it, no issues at all). I stop by the local tire shop and have them check the tires for cupping, abnormal wear, and have them rebalanced (they are perfect. Cooper Tough Trek, 2500 miles on them)
Schedule another appt at Toyota, get a bunch of attitude for bringing it back. Service lady tells a tech to go for a test drive with me.
We are on the road and you can clearly feel the vibration on gradual and hard turns. The tech tells me it’s the aggressive wheels and that they are cupping. I tell him that I did my due diligence and took it to get the alignment checked and the wheels checked. He gets a really bad attitude right away and tells me that he’s been doing this 37 years and serviced my truck. So I ask him “if you did the certification inspection on my truck, how did you miss a destroyed CV boot and why did you leave the grease all over the boot on of my truck?” He tells me they don’t have time to inspect everything, and that cleaning the grease off isn’t his job. So I give up, basically tell this guy everyone in that dealership is a fucking clown and am taking him back to the dealership. as we are driving his attitude kinda snaps back to non psychotic and he proceeds to tell me that he doesn’t want to scare me, but the CV axles they used aren’t even remanufactured by Toyota, they are just the cheapest rebuilt CV axles they can find.

I am not kidding when I tell you this is the worst dealership I have ever seen. It’s like they took the most dishonest and incompetent people they could find and put them in dealership prison here.

 

Toyota of Morristown in New Jersey. Stay away. If you think the salesmen and the sales manager are pushy, hold on to your wallet when you sit down with the Finance Manager.

Why are most dealerships so adversarial? It's one of the few business people dread to go and only do so because we have to.

 

If you're in the Houston area, don't ever go to Toyota of Katy for parts. I decided to go OEM for replacement wiper blades. They wanted almost double the MSRP I could get directly from Toyota! Not to mention they only had one of the two sizes that I needed in stock.

I ended up buying them online from another dealership that had them in stock, while standing there at the parts counter after the guy told me the price. Paid barely more more for both plus shipping than they wanted me to pay for one.

 

Called in Dec to schedule 2 recalls and have them look at some other issues, hesitation at cold start followed by lurching forward, change signal touch from 3 blinks to 5, driver seat rail cap popping out. I was told that the fuel line recall takes about 8h and I have to have the tank 1/4 or less otherwise they will throw away the extra gas as they have no way to store it. I asked if they provide a loaner since the recall takes so long. She checked with manager and said yes, loaner is covered by the recall. 2 weeks later I go to the dealership and I'm told that they don't provide a loaner. They want me to pay out of pocket for diagnosing the hesitation/lurching if they cannot duplicate it, even though there's a TSB for this exact issue. And changing the signal from 3 to 5 blinks comes out of pocket too as it's not a warranty issue. Service advisor was condescending, not something I would have expected from Toyota and since I didn't have any transportation arranged, I ended up canceling the appointment and leaving. I don't live in a major metro area and next closest dealership is 35 miles away. Is this the norm for Toyota dealerships or did I just run into a bad service advisor? I called Toyota customer service, rep said loaner is covered for that recall, she calls the dealership to see why they didn't provide it and then comes back and says that dealerships are independently operated and they can't force them to provide a loner. And apparently they can charge for diagnostics for the hesitation if they want to, because, you know, they are independently operated. She said a Toyota customer advocate will contact me within 24h to go over the issues and liaise with the dealership, it's been 72h now and no calls. I was looking to get a 2024 Land Cruiser but based on this experience, I'm not sure I want to buy another Toyota.

 

Hi - I just had a similar issue. Same problems. Honestly I don't think it is a Toyota problem, but more of a larger problem with service in this country. My dad hates his Ford dealer as well.
Plus the new Land Cruiser looks so sweet.....

https://www.tundras.com/threads/my-local-dealer-sucks.136121/#post-3447446

 

I just had a dealer that I gave money to for a purchase and I get a call and they say it’s here. Hour later they call and tell me they sold the car to someone else by mistake!! Now it’s costing them more money a couple different ways!

 

I am dreading my second service. The first one didn't go well and I did post a review to recap what happened. Nothing came out of that review so I will be on-top of them this time. I will probably not get the oil changed or tires rotated since I do that myself and the mileage is too low for them to do the oil change without having to plead to them. Fingers crossed that they don't cover my hood with their greasy finger prints like last service!

 

I just booked my recalls for next week. They have indicated that they will do Service #2 as well. The photo shows what they are going to do for this service.

I have not hit the mileage as I am sitting under 6k kms so they will not change the oil which I don't mind. We have had this truck for about 16 months and as you can see, we don't drive it much.

I don't want them to rotate the tires either but they wont be able to check the brakes without taking the wheels off.

The uneven tire wear check is amusing since they haven't figured out the alignment issues and even if I look at the front end, I can see that the tires are tipped out at the top!

I am going to go through this list and delete most of it so they don't mess up my truck!

 

I am 81 years old. I have been buying cars/trucks for decades more than many of the members here have been alive. I can honestly say that I have never found a truly honest
dealer for any of the different brands I have bought. Its always been that going to
a dealer is a painful experience, you better be on top of everything
Paul

 

Frayne's Toyota in Exeter, Ontario, Canada. Without exception, and we've had over 20 Toyotas and Lexus vehicles in the past 28 years, this dealership is phenomenal. Small town friendliness, more than fair dealing, just all around a great Toyota dealership.

 

Treasure Coast Toyota of Stuart

Oh boy. When I moved into the area I started going here for my oil change simply because I don't know anyplace. My aunt had began going there just about the same time for a few issues with her 2010 Avalon.
My battery had started failing so I went to the local AutoZone and purchased a new one. About a year later, the battery began failing again. Went into the AutoZone and they literally had no record for me at all, like I never had been to AutoZone, ever, and the battery was 3.5 years old. Someone swapped out the battery and the only place that had my truck was that dealer. How did I get deleted from AutoZone system? 1 of the guys mentioned to me outside of the store, I wasn't the 1st customer that he has seen getting deleted.
My aunt's Avalon has some front end issues and the routine 100k mile maintenance items. I looked over the car a few times and started to replace some of the items but I'm limited as to what I can do for various reasons. She took the car into the dealership and $900 later, she left with the car still needing front end work and they had replaced items that I already had done. They handed her a laundry list of items and stated that all of they had done and what needed to be done was part of the 100k mileage service as well as various other things that were worn out. That list included the suspension (I already had the suspension done), serpentine belt (I already swapped that out as well as tensioner) shttttt I can keep going but you get the idea.

We now go to a small local shop called Brian Pessolano in Stuart. My buddy used to work there and told me that is the only shop he ever recommend to anyone because they are honest and have a few guys that really know there sht. 2 years and I have absolutely no complaints or issues, they are really good people.

 

Had a great experience at our small town dealership, Germain Toyota in Dundee, MI. Just bought our '24 Tundra from them, and bought our '23 4Runner from them last year. Great to work with, no pressure, no bullshit add-ons and gave great trade-in values.
They sure as hell beat out the other dealers around Ann Arbor.

 

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT buy from Toyota on Edens (TOE) in Northbrook, IL (a suburb just north of Chicago). I bought a 2023 1794 trim with 16,000 miles, I traded in a Suburban and still owed some money on it. I bought the truck and traded my truck in a week before my suburban payment was due, my payment date passes and I get a text from the bank that had the title for the suburban, asking where my payment was. I reach out to the finance lady from TOE, she says the person that handles payoffs and title transfers is gone for the day but she will look into it and not to worry. A couple more days go by, no response from TOE and I get an email now from the bank that holds the title on the suburban looking for my payment. I again call the finance lady and she says she hasn't talked to the person that deals with this but she will find out when the payment was sent and again I don't have anything to worry about. I remind her that it is my credit that will be affected and she said they wouldn't do that and its not a big deal but she will find out when the payment was sent. I reach out to the bank for the suburban and they say I have a 10 day grace period, so I felt a little better about the situation and hope for the best. A few more days go by and the bank is still looking for their payment, I then email every manager in every department at the dealership and get a phone call back from a sales manager and he pretty much repeats what the finance lady had said about nothing to worry about. I again remind him that this is my credit at risk, so he says what would you like me to do and I told him I would like my suburban back and they can have the tundra back. He says the Suburban needs a new transmission so I probably wouldn't want to do that and I told him that's a lie, I just replaced the transmission. He has nothing to say other than we, TOE, want the suburban paid off because we need the title to sell it, he says would you like me to call your bank and talk to them? I say yes and he tells me he will call tomorrow at noon and then call me back, of course tomorrow comes and goes and no call or email from them at all. By this time my wife is like WTF and sends an other email to every manager which produces an email, from the sales manager I talked to, with a PDF of a proof of payment to the bank for the suburban. I respond telling them you can show my pieces of paper that say you sent the payment but until I actually get a letter or email from the bank saying the suburban is paid off, none of it matters. I reach out to the bank (Consumers Credit Kalamazoo MI) and tell them I traded in the suburban and emailed them a copy of the bill of sale and they were very cool about it saying don't worry about it and my credit will not be affected. Thankfully a few days later they received the payment and all was fine but the attitude of everyone in that dealership was never of concern for me just to deny any wrong doing.
I did have to take the truck in for service because of a cracked piece of trim on the drivers seat and they were great, no problems at all and took care of business.
So for all of my Chicago peeps and really anyone else looking for a Toyota DO NOT waste your time or give this dealership your money, their only concern is selling vehicle and not really giving a shit about the customer.

Jack

 

Fred Anderson Toyota and Leith Toyota in Raleigh are pretty good.....neither charge those insane dealer markups / market adjustments like Left Coast Toyota Dealerships do.