Dealership Scams

If I don't fix something fast enough on the wife's car she threatens to take it to the garage by herself and let them do whatever they want

 

Walser Toyota in Bloomington, MN.

Short of that, they otherwise have been decent about other services and not upselling me unnecessary services.
Or course, no idea if they do it to folks with little knowledge of their own vehicle.
Gotta say, after that TSB fix, not a single error with the Trailer brakes.

 

If they woukd have just spent the $25 and fixed it free of charge and thanked you for being a loyal customer you would be telling people how great that dealer is.....

 

That was about the exact cost of the download, the rest was the $190 to scan my vehicle to confirm the exact problem I told them about.
I gave them the TSB number and the fix.
They didn't need to diagnose crap.
If they would've just ran the download and it didn't work, I would've been out a measly 25.

 

Oh.
Another software scam.

Updates to the factory navigation system. My old Jeeps map was way outdated, missing newer highways and neighborhoods. They wanted $160 and they would send a CD with the update that would specifically only work with your vehicles vin through the head unit.
Screw that.
I got a phone, that even tells me the best traffic route.
Not sure what Toyota charges, but definitely not paying to upgrade my nav screen.

 

Garmin with lifetime map updates for the win.

 

The throttle body cleaning and legitimate intake cleaner (sucking fluid in through vacuum hose to clean valves) actually does work; we do it at the shop I work at but we don’t charge anywhere near what the dealer does

 

Acura dealer wanted $325 to change the rear differential oil on my wife's 23 RDX. I bought the 2 quarts of oil for around $24 and took me 20-30 to change it out. So essentially they where charging $300 an hour to change the fluid. Only time I go to dealer is for warranty work. This why when a vehicle when a vehicle just lost its warranty, dealer will do good faith repairs. No shit, you have been raping the customer on everything else, so technically they have just been putting extra money into a piggy bank in case they need it once the vehicle is out of warranty.

 

Story time:
I went to my local Toyota dealership, to get diff. (front and rear) fluid & transfer case fluid from the parts department.
I asked the parts guy, how much fluid they each take and type of fluid, so he goes into his computer and responds, 75w85 in both differentials and 75w in the transfer case and the capacities, that I don't remember at this time. He told me the prices and I said cool, lets do it.
He brought out 7 bottles of 75w90. <--Thats not a type-o.

The bottles were of a brand I had never heard of, and says, are you cool if they not Toyota brand? This is what we put in all of our trucks differentials and transfer cases, in the service center.
They don't even put what Toyota says they should. Careful when getting simple work done at the dealership.

I decline the fluids, and I pivot to asking for the crush washers for differentials and transfer cases. (spoiler alert- transfer case doesn't take a crush washer)

 

Yeah...Knew a guy that ran the shop at a Toyota dealership.
He was a member of the off roading group I was in.
He'd let bring our Trucks in and help us work on em for nothing.
Super nice guy!!!
He'd get us great prices on parts as well.
The manager was okay with since it brought in a lot of customers for both the shop and new truck sales.

 

Good on you man.

 

as stupid as it sounds. the battery thing is Toyota forcing us to tell customers. the whole reason the recall was RE-released with the new stuff was to prevent 24f battery's from being installed. its a stupid recall.



as for dealership scams... yea. Im trying like hell to get my own shop going. i cant deal with the dealer bullshit anymore. ive managed to survive long being honest. but they still make me do things i REALLY dont like (mostly the aftermarket parts they give us when factory stuff is "going to take too long to get".)
and my paychecks are suffering because i wont jump on the "bend over the customer" bandwagon

 

It always surprised me that they weren't worried about liability issues.
I guess they figured he was going to help us regardless so might as well earn some good will and truck sales.
Had to do it after hours as well which was fine.

 

Yeah, installing aftermarket parts at a dealership because the factory part is 2 days out or something is a crock of absolute sheeeet. I had a Parts Manager do that all the time with P/S racks. A Toyota P/S rack could literally be a next-day order, but he & the Service Advisor claimed they would lose the sale if they didn't have a P/S rack here today. So, the Parts Manager would always get a cheap POS P/S rack from O'Reilly's, mark it up to nearly the Toyota factory part price, and the customer would be none the wiser. 10 months later, the customer would return with steering issues, and we would be warranting the O'Reilly P/S rack with yet another O'Reilly P/S rack...drove me insane...I refused to install them. Let another tech have that work.

 

He should be teaching customer service/relationship-building for Toyota!

 

I had a situation once where I brought my 2009 Toyota Camry in for an oil change and filter plus inspections, I believe it was around the the fall of 2015. After sitting in the sevice lounge for about half an hour the service rep came out and said they noticed my water pump was leaking and would be around $650 to replace including labor. I asked if I could look at it myself. Sure enough the coolant was low and there were indications of dried up antifreeze (pinkish) residue on the pump and nearby vicinity. I didn't see any liquid residue, everything was dried up. I said, for now can I just buy some 50/50 Toyota coolant and I would monitor it for a few days and get back to them. They topped up the coolant for me that I bought and I went home.

As soon as I got home I cleaned off all the dry residue and checked every day to see if there were any leaks. Nothing happened. I sold the car in 2018 and never had issues with leaks or dried up coolant under the hood. I suspect the mechanic siphoned the coolant out, put some drops here and there that dried up quickly. I never said a word nor did they ever mention this again upon subsequent visits for oil changes. I've kept my guard up ever since. Now I do my own oil changes because I don't trust them anymore.

 

I seriously doubt the mechanic went to that length to sell a water pump. Toyota eventually issued a service bulletin regarding the intermittent leaks of water pumps and how to inspect them. If I had to bet, your water pump experienced a debris intrusion & it momentarily weeped out coolant. I could be wrong & that mechanic was a real sheeeet head.

 

I dont know.. If he would have said ok. The tech could have wiped the pink residue off, got the new part and gasket threw in into his lunch box took it home and sold it on ebay. Easy 100$ for 2 minutes of work. And dealer would be fine with it because they would make the other $550. I have never heard of a dealer for firing a tech for doing this as long as the new part disappears.

I have worked at several dealers. And know several mechanics.

 

I'll add a good one. I owned a 2010 Prius. Toyota issued a brake software recall.

Dealer told me I would have to pay the 189$ fee for tech to hook computer up. I asked them to give me the quote in writing. They just had $189 for diagnostic fee. I asked them to show the 189$ fee was for the recall number....... they refused to write that on the quote. I wanted to send it to Toyota Corporate. Anyways went to another dealer they did it free of charge in 15 minutes.

 

Gonna have to remember this...

 

I hear you but if it was a sevice bulletin or potential debris then the report back to me should have been for me to monitor it rather than remove and replace.
I hate to say it but I also believe some of these dealerships take advantage of the elderly or women. They just place too much trust in these places without challenging them.

 

I did say I could be wrong, leaving the door open for that possibility. However, I think it is more likely that the subject 2009 Camry experienced the described temporary leak found in the service bulletin I mentioned. Follow this weblink for more details regarding this bulletin: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10183188-9999.pdf

I believe this is the 2nd service bulletin Toyota issued regarding water pumps experiencing temporary leaks. If my memory serves me correctly, the first bulletin occurred in the early 2010s.

Lastly, I feel bad for ya if you worked at several dealerships & know several mechanics, and this is the knee-jerk assumption you have about a technician you don't know. I wish you had a better work experience.

 

I get that and hear you...not all technicians stay current on service bulletins like they are supposed to. I am happy they did not get your money.

 

Yeah...unfortunately Cancer got him.

 

But the dealer pays the tech and service writer nothing unless he gets you to pay for the repair. That's where the blame should go. If their honest and say just keep an eye on it and see what happens they get paid nothing. If they get you to do the repair they make money. What do dealers charge now? 250 an hour what are techs making 40 to 50 if their the best of the best and spend 40k on their own tools. What's a tech make that double checks everything and does everything by the book? 20 bucks and hour?

I worked in a body shop and the body guy was forced to use a junk yard rear axle on a 2 year old tahoe. After he did all the repairs on the body and rear suspension and axle. I took it for a test drive the rear axle gears or something broke apart locked up the rear tires I slid sideways into a curb then into a tree damaging the whole side of the truck.

The body shop guy was pissed he was forced to use a junkyard part. As soon as the Body shop manager and dealership owner told that body guy he was doing all the new body work for free he loaded up his 39grand in tools and quit on the spot. He was a full mechanic and also their best body shop guy. If engine was damaged or frame was Damaged or was near totaled it went to him he was a hard worker and tried to do the best he could.

 

Not true. Service advisors get paid on work that’s customer pay, warranty, good will warranty, 3rd party warranty, insurance claims, customer support programs AND recalls.

I like when a customer doesn’t have to pay as it’s win-win. Shit those tundra engine recall jobs are almost 10,500 in gross profit, which goes towards our commission sales goals. Prime example this week. I have a customer who has 125k on her 2019 Highlander. She came in with a whine noise while on throttle. Diagnosed and confirmed failure of the transmission. Her VSA warranty expired at 120k and 3 months prior, so the repair was customer responsibility.

I checked the claims already made on her VSA contract, and not a single claim was made.

I then reached out to our district service and parts manager seeking goodwill warranty coverage, provided the details, service history.

Toyota is covering the repairs 100%

 

This right here...folks don't often share the "goodwill warranty coverage". Thanks for sharing & going the extra mile. I love it when Toyota steps up outside of warranty coverage.

 

Sorry I ment if they say let's not fix it and wait and see what happens.. That pays nothing.