My local toyota dealer farms out most of the work outside of oil changes and tire rotations.


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They are not all bad. I happen to like my local dealership.

Mind, I have never had a vehicle there but I find them great to deal with for parts. A little expensive but a great bunch of guys. I wouldn't hesitate to take a vehicle there if need be. Other than tires and alignment I have been lucky enough to do everything myself.

If you have the space, time and interest in auto mechanics, do you're own work. At least when you screw up, you can only blame yourself. Why pay big money for others to screw up your rig? For most jobs, if you have the right information, right tools, and right level of patience, you can do your own work. There are some specialty jobs like rebuilding engines and transmissions or setting up differential gears that are probably better left to the experts, but why pay some shop big money for work that might not be all that good. In my opinion, the best man for the job for any of my vehicles is me, unless it's one of the specialty type things I mentioned. I haven't got off my ass yet to learn how to weld either, so I still pay for that service.

Timmy The Toolman - YouTube

Do you know the DOT date code on the sidewall of the tires? If it’s not 4 digits, it’s on the other side of the tire. For example, 3215 would be the 32nd week of 2015.

I’m just wondering if the tires are old enough that the dealer said they were no good based on their age alone. I’m surprised NTB said they were fine, considering what you said about them.

Lying would be like the marine mechanic who I paid to vacuum the fuel tank in my boat. They ended up in the fuel injection system for an extra unauthorized $900 and then told me the fuel sending unit was bad. It wasn’t when I took it there and I was already pissed about the extra work they’d done, so I declined to have them replace it for $300. When I got the $30 part in and went to replace it myself, I discovered that they had cut the wires.

I haven't been to the dealer (or any other mechanic) for anything except alignment since the 4Runner got out of warranty. All this is exactly why I do my own work for twenty years and 220k miles. Listen to Tim.

Something to consider is that dealerships are franchised. Like most franchises, the owner pays for the "brand" but has freedom to run the business as they want, with some restrictions. Experience at a dealer will vary greatly. Some are out to fleece people which is what validates the stealership nickname but others are reputable places run by honest people. My local dealership, Roseville Toyota is honest and straightforward but I would never call them inexpensive. I think that's universal for all dealership repairs. I go there for the repairs that I cannot do such as tire installations and alignments. They have never pushed me once to accept services I did not come to do (and some of the techs really like my supercharged 4Runner) but that also be because I know my way around a car and the service advisors are yet to tell me something I don't understand. If I were a 20 year old woman, my experience might be different.