5th Gen Dealer Bash Thread

[1engineer]

Here you go guys, what you have been waiting for! Now the thousands of you (maybe 20 but why let facts get in the way of a good story) who change their own oil because of the dealer horror stories now have a place to post those terrible tales! Make sure it is a story involving a 5th Gen 4Runner though. I am anxiously waiting for at least 100 pages of terrible tales! Here, I'll start:

Several weeks ago I took my 4Runner into my local dealer for an oil change. It took 45 minutes! Can you believe that? I was forced to either wait in an air conditioned room with a lousy 50" flat screen playing ESPN or roam the lot looking at all the cool Tacomas, Tundras and even a few Land Cruisers! Oh the agony!

Well, I got the truck back and immediately checked under the hood for any nefarious dastardly deeds those untrained, uneducated fools who call themselves "Toyota Techs" to see what damage they caused THIS time! As much bashing that I read about I wonder how this dealer even stays in business! Man, they must screw up all the time! Low and behold, they wiped off my engine cover! The nerve! Well I immediately checked the oil as there is no way they could have changed it in 45 minutes! Hmmm, can't hardly see the oil on the dipstick but the sheen goes up to the full line. Dirty bastards... Next I did a quick check underneath, knowing I would find oil dripping from every crack and crevasse! Nothing. I felt for sure the skid plates would be either missing or held on with wire after they stripped out the threads. Oh well, they were fine too! I didn't find anything this time you dirty, rotten, no good Toyota Techs but just wait until next time! I will be back with a vengeance!

 

[HerT4R]

oh, the HORROR! :drama:

havent been to a dealership since i bought mine, and your "horror story" is still not going to make me go back unless absolutely necessary, as i don't want to leave the dealership feeling like :crutch: or :whipping2 or :redbrick:.

 

[4Surfin]

I am so tired of your whining!!!!! Hahaha sorry tried to keep a straight face... reminds me I need to schedule my 5k visit

 

[GHARP57]

Thank you 1engineer. I appreciate this alot. Working at a Toyota dealership I take pride in giving good service to people and I hate to say it but there are some dealerships who should not be running and they give the rest of us a bad name.

 

[Jernik]

WHAT? No free donuts?!! What kind of lousy, two bit operation are they running?

 

[Runn4est]

My wife took her new 4runner in to drop off her old title on her trade in. Asked what the best car wash in the area was, and they offered to wash it for her! I couldn't believe the nerve!

 

[Jernik]

My wife took her new 4runner in to drop off her old title on her trade in. Asked what the best car wash in the area was, and they offered to wash it for her! I couldn't believe the nerve!

Yeah, they always try to take advantage of the women!

 

[Jetboy]

Last time I left my car overnight at the Lexus dealership to replace a light bulb in the dash I returned to this - broken window, left out in the rain, interior electronic stripped - almost certainly a mechanic from the dealership or his buddy:

$22,000 in parts alone... i still had a shitty repaired car with electrical gremlins and rattles because the hacks and Larry H. Miller Lexus in Utah couldn't or wouldn't properly repair it.

Not all dealers are made equal.

 

[Antman]

Here you go guys, what you have been waiting for! Now the thousands of you (maybe 20 but why let facts get in the way of a good story) who change their own oil because of the dealer horror stories now have a place to post those terrible tales! Make sure it is a story involving a 5th Gen 4Runner though. I am anxiously waiting for at least 100 pages of terrible tales! Here, I'll start:

Several weeks ago I took my 4Runner into my local dealer for an oil change. It took 45 minutes! Can you believe that? I was forced to either wait in an air conditioned room with a lousy 50" flat screen playing ESPN or roam the lot looking at all the cool Tacomas, Tundras and even a few Land Cruisers! Oh the agony!

Well, I got the truck back and immediately checked under the hood for any nefarious dastardly deeds those untrained, uneducated fools who call themselves "Toyota Techs" to see what damage they caused THIS time! As much bashing that I read about I wonder how this dealer even stays in business! Man, they must screw up all the time! Low and behold, they wiped off my engine cover! The nerve! Well I immediately checked the oil as there is no way they could have changed it in 45 minutes! Hmmm, can't hardly see the oil on the dipstick but the sheen goes up to the full line. Dirty bastards... Next I did a quick check underneath, knowing I would find oil dripping from every crack and crevasse! Nothing. I felt for sure the skid plates would be either missing or held on with wire after they stripped out the threads. Oh well, they were fine too! I didn't find anything this time you dirty, rotten, no good Toyota Techs but just wait until next time! I will be back with a vengeance!

I'm glad you like your dealer. Very nice.



I F'n hate 'em all. They worked hard to make me feel this way. Now they can just deal with my bad attitude.

So there!:deadhorse:

 

[HerT4R]

Last time I left my car overnight at the Lexus dealership to replace a light bulb in the dash I returned to this - broken window, left out in the rain, interior electronic stripped - almost certainly a mechanic from the dealership or his buddy. $22,000 in parts alone... i still had a shitty repaired car with electrical gremlins and rattles because the hacks and Larry H. Miller Lexus in Utah couldn't or wouldn't properly repair it.

Not all dealers are made equal.

HOLY TUNA FISH BATMAN!!!! is this real life????
this :scared: then, :faint2:

 

[Semi-Hex]

Same here, I ask Kelly to make sure they remember to grease the driveline (they forgot once) and not to wash it. She actually made some signs to post on my steering wheel to remind the techs.

I have been very happy with the dealership I use.

 

[<<<<]

I've too many stories to tell about dealer sevice epic fails. In the nutshell I avoid them like a deadly disease they are. Have not seen honest Service Manager yet.

 

[Jetboy]

HOLY TUNA FISH BATMAN!!!! is this real life????
this :scared: then, :faint2:

Unfortunately yep. That happened middle of last year. They left our car outside in the only area of the lot without good video coverage. The thieves came at night and walked directly to the car - didn't look in any other windows, didn't stop at any other cars. Just right to mine. Broke the window and went to work. Hard for me to believe it wasn't either an employee or a friend of an employee.

They took all the interior wood grain panels that match, so they snagged the door trim etc. And obviously knew what they were doing as far as unplugging every connector rather than cutting them. They even stole the plastic center console, the shift knob, you name it.

Just the nav unit is about $9500, so the parts add up quick. I never got a labor bill, but the parts list totaled $21364.66. The dealer took about 8-9 weeks to repair it. I rejected the repair 4 times. The first time they tried to put used parts in it that were scratched and obviously used. Are you f'n kidding? They did everything the possibly could to weasel out of fixing it properly. Then gave me a couple free movie passes as a "sorry" gesture. They even tried to low ball my on buying it from me. Literally offered about $2k less than trade in value. The manager went on to try to negotiate because if we trade in we'd save sales tax on the value and that should be worth about $1,000. Really - you royally f'd up my car and you want to play used car salesman with me? Worst dealer experience of my life. So I take every opportunity to throw Larry H. Miller Lexus under the bus.

I wasn't unreasonable. IMO a fair resolution would have been give me private party book value to buy it and dealer actual cost on a new one.

Lexus corporate basically said f you. It's not our problem. We traded it at another dealer in another state for an RX350 with an agreement that it will be serviced at another Toyota dealer not Larry Miller - which is the only Lexus dealership in Utah. You might say I'm crazy for buying another Lexus - but the last one was a fantastic car. In 60k miles it had a total of one issue - which was an LED light in the tach needle. A repeat of this is a lower probability event in my estimation than a mechanical failure on most other luxury brands. Both of which are probably similar headache and out of pocket expense.

 

[Lester Lugnut]

They didn't vacuum my car last time I was in.

I'm pissed!

 

[Jhalko]

Really? You are always complaining about new useless threads yet you continue to start them! But hey I'll play...

On my last oil change my local Toyota dealer either lost or just couldn't line up one of the bolts for the factory skid. Oh don't worry they fixed it with a nice strong zip tie. That's a freaking oil change, if they aren't going to bother replacing a bolt how are they going to be on more serious maintenance?

 

[96r50]

...and even a few Land Cruisers!

You think you have it rough? We don't even have those up here to ogle while we idle.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Here you go guys, what you have been waiting for! Now the thousands of you (maybe 20 but why let facts get in the way of a good story) who change their own oil because of the dealer horror stories now have a place to post those terrible tales! Make sure it is a story involving a 5th Gen 4Runner though. I am anxiously waiting for at least 100 pages of terrible tales! Here, I'll start:

Several weeks ago I took my 4Runner into my local dealer for an oil change. It took 45 minutes! Can you believe that? I was forced to either wait in an air conditioned room with a lousy 50" flat screen playing ESPN or roam the lot looking at all the cool Tacomas, Tundras and even a few Land Cruisers! Oh the agony!

Well, I got the truck back and immediately checked under the hood for any nefarious dastardly deeds those untrained, uneducated fools who call themselves "Toyota Techs" to see what damage they caused THIS time! As much bashing that I read about I wonder how this dealer even stays in business! Man, they must screw up all the time! Low and behold, they wiped off my engine cover! The nerve! Well I immediately checked the oil as there is no way they could have changed it in 45 minutes! Hmmm, can't hardly see the oil on the dipstick but the sheen goes up to the full line. Dirty bastards... Next I did a quick check underneath, knowing I would find oil dripping from every crack and crevasse! Nothing. I felt for sure the skid plates would be either missing or held on with wire after they stripped out the threads. Oh well, they were fine too! I didn't find anything this time you dirty, rotten, no good Toyota Techs but just wait until next time! I will be back with a vengeance!

You're lucky I wasn't working at that dealership, I'd have realigned all the plastic clips so the slots faced at odd angles, and then meticulously over torqued each both by 1ft.lbs and 1° of angle. While also putting the mileage sticker at 89° to the windshield instead of perfectly perpendicular.

BUWHAHA! :bat:

I'm glad you like your dealer. Very nice.


I F'n hate 'em all. They worked hard to make me feel this way. Now they can just deal with my bad attitude.

So there!:deadhorse:

You hate me? out:

Really? You are always complaining about new useless threads yet you continue to start them! But hey I'll play...

On my last oil change my local Toyota dealer either lost or just couldn't line up one of the bolts for the factory skid. Oh don't worry they fixed it with a nice strong zip tie. That's a freaking oil change, if they aren't going to bother replacing a bolt how are they going to be on more serious maintenance?

First off, Zipties are Drift Approved repair; so I don't see the issue. Second unfortunately, you wouldn't tell by your oil changes but typically "heavier duty" work is done by mostly trained professionals rather than the typical lube techs (though I suppose "professional" can be loosely applied depending on the tech/dealership.)

 

[Jhalko]

First off, Zipties are Drift Approved repair; so I don't see the issue. Second unfortunately, you wouldn't tell by your oil changes but typically "heavier duty" work is done by mostly trained professionals rather than the typical lube techs (though I suppose "professional" can be loosely applied depending on the tech/dealership.)

First off, I admit that the zip tie made it through a mild weekend in Moab... So maybe you don't suck. :doh:

However, as a consumer I go to a dealership and don't give a rats @$$ who is trained at what level. My expectation is that the person completing the task is qualified and takes pride in their work. Mistakes happen but it's how you deal with them that defines you... Of course now there is a level of distrust at this dealer.

I am not like many people on this site, I HATE doing the maintenance and would happily pay the fee and watch ESPN while the work gets done, in fact I took a nap WHILE watching ESPN last time! layball:

 

[BigredTEX]

This is more of a Toyota HQ story than a dealership story.

A couple of weeks ago my truck hit 3 yr/36K mile warranty expiration. I received an email inviting me to participate in a survey. Like most emails of this nature I ignored it for a few days until I was cleaning up my inbox and opened it. I took the survey, that was surprising very detailed about any issues I had experienced with the truck over the previous 36K miles. Most of my negative responses were mostly petty b!tches (hey, you asked), but the only real issue that had not been fixed by the dealer was the crappy satellite radio reception. I have had it into the dealer twice during the warranty period with NTF both times.

Well, I got a phone call from HQ a couple of days later following up on the issue. A very nice lady was very interested in the issue and asked many questions about the problem and what I and the dealer had done to fix it. She gave me a case # saying they rely on independent dealers for service and suggested I get a second opinion from another dealer. Since the problem had been reported within the warranty period any additional efforts to fix it would be covered under warranty.

Here in the DFW area you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Toyota dealership. I've been too busy at work to take it to one of the five dealerships within 10 miles of me this week, but will make an appointment at one of them next week.

Bottom line, no real dealer horror stories, but I'm impressed the HQ is interested enough in good service to take these steps.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

[MENTION=91899]Jhalko[/MENTION]

I don't disagree with you there, but the reality is that "lube techs" typically have little to no working knowledge of the automotive trade, little to no motivation to move up (those that do tend to stand out), and are often just there for a job vs. a career. Mostly because it's not profitable for a dealership to tie up their trained and experienced technicians with oil changes and tire rotation (not to mention with the way Toyota pays us on these Service Plans most technicians would rather take a sick day as it'd pay more than do oil changes all day.) So they hire the automotive equivalent of McDonalds burger flippers to do all the low pay, low skill labor.
[MENTION=80379]BigredTEX[/MENTION]

I'd be curious what ends up happening with that XM issue, we have every now and then an issue with complaints about reception; but as far as I know it usually ends up being a "it's XM's deal, you'll need to call them" explanation rather than a Toyota Hardware issue.