CaliTE
New member
Hi All,
I know most of us don't have the best opinions of Toyota dealers based on their cost among other things. Like anyone else I hate to overpay for any service, but my biggest concern with Toyota dealers is not their cost, its the quality of work.
I still have the factory included maintenance for my 4runner so I have been taking it to the dealer...up until now. I just had the 20k service done and noticed the "protection strip" between the rear spoiler and trunk lid had torn and was coming out. The replacement part was $12 but i thought, what the hell, the vehicle is a year old and has a warranty so i decided to have the dealer do it. This strip is intended to prevent scratches from the spoiler rubbing the tailgate, theres been a thread about it before. Anyway, after having it replaced i inspect it before leaving the dealer and notice that the tech obviously used something to scrape off the old adhesive and in the process left multiple scratches on the spoiler at the contact point with the tailgate. One of the scratches was so deep i can't image it being done with anything else but a box cutter. There is also a ridge when you run your finger across the area, like the tech scraped so hard it deformed the natural curve of the specific area. Theres even a visible ridge if you look at the right angle. This wasn't there before.
The service advisor, which has always been pretty decent to work with was only concerned about the survey that i will be receiving because "he didn't do the work, so its not his fault". I was very polite but firm and they offered to have a body shop fix it. Its not a big enough deal, and you have to look for it to notice so its not worth it to me (and no one looks at the top of the truck anyway). But its the principal of the matter. I take it in to replace a small strip of material to prevent scratches and the tech does more damage than would ever occur even if the strip was not present. I'm going to tell them that i expect a replacement part, although that will never happen.
I had bad service experiences at another dealer when I owned my Tacoma and started to use an independent. However, I gave this new dealer the benefit of the doubt and it bit me in a$$. Lesson learned. They all do shitty jobs apparently.
Now, I've heard the stories of how oil changes aren't regularly done through the drain plug at the bottom of the sump, but are often siphoned out with a pump which can leave some reside in the oil system. And obviously I've had my own dealer experiences which were not good. So, where do you guys do your regular maintenance and repairs? I'm fine doing basic oil and filter changes, but am not enough of a mechanic to comfortably do the "toyota multi point inspection" and some of the more in depth maintenance that is done at longer intervals.
What do you guys do? Who do you trust to do all the maintenance and work required in accordance to Toyota's service suggestions? In your experience, are independent shops the way to go?
I know most of us don't have the best opinions of Toyota dealers based on their cost among other things. Like anyone else I hate to overpay for any service, but my biggest concern with Toyota dealers is not their cost, its the quality of work.
I still have the factory included maintenance for my 4runner so I have been taking it to the dealer...up until now. I just had the 20k service done and noticed the "protection strip" between the rear spoiler and trunk lid had torn and was coming out. The replacement part was $12 but i thought, what the hell, the vehicle is a year old and has a warranty so i decided to have the dealer do it. This strip is intended to prevent scratches from the spoiler rubbing the tailgate, theres been a thread about it before. Anyway, after having it replaced i inspect it before leaving the dealer and notice that the tech obviously used something to scrape off the old adhesive and in the process left multiple scratches on the spoiler at the contact point with the tailgate. One of the scratches was so deep i can't image it being done with anything else but a box cutter. There is also a ridge when you run your finger across the area, like the tech scraped so hard it deformed the natural curve of the specific area. Theres even a visible ridge if you look at the right angle. This wasn't there before.
The service advisor, which has always been pretty decent to work with was only concerned about the survey that i will be receiving because "he didn't do the work, so its not his fault". I was very polite but firm and they offered to have a body shop fix it. Its not a big enough deal, and you have to look for it to notice so its not worth it to me (and no one looks at the top of the truck anyway). But its the principal of the matter. I take it in to replace a small strip of material to prevent scratches and the tech does more damage than would ever occur even if the strip was not present. I'm going to tell them that i expect a replacement part, although that will never happen.
I had bad service experiences at another dealer when I owned my Tacoma and started to use an independent. However, I gave this new dealer the benefit of the doubt and it bit me in a$$. Lesson learned. They all do shitty jobs apparently.
Now, I've heard the stories of how oil changes aren't regularly done through the drain plug at the bottom of the sump, but are often siphoned out with a pump which can leave some reside in the oil system. And obviously I've had my own dealer experiences which were not good. So, where do you guys do your regular maintenance and repairs? I'm fine doing basic oil and filter changes, but am not enough of a mechanic to comfortably do the "toyota multi point inspection" and some of the more in depth maintenance that is done at longer intervals.
What do you guys do? Who do you trust to do all the maintenance and work required in accordance to Toyota's service suggestions? In your experience, are independent shops the way to go?
