Servicing at Dealership

I have been going to the same Toyota Dealer for all of my service work for about 20 years now and have never had a bad experience. Some of the Techs and both service writers have been their just as long.

 

Toyota dealer for me; I go out of my way to a dealer 16 miles away and skip one only 5 - REAL bad mojo there.
Problem with independents it that they ALWAYS try to sell service I dont' need so its like they don't care about me as a customer, only as volume, every time I've taken a car in to my local independent, don't even CHECK to determine what's needed. They look at the mileage and try to sell. Toyota will sometimes try to run up the bill but i keep the service requirements booklet and make them show what's needed.
The one thing I DO do is put my service records on the Toyota Owners site for any of my own work, or a third party does. That's the best way to help resale if you don't visit the dealer. It follows for the life of the vehicle.
When I've done my own oil changes I'll get the dealer to discount the oil and filter an buy it there; then post the Toyota parts invoice # on the Toyota Owners site. Occasionally I'll use Toyota Parts Cheap for parts too and post that invoice # too.

 

I didn't realize that there's a site to post work done to it by myself or others. I wish I had know about that. I have a book that I keep updated with everything I do(when, parts, brands, etc.).

 

I also had the "free" oil changes as part of the purchase price.... They changed the oil 4 times and it was OVER-FILLED every time....(by about 1/2 litre/quart).. had a real issue with them .... but when I started doing my own oil changes... it was "spot on"...

That tells me the dealership hires dumb fu-ks and they don't care....

I'll NEVER take my truck to them unless it's a warranty issue....and even at that...it has to be an expensive one, or I'll eat the cost and do it myself....

Dealerships hire Dumb F--ks and kids......cuz they are cheap....!!

You want your truck treated right... do it yourself OR find a good independant mechanic you can trust.

 

I took my truck to a dealer locally who did the recall stuff for my seatbelts. They didn't even tighten up the bolts all the way. Now, everytime I hit a bump, I hear it rattling. And not only that, these guys talked to me like I'm a moron and couldn't tell the difference between a socket and a ratchet. I guess I'll just have to use the dealer 75 miles away like I've done in the past. those guys do a great job and are completely professional.

 

You can't look at it that way as only costing you $75, so the $300 was too much. You have to take into account that for one, you don't have a "tech" to pay, and you don't have the overhead, since you probably did it in your own driveway. Don't get me wrong, if you want to do all of the work yourself, then more power to you. However having the belief that they are overcharging you because YOU could do that in your driveway for $75 is just plain silly.

That is actually incorrect. I pay $200 per month to AllData, of which $90 of that is for access to all of the service information that the dealer techs have. THEY pay the big bucks to the manufacturers for access to their service information and bulletins available.

 

And don't forget, if the shop screws up, the customer has recourse to get it fixed on the shop's dime. If the vehicle owner screws up...

 

Wrong approach.

He said he can't see paying for the relatively simple service as he's discoverd he can easily do it himself from what he's learned here.

People know the dealer's services are expensive, and it's widely understood why that is. He made no mention of them overcharging him.

 

I will never take my truck to the dealer for regular maintenance.. only serious stuff that warrenty will cover.
Ive heard too many stories about service techs not changing oil filters or under filling or just plain not even doing it...
Plus I like to do my own maintenance.. makes me feel good knowing that its done and done right..

 

I only take mine to some dealers. The one in Fort Walton Beach Florida I don't go to anymore they were rude to me. The on here in Laramie I go to, they have been nice to me and don't treat me like a number they treated me like a person.

 

I primarily take my truck to the dealership because I am still fairly new to this area and I do not know any of the local shops enough to trust them. So far the dealership I bought the truck from (Karl Malone Toyota) has treated me fair.

 

I never said they overcharged and never expected them to be able to do it for what I could. I know that dealers have a lot of overhead and that Toyota techs have to go through a good bit of training. My local dealer has always been great and I will continue to use them for the more technical stuff. But I can't justify spending $300 on something that I could do myself for $100. If I had more money to spend, yes I would still probably take it to the dealer for convenience and peace of mind. Right now, though, if I do the simple maintenance myself, I can afford to have the dealer do the more technical service. Otherwise, I would just have to let it go and I would rather not do that.

The cabin air filter is a good example. The dealership charges $47 to change it. It's easy to change and the filter only costs about $17. It took me about 3 minutes. There's no reason that I can't do that myself and then use the money I save to put towards something I can't do myself.

I'm not arguing for one side or the other. Just my personal situation and as we all know everyone's situation is different. If you have a good dealership and can afford it, then get them to do everything. Or if you have a local reputable independent shop or if you just like to get your hands dirty. Whatever floats your boat!

 

Generally, I try to do as much of my own maintenance as possible on all my vehicles.

My Tacoma came with free scheduled maintenance for 2 years, so I brought it in for the 5,000 mile service, mainly because I was getting the leaf spring TSB done at the same time.

Going forward, I'll probably do the oil changes myself. My dealer is about 40 minutes away, so a free oil change isn't worth the trip to me.

 

I bet litter in any engine would yield bad results. I didn't have to go to college to figure that out. But in all seriousness, people do not take full responsibility when owning vehicles. Part of owning a vehicle is know how it works and how to perform basic maintenance. When is the last time someone read the Owner's Manual? I do all the time and people laugh at me for it. For this thread's discussion, I do maintenance myself if I can help it.

 

I think I'm going to take it to the dealer once in the future just so they can do the 75K check. I'm considering selling/trading in for a new truck. Not only because it looks good to show there's no issues, but also because I've been hosed by a dishonest seller like that before. I can't have that on my conscience.

 

OK, got ya. I guess from the way I read it you were saying that they were overcharging you on the estimate. My bad