My second toyota care experience

OP. they let you into the service bays?

 

I agree and take it a step farther. I change mine out at 1,000 miles (every 6-8 months) and between short trip city driving, towing the boat, and occasional offroad trips the oil is black... Maybe it's good, maybe it isn't. Oil is cheap and the truck runs better with a fresh oil change.

 

Its the express one. Where you just drive up, pull in, and you just stay in your vehicle

 

Unfortunately I do not think you can assume one brand/franchise will provide consistent service anymore. For me it comes down to the individual location.

I found a great crew at a Valvoline near me. Friendly, attentive, enthusiastic about working on my taco. Happy to install whatever fluids I bring. Other crews at the same franchise may not be as attentive and enthusiastic.

There was also a recent car care nut video about Toyota dealerships charging 5x MSRP for some lube related parts on an oil change, if they are going to do that why wouldn’t they pay as little as possible for lube techs?

on the other hand, some master diagnostic techs at Toyota dealers are fantastic. Too bad you cannot just make a single generalization.

 

Remember everyone starts somewhere. Everyone has to learn. Every special operations guy on active duty and every contractor/operator that gets embedded with them was a total idiot newbie/cherry as well sometime in their past.

Give the kid props for asking for advice before he fucked your truck up and for the fact that he is willing to work. A lot of people don’t seem to think they need to work anymore. He could have just thrown that shit on the lift any old way without giving a shit.

I just do all my own work. I get to learn from mistakes and gain the ability to fix shit myself.

And now that I think about it, I would hire that kid myself just based on the fact he asked for help.

 

or you might end up with this

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/oil-dump-on-the-highway.816185/

 

If you know what you’re doing you go to Mercedes and work on AMG’s for money, not sit at Toyota warranty frame recall 300TU McDonalds wage + Little Caesars pizza party, Flintstones Corolla with cheap customer on a car that doesn’t need anything, any other shop or DIY can fix with a hammer, bringing it in with 100 food wrappers on the floor.

oil change is a lube job. LOF. Low TU. Low markup. Goes to Lubies. Quick lane. Not heavy line or diagnostician. Express.
That’s not how every brand does it. That’s how Toyota does it.

 

Very well spoken. I wish more young people would hear this and take it as sage life advice.

 

i do not want to start an OCI debate and you are free to do what you'd like of course, but it is a common misconception here on TW that "toyota recommends" or the "manual states 10K OCI". that it only partly accurate.

the manual states 10K OCI or 5K OCI depending on use. they list the criteria for the 5K OCI in the manual. FYI.

 

I'm a service advisor at a High End Luxury dealer. Anything that comes in for oil change/tire rotation goes straight to what we call the "lubricons". Some are decent, some not so much. I had one last week that left the oil fill cap off. The guy drove an hour home and called back saying that he smelled burning oil. We sent a guy in a loaner car and a few quarts of oil to go get the car. Under the hood was splattered with oil and it was two quarts low.
One of our Master Techs drives a Tacoma. I don't take my Tacoma to the Toyota dealer express lube. Our Master Tech does all my maintenance on my truck. Most of the time the lube techs get it right but you never know. I'm lucky to have a coworker/Master Tech take care of mine.

 

I have a few buddies that are dealer techs, and a retired one, and I hear the same about the new up and coming. The retired tech's shop called them "helpers" he called one in particular "the hinder'er"

 

We are not the same

 

it’s an easy recipe. Hire Patrick Star. Pay him less. You profit more.
Parts markup, CP time, and warranty time still pay you.
By hiring Patrick Star for less money, you make more money.

 

a bit misleading. Mercedes, BMw, Audi, Toyota..somewhat the same league. When you work for Porsche, the standard somewhat changes. That being said, my neighbor is a master tech for Mercedes, and his brother has been with Toyota for even longer. One makes more than the other per hour, but has a lot more headaches and politics to deal with.

It depends on the dealer and foreman in all of these situations. Some are better than others like any other business.

I am fortunate to have him do anything I need at the dealer. If he’s not the one doing it, I don’t go. My local dealer does not even have an express option.

 

I have had bad service experiences at a variety of dealers for warranty work. I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy about Toyota either. I have a regular mechanic that I trust. I don't want any malicious acts by some punk who hates their job. Plus dealers always find something wrong that needs immediate service for $$$$.

 

Im 63 as long as I am able no one but me will do anything that does not require warranty or catastrophic failure

 

Same here. I'm 64 and do my own work when possible. I am fortunate to have a family of mechanics and bodymen so when its to much for me I go to them. They even have lifts and a body shop at home. I also stress stealer ships should only be aloud to work on your car when it is under warranty. Avoid them otherwise. A few years ago Ford was having issues with transmissions in their Focus and Fiestas. I was driving those cars and the dealership was telling customers whose cars were still under warranty that the slippage didn't meet parameters for replacement when the warranty was close to expiring. I warned several customers and decided to quit before I got fired. I wanted know part of it. Rather than fix their junk transmissions they were sticking the car owners. They all praise customer service. What that really means is they just want to grab what's in your wallet. You have no friends there. Toyota is no different.

 

2012 Fiesta owner here. Had the transmission slip issues begin @ 30k miles. Not “out of spec” enough for them to do anything but reset the computer. Did that 3 or 4 times over the next couple of years. Tech told me to just drive it like I stole it, which I’ve done and had less slippage. Blew my mind that a very well know issue and safety hazard would not be “bad enough” to fix. Grew up into a Ford family, but I will never buy another one now.

 

"Manual says every 10k so thats what im going with atm."

Good luck with that.
Oil and filter is cheap insurance for VVT-i engines that demand pristine oil quality.

Take a peek at this deep dive into VVT-i
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgQ8QqXotEk

 

There ya go...
I go to a local small town Toyota dealer where I live.. (They are the only car dealership in town) so I lucked out.
They're very good and attentive. They know what they're doing and there isn't any 16 year-old McDonald's rejects working there.
I guess like everything else, sometimes it's just luck-of-the-draw. But there are some very good shops out there.