My second toyota care experience

I have worked in service departments at several stealer ships.
The lube guys are flunkies off the street pretty much. Everyone has to start somewhere don't they? Most learn as they go and can move on to something else but do you really want a someone like that under the hood? Most do well but sometimes they don't.
Its the same with mechanics. The last stealer ship I was at had their senior mechanics in the main building close to the service manager. Those guys got to pick and chose the jobs they took on. Everything else went back to "The Zoo" where there was only 1 senior mechanic watching all the new guys with the crap work the senior mechanics passed on. To make any money they flew through the jobs they were given. Often it wasn't good. It is pretty much the same at the other dealerships . I worked for Pontiac, AMC, Mazda, Isuzu, Chevrolet, Buick, Datsun and Ford.

 

i let the dealer do one of the two included (not free) oil changes. like many others, unless it is warranty or a recall i don't go there and do my own maintenance.

the sad thing is this type of service, workmanship, and general lack of care in doing a good job is common.

a few years ago we had relatively minor body work done to a car. when i picked it up at the shop the edge of the body panel they were to fix looked like crap and i also found they did not reinstall the blinker socket and bulb. it was hanging in the fender well.

i spoke to the owner of the shop and he apologized and made it right. that of course required me leaving the vehicle for another two days that i was not expecting. when i asked how this happened, he said they let a person do the work that they were training and did not provide the proper oversight and check the work before releasing the vehicle. ufb.

if you think service and workmanship at a car dealership is bad, you should see new home construction.

 

I’m gonna do my own services. Only way I’d let the dealer do the services is if an A tech was doing it. We all know A techs aren’t doing oil changes and tire rotations though

 

You have been around quite a while, Pontiac,Datsun… Buick,

yes I complained about the service department to Toyota and never went back. My gen 2 was serviced by local friend but did go to the dealer for a new frame on recall.

 

14 year old kids gotta eat too.

 

Yep. Many industries. Sign of the times. I am sure everyone just smoked more weed everything would workout.

 

I must be the exception to the rule. I bought my 2018 and 2022 Tacomas at a dealer 90 miles away but used my local dealer for the free Toyota Care plus paying for my own extra oil changes. The only complaint after a total of 12 oil changes there was one time some used oil had dripped onto the skid plate, and then slowly flowed backwards and dripped onto my spotless garage floor. I mentioned that in the customer survey and got an email apology from the dealer a few days later. No drips since then.

I recently did my 20,000 mile Toyota Care. The tech called me and said my cabin air filter was fine but left a new one in the truck for me to use later.

 

Find a different dealer not all of them are the same . Honestly u are being to harsh we all started somewhere at one point and learned our jobs over time . You don’t just get out of school and become a master technician. The kid had the decency to ask instead of proceeding with the job and screwing things up .

 

You’re allowed to do your maintenance as a private owner, it doesn’t need to be an authorized shop. Save your reciepts for the oil and filter. I write the date a mileage on my receipt and keep it with everything else. If something were to happen requiring warranty and they questioned the maintenance, you have it all documented.

 

There's no free lunches in auto repair. Since you're not paying they give that work to the cheapest employees in the building. You must have missed economics class in school.

I'm a journeyman tech with over 20 years experience and I change tons of oil but you guys would shit your pants if you saw what I charged

 

I agree and would add, the fact that the kid had to ask SHOULD have triggered someone to pay closer attention to the results if his/her work. It's easy to blame the new techs, but the responsibility for training and inspection of their work lies above them.

 

I am also a member of let the dealer change the oil every 10k miles. Zero issues on four third gen Tacomas. I also do not work on landscaping, house painting or plumbing (including sprinkler systems)

 

My first dealer oil change went well besides the fact it took 2 hours and they washed the truck when I told them not to.

 

Be glad they're asking the questions and are concerned about doing something wrong. It's the tech that goes in all Leeroy Jenkins that you really gotta worry about.

 

Should have done oil change at 5K

When I went for 5K , I asked what exactly was included and dropped " oil change is also due right ? " they said no, so I paid 72$ ish and they did it with 5K service



BTW this is what oil from 5300K V6 looks like, for those who are making truck suffer 10K intervals .






I feel bad for people who get scammed for 10K intervals. Especially if you live in a city, heavy traffic and poor truck is idling for hours. This is deep brown at 5K with normal traffic, I can imagine black as night by 10K already.

 

Please! Just because oil is a dark color does not mean it's bad! Take a damn tribology course before you post another oil comment.

 

Yeah... keep the youngsters employed so i don't have to. If you like taking the chance and hope it was done right go for it. Do ya feel lucky... well do ya? I don't have a problem with them training on other people's trucks... just not mine. Do it yourself and know it was done right.

 

You seem mad? Its a free country, go and wait for 10K oil changes, no one is forcing you to do 5K changes.

Is that what you told your truck when maintenance light popped up at 5k?

 

I'm not mad, I'm just informing you that you have no clue what you are talking about. But you probably already know that.

Carry on!

 

You are like car warranty expired scam that calls people even if they don't ask for it.

Just in the future don't be smashing your keyboard too hard.