"Free" Toyota Care maintenance

So, I'm taking my Tacoma with 5k miles in for the "free" Toyota Care service today. I scheduled an appointment and I hope the dealership doesn't have me waiting there for hours, especially since I pounded about 15 vodka and tonics at a wedding reception last night and I feel like ass today.

My experience with the dealership's service to date has been 50/50 so I guess we shall see...

 

Good luck! here in SD, when I have appt, I usually wait 1.5 hours from start to end....

 

First thing to do when arriving at dealer: locate facilities in case of a needed purge!

 

Took them about 45 minutes, can't complain I guess. Asked them about the engine's lifter/ticking sound and a hydrolic/squishing sound at brake pedal...mechanic said both are things "normal". I haven't noticed any performance or brake issues so I assume he's right.

I'm always skeptical of "free maintenance" and stuff like that. Been around long enough to know nothing in this world is free, haha.

 

Yup

 

Where I go I make my appointment at opening time and I have always gotten right in. I have one for 7:00 A.M. on the 30th of this month and expect the same service.

 

The 2011 off road I had made the brake squish noise. Both the 2011 and 2013 had/have the taco tick.

So no purging was necessary while waiting?

 

Where I live, in order to get the "free" maintenance, I'd have to spend $25 in gas driving sixty miles to and from the nearest dealership. My '06 Taco didn't come with "free maintenance" so I've just spent fifteen minutes and about $25 doing the same thing myself each time it was needed... and taking care it was done right. The last time I had someone else change my oil (in the middle of a long road trip where I couldn't easily do it myself) the next time I stopped for gas and opened the hood I found the engine compartment covered in oil -- they had left the fill cap off.

 

I normally do my own maintenance and moderate wrenching but I'm just too busy with family, work, etc and I'd like to keep everything on record until I'm sure the truck doesn't have any issues. I'd hate to change the oil myself, have an engine problem in the future, and then have to fight with Toyota because they don't have service records. Plus, the dealership is only about 5 miles from my house.

 

Just had the 10K service. Dealer was on schedule. No excessive wait. Didn't sell me a bunch of stuff I didn't want. I love my truck and my dealership. This isn't an ad for them. But tons of folks are awfully hard on them here...maybe they deserve it, maybe not...I don't know. But I like mine. I also used to own a Chevy. My memories of the GM dealership in the 1990's still make me cringe.

 

I am too, when I took my '14, PreRunner in for the first "Free" oil change, I got it back with a scratch on the silver painted steering wheel trim and they rotated my tires without asking me first (I had rotated them myself two days prior) So they effectively put the fronts I moved to the rear, back where they were.

I think I will be doing all of the "Free" maintenance on my new truck myself here on out.

 

15 Vodka Tonics is no small feat. You are to be commended.