Hey Connecticut, our everything hurts

@bucktales

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-chevrolet-nova-20/

 

Cool!
My 355 sounds like that as well.

Mine is AT with converter and shift kit.
10.5-1 TRW Flat tops
4:11s like the yellow car.

 

https://carsandcoffeeevents.com/

Maybe our paths will cross this summer

 

I'm in enfield

 

If anyone local wants a brand new set of SCS BR6’s, let me know!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fs-scs-br6-17x8-5-10mm-jet-black-brand-new.754271/

 

Morning everyone.

Happy Monday.

 

I thought I'd leave a dealer service review 1 week later. Always, someone is asking "anyone recommend a Toyota Service shop?".
This is my perception of my recent experience.

On the 31st I stopped in to Greentree Toyota Service in Brookfield, CT. No appointment, just wanted to see what a diagnosis would set me back. I was told $139. She saw me vacillating & said it would be applied to the repair if I did let them repair it & they'd give the car the once over, top of fluids, etc. AND they were slow & could take the car in today AND drive me to work & get me later. Sounded pretty good, so i said yes.

Turned out to be something pretty straight forward, relatively simple. I told them to go ahead & do it, knowing I wouldn't do it myself for some time as it's so cold out & the drivability of the car was severely impacted. They told me what it was going to cost & I did agree to it.

Got the car back & it's fixed & working well. I got a text the next day from the service mgr. asking for feedback. I ignored that text, figured give it a week to see if it's really fixed - how many times has @Cativelense had their fixes need revisiting!

Meanwhile I got a chance to properly look at the bill over the weekend & realized they apparently charged me book rate to do the job. 4 hours for a job that likely was finished in less than an hour. I could be okay with billing book - BUT - it was a repair to part of the hybrid system & that means remove & reinstall the interior of the vehicle from back seat to rear hatch. carpet, trunk floor, under tray, trunk cubbies, sidewalls, hatch gasket, light socket, .... Gutting the rear of the car. I delivered the car to them stripped out, all that stuff was removed & not in the car. Book time that's probably 2 hours labor to remove & reinstall and I did it before giving them the vehicle.

Realizing they had followed procedure at the expense of ethics I responded to the service mgr.'s text on Saturday night. I certainly didn't expect a reply before Monday, but it's Monday night now & I got nothing today. Maybe I'll hear something sometime this week, or maybe not.

It's a shame. I was aiming to buy a new Tacoma in 2023, but the point of buying a brand-new car to me is warranty & complimentary service, loaner cars, .... The royal treatment. But if there isn't a viable dealer system (sales AND service) locally then I certainly won't buy that brand vehicle new. I'd be better off buying a brand-new Honda & have the pleasure of Penske Service. (My local Honda dealer is owned by Penske & IME Penske does service right & then some.)

Special bonuses of this repair experience are
1) Every time I close the door I hear a piece of tin metal rattle with the change in air pressure - that's new since they serviced the car.
2) Sunday, I went to raise the rear seat-back to discover I couldn't. The 1 piece of interior trim they had to remove they reinstalled wrong & it's blocking the seat-back. That too is new since they serviced the car - I gave it to them with that seat-back in the upright position.
3) They didn't touch under the hood. I'd even joked with the service writer that I knew they'd have to fill the washer fluid as I'd been using a lot lately. I looked under the hood Sunday & my washer fluid was down to 1/4 of the tank. The missing 3/4 tank of washer fluid is since last Aug or Sept., not in the last week.

So - local dealer did mechanically fix the car but displayed a profit before ethics mantra. At this point I cannot recommend them.
I've refused to patronize them for 14 years & when I finally decide to give them a shot - they stood up only as high as their poor reputation. I'm going to have to buy washer fluid, I'm going to have to track down that flapping tin metal that's making me nuts, I'm going to have to remove/reinstall that trim that is blocking my having a back seat, I'm going to have to reassemble the cargo area finishes & upholstery. All things I was charged for by this dealer.
Honestly, I could have just bought a cloned Toyota code reader off Aliexpress for less than I spent on this repair. The only value they brought to the transaction was a code reader that understood hybrid codes & told them where the issue was. The repair was clean up two wires & clean the fan. Even @Cativelense would have dove into that repair without worry. (Just kidding Nuno!)

 

I think I've learned my lesson with them. I've only been using Firestone for what I need, and have only gone to the dealer when absolutely necessary. Like the time with my stupid abs light this past summer, when Firestone told me that only they could diagnose and fix because of how their reader wasn't set up for it, and it was an oem thing only.

 

Similar. I needed a code reader that had all the Toyota hybrid coding, in this town that's the dealer. None of the independents are equipped nor want to touch the hybrids. If I bought a clone Toyota reader with the hybrid coding in it, I would become the most qualified Toyota hybrid independent mechanic in this town. I'm WAY too familiar with the Toyota hybrid system at this point.

 

That's unfortunate. I would.let the service manager know all this, and if they don't respond then inform Toyota corporate. That's the only way these dealers get better.
I grew up with Greentree cars. My parents had multiple Corollas and Camrys from them back in the day. My dad handled basics like oil changes and brake jobs but Greentree service handled everything else. Simpler times.

 

Morning Connecticut

 

Morning everyone.

Happy Tuesday.

Nothing like logging on to some more way after hours emails questioning why or why not things are/aren't done a certain way.

 

The afterwards issues are irksome, to me the thrust of it is that they charged for the whole job when they didn't need to do a good part of it. This would be like charging to remove/replace a timing belt separately when billing for a water pump job.

 

Another day & no reply from the service manager. Thought I'd give him until Wednesday. I got a follow-up email from Toyota corp as well as the text from the service manager, so i may just reach out to Toyota Corp. too. May simply jump ship to Subaru. These organizations neglect to respect my limited time has great value to me. Honestly, what do I care if Greentree tanks & has to sell off the franchise, why should I help them improve & thrive at the expense of my time? Of course, they'll be fine, they sell a premium product that's highly in demand.

 

I had a really bad experience with Colonial Subaru and will never buy from them again. The short version of the story is that they insisted on charging me for a TSB related to leaking fuel lines because I was out of warranty, even though I first reported the issue when it was still in warranty.
Every dealer has screwed somebody. Sucks.

 

I'd be livid myself. Your last line says it all. They simply DGAF. When I was checking out local dealers they had some piss poor reviews & at least one pending court case. And the new trucks on their lot were filthy with beds full of garbage & stagnant water.

I'd been recently flirting with the idea of getting a 2022 Tundra. Maybe six weeks or so ago I was on Federal Rd. & dropped by their lot. Sure enough there was a new Tundra there. A beautiful MGM. Only it was optioned out at around $56K which is $6K more than I would've been willing to spend. Salesman came out; turns out he was waiting on a prospect who was coming to check it out & thought I might be him. He was a friendly, personable young guy, however when I expressed interest in a lower trim his only response was to give me his card. WTF? A rare encounter with a low pressure salesman. I've since decided against the first year Tundra, but he could've had a sale right then & there. Don't know how they run a busineas like that. Clearly fat & happy.

 

Now you just need a set of the "hybrid gloves".

 

Morning everyone.

Happy hump day.

 

Happy hump day y'all, finally warming up out here

 

Morning gents