Is Toyota dealer abusing me regarding service and maintenance?

Yes. If your not mechanically inclined, find a decent independent shop. Talk around, do some homework. Dealers are notorious for padding their bill. These trucks are generally fine with just the recommended 30,60,90K service. Dealers will pull unneeded repairs out of their asses all day long.

 

I bought my truck new off the dealer's lot. They gave lifetime state inspections. which helps me since I plan to keep the truck until it's totaled (like my 1994 Toyota Truck). It is their way to look for other items that may be coming due. I think they've been fairly straight forward on everything they've done. I haven't received any recommendations for unnecessary work. I have thrown them a "few bones," like replacing the coolant and power steering fluid. The price of both jobs was reasonable, so I didn't mind giving them some business.

I take my 2008 Acura TSX to a local Acura dealer for state inspections, and they also seem to be fairly straight forward and honest with what they suggest. Although I bought my TSX used about 5 years ago, I feel that they treat me as if I purchased it there.

Some dealers are bad, some are good. If I moved to a new area, would probably start using the dealer's service department until I found a independent shop that I trusted more. I have a independent shop I trust for my older BMWs, and I go there instead of the local BMW dealer.

But that being said, I highly recommend people start looking at maintenance procedures on YouTube to do as many of the basic stuff themselves. There are a lot of things that aren't difficult, but time consuming. You can save a lot of labor expense by doing these yourself. Heck, you can usually get a better deal on OEM Toyota parts online from a Toyota dealer.

Bottom line: start doing the easy stuff that only requires basic hand tools, then start expanding your maintenance skills, purchasing specialty tools as required. Doing a job with your own specialty tool usually pays for the tool...and then some.

 

Here is an example of DIY vs Dealer maintenance.

Auto Tranny - drain, change filter, fill. Not a flush.

Dealer = $650 (quote)
DIY = $35 (fluid) + $15 (filter & gasket) = $50

Savings = $600+

Simple job, a bit messy, a bit time consuming. All in all, not a bad savings for a few hours work in my garage.

Savings is a funny term for this type of work. Its more like money not spent. I don't have an additional $600 in my piggy bank. Truth is the piggy bank is down $50.

 

Yeah man, don’t go spending that kind of money at the dealer for maintenance items. You can save so much doing most of these things yourself. Hell, with a 10mm,12mm, 19mm, 21 and 22mm Socket you can almost disassemble the entire truck. Cabin air filters are easy to do and cost $15 at Walmart. Literally take 1 minute to change. Don’t spend that kind of money on those things. Read on here and use YouTube and save yourself a lot of money. Find a local meet up in your area and go hang out with the guys and watch and learn how to do stuff. You can change spark plugs with a average socket set alone. If you want to get fancy grab a finger grabber to grab the plug to pull it out after it’s loose. Hell I forgot mine one time at home and made one from crap I found at work and some fishing line. Haha


I know it can be kind of intimidating at first if you’ve never done it before. That’s where the shops get you making you think you can’t do these things. Truth is you can do them and not pay a pile of money to get them done. Invest in yourself and you’ll recognize when things look different or something is wrong. You get to know your truck and how it works. You don’t have to have all the tools at once and can slowly buy stuff. Start with a simple socket set from Walmart for $40-50. You’ll save enough on your next spark plug change in 30k miles to pay for it. If you start something and get confused about something throw a post on here and someone will help you. Better yet that mod day I talked about earlier? Do the spark plug change there where someone is on site to help you if you need any help. The guys on here are very knowledgeable and love helping each other. Changing brake pads on these trucks is also literally a 20-30 min job and easier than any other vehicle out there. You pull a clip and 2 pins and the pads come right out. Push the calipers in and put it back together the same way you took it apart. I hope to see you in the future tell us how you learned to do some of the simple things yourself and can’t believe you paid someone to do this stuff again.

 

Holy shit! They quoted $650 for a drain and fill? I had it done by a shop for $99. It's one of the few jobs I pay for because I don't want to wear tranny fluid.