My local dealership absolutely sucks

This is my first Toyota. In fact, it's the first vehicle I've ever owned that isn't a Subaru.

I've dealt with Subaru dealers in Oregon (let's see, 4 different dealers in the north and one in the south), Utah, and Idaho. I've never had a truly awful experience.

However, there are two local dealers to me for Toyota. They're both Lithia. They both make my skin crawl.

I called looking for a fuel pump resistor. The parts guy refused to even talk to me without my VIN. WTF? Your job is to look up and sell parts. I worked a parts counter, both at a Subaru dealer, and at an aftermarket store (think NAPA).

I finally tell him I've got a part #, so he's all happy, and looks it up. Price was higher than I've found online, but not outrageous.

When I worked at the Subaru dealership, a porter would do headlight replacement for free if the customer bought the bulb at the dealer. Toyota charges $50 to install a bulb, even if you buy it there. Subaru will do TPMS re-programming for free, Toyota charged me $350 just to reprogram the TPMS.

Yeah, my Taco isn't exactly brand new, but the experience I've had makes me never want to deal with Lithia again, nor buy another Toyota.

 

You might have a wired OBD adapter from your Subaru days, esp a quality Tactrix. If you do, you can do the TPMS stuff with a free version of TechStream. See the 1st Post of the ECU Update thread.

Both Rodland and Lake City have good folks at the Parts counters. Lake City has an online store and good prices from my experience.

Rodland was great to me on the purchase and ToyotaCare (only) service side.

 

Toyota dealers suck. I have been buying new Toyotas since 1989. The trouble started then and never ended. I bought a new Camry and the dealership lot boy scratched the hood before we ever took procession of the car when he was dragging a dirty hose over the car. The hood had to be repainted. A few months later I had to replace a headlight bulb and I did it myself with a aftermarket unit. I was then informed that I had voided my warranty using non Toyota parts during the next service appointment. I got into it with the service manager and was told I should take my car elsewhere. I did. There are other dealerships in my area. Since then I have bought 4 more Toyotas and I have given the local dealership opportunities to redeem themselves every time I bought a new car and every time they tried to screw us over. All 4 of those cars were bought at other Toyota dealers because the local one would not work with us on a deal. When I tried to have them serviced there I was told to take it to the dealership I bought it at. I also like how Toyota dealerships will lie to you about repairs needed while the car is under warranty. The struts on my wives 14 Sienna were leaking at 20000 miles but they said that was a seep and not a leak. When the warranty expired that seep became a leak and now it needed fixed for $1200. I had it done elsewhere for $600 that I never should of had to pay. I can go on and on. Thank goodness Toyota does build some really good cars.
In 2013 We ordered a new Subaru Forrester because they didn't have the color we wanted. When it arrived my wife could not wait and went up and picked up the car. When I came home from work I about died when I saw the new car had been repainted and tape lines were obvious. Someone at the other dealership that car had come from had spun gravel all over the back of the car and the dealership did a half ass paint repair over all the dings. I spent almost a year fighting with Subaru to get them to take the car back and the whole time the car just sat. We were finally given another Forrester when corporate finally came out and saw the damage. The car they gave us was plagued with anti lock brake issues that made it unsafe to drive. Basically the car would lock up when you touched the brakes on slippery roads. My wife refused to drive it. We got rid of it after Subaru said there was nothing wrong with the brakes several times. We never felt the love Subaru said you would feel in their cars. You will like your Toyota but dont expect much from the dealerships.
I also saw you mentioned them wanting the VIN because that is how they order parts and their order system is set up that way. I hit a deer with my 17 Tacoma and my truck sat for 3 months because Toyota kept sending the wrong parts. My truck has been modified using different Toyota parts other than what the VIN said . Over and over they kept sending the wrong parts and my truck had to sit for 3 months because of their stupidity. We repeatedly told them and even gave them the part numbers but they never looked past the VIN number. To fix my truck the parts manager had to send in VIN numbers from trucks on their lot that matched what was damaged on my truck. Good luck!

 

Oh snap I wish I knew this before.

Yeah, I had a WRX and a Baja turbo that I totally tuned myself with Tactrix cables. I wish I could use it on the Tacoma, I'd like to change the target AFR's and change throttle mapping, etc. Yeah, I still have the Tactrix cable... And my tuning/logging laptop.

Oof. I thought the issues were just due to it being a Lithia franchise, but I guess not.

Sucks about your Forester issues. I had ABS issues with my WRX. I just unplugged the ABS module and pulled the bulb from the cluster. One dealer saw that, and asked me why, they offered a free reflash for the controller, which actually fixed the issues I was having. Mine was super sensitive, it would kick the ABS in on the slightest bumps. After the reflash, it was still more touchy than I would have liked, but it was not dangerous or stupid like the original problems were.

 

Sucks man, but my local one is amazing. Respectful, great work, and fair prices. They even take me under my truck to show me every little thing.

 

You can do a good bit with TS. Since you have the Tactrix, the vF package will cost less.

 

I can't say I've had any more issues than I'd expect from any dealership. I deal with my own headlights so I'm not sure about that but they definitely have never charged me to reprogram the TPMS even after getting the tires replaced and not just rotated.

There have been a few things I haven't cared for but I'd expect the same from a Chevrolet dealership. If you're not doing your own work you're bound to run into dissatisfaction from time to time. Unfortunately some places are worse than others. But my local dealership has been very good at explaining things and even called me once after I left a 3 star rating for the service in order to see how they could remedy it.

 

The normal parts guy Scott I deal with knows me from going in there and asking for the weirdest shit with a parts number and doesn’t bat an eye. They got a new guy in there with him now. I told the new guy I needed a rear diff gasket for a 05’-15’ Off road Tacoma. He gave me the run around and asked me if I was in their system. He goes and gets the gasket and I ask him where the cut out for the actuator is. He argued with me that I don’t have a off-road and it was the correct one and that I have a Sport without the Elocker. Finally Scott tells him just go get the damn off road gasket and quit arguing with him.

 

Sounds like the perfect guy to call up and ask for a 1999 water pump gasket and have him explain to you what it looks like

 

rofl I saw someone do this to an Autozone employee on youtube. Ironic, I saw that video like yesterday.

 

Look up mcgeorge Toyota or Camelback Toyota for parts.
I feel your pain

 

Thanks. Mcgeorge has the resistor I'm looking for for $26 less than the local dealer