15 Votes

Boost it!

New Toyota Program To Address “Horrendous” Dealership Experiences

Agent009 submitted on 6/25/2007 Official Bell & Ross Timestamp: 4:16:31 PM

30 user comments | Category: Misc News | Source: | SOURCE: www.thecarconnection.com

When a power window motor on Robert Glenn's Camry went bad, the suburbanLos Angeles writer expected to spend a couple hundred dollars on repairs, but when he called the dealer he'd been using for 20 years, the price came in at twice that amount.

Frustrated, Glenn called another dealer, closer to his office, who said he'd do the work for half price. So Glenn switched shops asking his new dealer to do an oil change, too.

The next day, however, the bill came to…$400. Instead of a regular, $30 oil change, Glenn was charged $168 in labor alone for a "power oil flush." Now, clearly angry, the father of two called Toyota's factory representative, who admitted there's no such thing as a power oil flush, but who declined to push the dealer for a refund.



Read Article

New Toyota Program To Address “Horrendous” Dealership Experiences

About the Author

Agent009

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."

— Agent009 (View Profile)


User Comments

tifosi_f1

ouch, that is bad service . That basically milking the customer, $400 for a oil change is a rip-off and for a camry too.

Being in the US, can't the person sue or file a case with a consumer protection agency to get the money back?

— tifosi_f1 (View Profile)

Posted on 6/25/2007 4:49:46 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Agent009

Well this is not limited to Toyota by any stretch at all. This is an overly aggressive service department issue, trying to pile on services.

— Agent009 (View Profile)

Posted on 6/25/2007 4:52:40 PM | | Votes: 0   

Bmw8ter

Holy crap man....I just bought my wife a fully loaded 2007 Camry XLE V6 Charcoal color, and we're picking it up tonight. I hope our service department isn't like the one in this article.

— Bmw8ter (View Profile)

Posted on 6/25/2007 5:51:46 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Agent009

That is probably true of of a lot of dealerships now... We have to keep on top of the Honda delearship. We now request a certain mechanic to only service the vehicle. That helps tremendously.

— Agent009 (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 8:24:12 AM | | Votes: 2   

toolatetorace

Oh, what a feeling !!!!

— toolatetorace (View Profile)

Posted on 6/25/2007 11:46:27 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Agent009

LOL, the author tossed that in there. I was wondering what the heck it had to do with the overall experience. I am suprised he didn't mention he had a dog too...

— Agent009 (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 8:25:26 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

2JZSoarer

Don't judge all the Toyota dealerships on one bad apple.The dealership where I work is a Toyota signiture dealer,which means we have a high rate of customer satisfaction for service and sales..

— 2JZSoarer (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 12:41:33 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Agent009

Actually you should applaude Toyota for doing this. They know that every make has this issue, but the are addressing it.

— Agent009 (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 8:26:21 AM | | Votes: 2   

XYZZ

...

— XYZZ (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 7:31:15 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

XYZZ

bimmermike:

"Buy rice, live rice!!!"


the guy's bill is of course, still just a FRACTION of costs in the process of weaning bimmers away from the service depts.

and most NEVER get weaned, but demand ever more time in the dealer shops as they age. :(


— XYZZ (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 7:36:02 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

sold2early

I was planning on buying a Camry, but with its transmission problems and the company/dealerships refusing to do anything about it, I'm going to stick with Honda. That's the attitude I'd expect with the Big 3, not Toyota.

It will be interesting to see what the reliability data looks like on the '07 Camry when Consumer Reports publishes their consumer survey results. Based on what most people in the forums are saying about their cars, it will not be good.

Overall I think Toyota is good, but the quality of their recent product introductions and their attitudes about dealing with the problems have gone downhill sharply.

— sold2early (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 11:11:38 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

2JZSoarer

You are miss informed "Sold2early",no Toyota dealership can refuse to repair or replace your transmission if the is an issue,it's part of the warranty,if a dealer were to refuse such service,you can call Toyota customer service and file a complaint about the dealer,and Toyota will be on them like flies on crap,lol.
As for the transmission issues,there is a software updated,to improve shifts for both 4 cylider and 6 cylinder Camrys.

— 2JZSoarer (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 1:27:01 PM | | Votes: 1   

Bmw8ter

A buddy at work bought his Toyota from the same dealer as I did, and he said that when you purchase a new one or go in for major service, Toyota sends you a survey for you to rate the quality of the experience.

He said, the dealer called him the same day he received it to tell him that if he had any problems with his car, not to submit the survey until the issue was resolved. Even the carsalesman was talking about it before I left the dealership, I guess as a last minute effort to downplay the significance Toyota places on customer input(apparently it's a big deal).

The way my buddy put it, they almost want you to find some sort of fault in your car for them to fix so that they are almost guaranteed to get an excellent rating from the you.

— Bmw8ter (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 2:16:08 PM | | Votes: 1   

toolatetorace

Consumer Reports , our favorite toaster testers , will never say anything bad about Toytie and never will . Worst thing they will do is not give it a "Best Buy" rating. Something must have ticked them about the new Tundra because, they did not give them a top rating but, then again no full sized truck got a "Best Buy " award , go figure

— toolatetorace (View Profile)

Posted on 6/27/2007 10:10:50 AM | | Votes: 1   

2JZSoarer

BMW8ter you are right about the survey,it is a big deal,I know when we get a bad survey,we get in trouble and some dealers are known to fire the employees that caused them the bad survey,if it happends often..

— 2JZSoarer (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 9:14:23 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Bmw8ter

All in all, my experience was a pretty good one to be honest. I give the manager high marks for getting pissed over what he presumed would be a simple exchange of words and numbers to "verbally" seal the deal, and then kicking his chair in anger when I told him I wanted to see an amortization chart; this was after we had a subtle 30 minute, incoherent, exchange of words regarding the monthly payment he had written down.

No lie, the written monthly payment he wrote down ended up being $10 more than the actual payment, and he cited the additional $10 as "some sort of bank fee".

Hey 2JZSoarer....I'm assuming you work at a dealership. I managed to talk the finance guy into giving me just the extended warranty for $1100 extra. How low can you actually go on it?

— Bmw8ter (View Profile)

Posted on 6/26/2007 11:59:49 PM | | Votes: 1   

XYZZ


i have the impression that since toyotas don't break down as much as most other cars, the service depts at their dealerships gotta TRY EXTRA HARD to scare up revenue! that's my theory anyway.

— XYZZ (View Profile)

Posted on 6/27/2007 5:39:00 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

XYZZ


last toyota i bought at a dealer, was a 3-yr old XtraCab p/u.

it was delivered with a cracked taillight lens ($80 to replace!) and a burned out turn signal bulb ($30 to replace!).

i complained i had just bot the truck, and these items shoulda been taken care of BEFORE the sale. so the service dept. charged the bill to the sales dept. they HAD to get their pound of flesh, even tho' just thru internal accounting.

seems this particular dealer anyway, required the service dept. to be a PROFIT CENTER as well as doing the routine servicing of customer vehicles.

— XYZZ (View Profile)

Posted on 6/27/2007 5:49:13 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

bevisroy

Lexus ALWAYS understates their 0 - 60 times by at least .5 seconds. Here are the results of the 5 Top Luxury Cars in this test which was reported in the January Issue of Car and Driver. Please note these tests were all done on the same day at about the same time and at the same altitude. The results reflect the average of 3 runs and all cars are the 2007 vintage.

Mercedes S550 5.6, 0 - 60 quarter mile in 14.1 (Benz show 5.4 in their specs)
BMW 750iL 5.7, 0 - 60 quarter mile in 14.2
Jag XJ Super 6.0 0 - 60 quarter mile 14.5
Lexus LS460L 6.2 0 - 60 quarter mile 14.6
Audi A8 6.8 0 - 60 quarter mile 15.2

Note that Lexus, as usual, is more than the 5.4 the manufacturer CLAIMS to get by .8 seconds.

Also note the LS430 (prior model the LS460 replaced) was rated at 295 HP and was actually 278 when Lexus corrected their rating. And there were no refunds or apologies from the so-called "quality" car company. ABC - Always Be Careful what you buy from the (REPREHENSIBLE) Toyota/Lexus people.....

— bevisroy (View Profile)

Posted on 6/28/2007 10:16:04 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Add your Comments

Images hosted in your AgentSpace can now be posted in the comments section using the following syntax (case matters): [img]IMAGE URL[/img]
Example: [img]http://agent001.myautospies.com/images/sample.jpg[/img]