Toyotoa LOF Visit Report

[jake75]

My Pontiac dealer no longer has their loss leader LOF deals, so I got a Groupon for a LOF for $16.80 at a nearby Toyota dealer.
They said I need to replace the engine and cabin filters, $80. I changed the cabin filter about 20,000 miles ago.
Also change out coolant, $140. Said it was a bit "dirty". (2009 with 45,000 miles)
Seems high. I am thinking about buying the filters and 2 gal of Toyota Long Life and taking to an independent shop.
[The work order claims that they use a synthetic blend oil.]

[tpollauf]

I am thinking about buying the filters and 2 gal of Toyota Long Life and taking to an independent shop.

I second that. Try the smaller mom & pop shops where you might not get as much sales pressure!

[Owim]

I agree find a small shop, I've bought 5 cars at 5 different dealerships (I drive for a living) and every time I would bring my car in during the very brief period it was under warranty the work was always shitty (young techs getting paid very little is my guess) and they were always trying to sell me something I didn't need. My whole family had been using the same mechanic for 30 years until he retired but his work was so good and the prices were very fair, he would even let me into the shop to explain things to me & show me broken parts like the $1200 broken evaporator that they had to take my whole dash apart to fix. This new shop I found does good work but I might have to start buying the parts myself because they charge like 2x the price of the part. But they seem pretty honest overall and aren't trying to upsell me on everything. But between and my old mechanic and the new one there were half a dozen bad shops that I tried out wasting alot of money not getting things fixed correctly.

[lannvouivre]

Warranty pays poorly because they usually only pay 1/3-1/2 of actual book time, so I am not shocked to hear you've been getting shoddy repairs. I always try to be super careful when I do warranty work, and trolled myself recently because the new adviser didn't know a recall had been performed on a vehicle.

I had removed the door panel and was working on the window regulator (all the while feeling waves of deja vu) when I found a foam insulator I'd repaired with my BMW tape, one of my hairs in the water shield glue, and one of my thumb prints inside the door panel. Usually you can tell if someone's been in interior panels because they mar everything underneath and along the edges; apparently I'm pretty good at not leaving any marks, and cleaning up any marks I do make. (end humblebragging)