Service quality level

[Smani]

Have been servicing my 2017 HEV annually or every 10Kmiles to preserve the warranty extension, but not impressed with this.  Serviced last time in January, only advisory was the front tires getting close to the thread limit. 

I was always relaxed counting on that they check everything and advise accordingly. Actually first car ever that I trusted into dealer/garage for service in my entire life, always did my own service at home.  This one I thought I could seat back and relax since paying a small fortune for oil/filters change and most importantly, the safety checks on the car, until I put a torch to double check the brakes before MOT.   Not anymore. 

No longer interested in their service or extended warranty. Will just trust the brand famous reliability and keep running until replace in few years.

The photos of the new pads and discs it is to compare how bad it was and how they missed.  Have no idea how much they would ask for the job if I ask them to do it, but for me it took 1,5h of my time and £178.00 in parts.

[APS]

That should have been picked up in the safety inspection of the service. Really poor! 

You shouldn't have to look at these things yourself, but my experience is similar to yours. You just cannot blindly trust them.

While not essential, you might want to get a pad mounting kit to get new springs.

[CassUK]

Brakes are consumables but yes you most certainly should have expected any decent technician to spot that those pads needed replacing from a simple visual safety inspection. 

I’m coming to Toyota from VW where I have had a visual inspection video sent to me on every occasion when my car was in for service, specifically highlighting brake pad thickness and tyre tread depth.

My wife has had 3 Toyotas and I can’t recall that happening before her service work.

You need to flag this up with the Service Manager of the relevant dealer. Not only has the tech failed to perform a simple safety inspection, the dealer has lost the opportunity to do the work themselves.

Personally, I would never refuse the option of having the 12 month warranty continuous with dealer servicing. I always used my VW main dealer for servicing and regularly paid out almost £1k/year on top for a VW Extended Warranty warranty (don’t worry, I certainly got my money's worth out of it in recent years). 

[Big_D]

22 minutes ago, CassUK said:

I’m coming to Toyota from VW where I have had a visual inspection video sent to me on every occasion when my car was in for service, specifically highlighting brake pad thickness and tyre tread depth.

My wife has had 3 Toyotas and I ca

I always get a video from my Dealer

[Cyker]

1 hour ago, CassUK said:

You need to flag this up with the Service Manager of the relevant dealer. Not only has the tech failed to perform a simple safety inspection, the dealer has lost the opportunity to do the work themselves.

This ^^^^

That is a major oversight and they need to be made aware of it!  

[Smani]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

This ^^^^

That is a major oversight and they need to be made aware of it!  

Oh, they will.

[Nick72]

I honestly find them mostly incompetent at my dealership I'm very sad to say. Particularly in regards to my 2021 R4P.

Not doing things I asked for 3 times and confirmed 3 times in oral and written form. Several instances. Completely screwed up a software update and more.

There's not enough mechanical wear and tear yet to form a view given the cars age but I suspect they won't be good.

Like you I used to do a lot of maintenance and repair myself. I kept an old banger going for probably 11 years and sailed it's MoT every time. Usual replacements but also fitting new small sensors, cleaning out EGR valves, eBay for mass airflow sensor, etc. Cheapest car ownership per mile ever and I've had a dozen cars since the 80s.

But, the thing is, I'm now too old with too little time for faff so switched to a company car scheme about 7 years ago. I decided I wanted hassle free motoring. No insurance, maintenance, or anything to worry about. Company just covers it all under blanket policy. Spanner in the works however is the constant back n forth with the dealership for something they hadn't done or had fkd up. Never had this sshow with Mercedes. Pretty sure they used to send me their inspection videos with commentary over the top.

[TonyHSD]

My total disappointment from car dealerships and repair garages motivated me back in the days to take care of my cars by myself and I only visit dealers  for recall works or to buy parts. Every time I visit and look at the workshop I see things that reassure me I had made the right decision. I usually drive more than average for the country, I save tons of money by doing things on my drive and taking care of my car which is now old and well used. I had recently a hybrid Battery  failure after 13.5 years of service and 269000 miles, I bought a new Battery from local dealer for £1500 and put in myself. No warranty requests, hassle, waiting time, approval for replacement etc no bs, just plug and play the car needs to roll. For all folks that have 5+ year old Toyotas and can do diy service, do it and you will have less problems and less headaches. , and of course save yourself a good cash. 

[Oscarmax]

Its not just Toyota I had similar problems with Honda when I lived in Mid Wales the local Honda dealer was truly appalling I booked through Honda direct for a full 36,000 miles fixed price service, the dealer skipped most of the servicing. I complained to both the dealer and Honda they stated they can do nothing all dealerships are a franchised, at that point I lost totally faith in Honda I expected better, I took it to the local garage who carried out a full service for less than half the price of Honda.

[GBgraham]

23 hours ago, Cyker said:

This ^^^^

That is a major oversight and they need to be made aware of it!  

That's an understatement, it is not an oversight, it is bordering on criminal by an incompetent staff member at a Toyota main dealer. They definitely would not have lasted while the next service and the failure could have caused all sorts of problems and at worse a serious accident. Unfortunately this happens far too often at these faceless main dealers probably owned by some investment group that thinks a disc (rotor) goe's in a CD player. 

Where you can and I know it is fast becoming a rarity, try to use a family run or a small group business. The other alternative for service is to use a VAT registered independent and have genuine Toyota parts fitted.

[Cyker]

The problem is the name doesn't matter - It's about the mechanics.

The good thing about smaller garages is you generally get to know who's working on the car, but with dealers you're generally isolated from that so you don't know who you're going to get.

My local ones have had a fair bit of turn-over over the years in all departments which doesn't help. (Although some of that might just be inter-franchise transfers just to help spread experience - I didn't know what was a thing before, but I think is a good idea to stop staff getting bored!)

That said, I've never had any issues with my dealer for servicing - They've always done what they were supposed to do and the customer service levels have slowly improved. I still wouldn't trust them with anything outside servicing, esp diagnostics - been burned too many times for that now - but they haven't let me down on the basics.

Maybe I should expect more, but given the nightmare stories I've heard on here of things like the wrong oil being used and things just not being done it's made me appreciate more that they do what they're supposed to do!  

[Nick72]

Mostly did all maintenance and repair myself in the past before I switched to company cars. Only exception was skimming the head or repairing a gear box. In which case I went to Tony. Old guy. Small garage. Honest, capable, fast, cheap. Once cost me 140 quid for a new cam on a Vauxhall Nova including fitting and tuning! New Cam! Dealer wanted 700 quid. Car was only worth 1500 quid!