Hills vs. Steven Eagell: Adding CarPlay + CAN bus plate cost

[Lofijunky]

Hi there, happy new owner of a 2020 RAV4 as of one week ago (kind of terrifying size upgrade after only driving an Aygo for 10+ years…). This is a bit of a stupid question as I have my answer in the way of the prices I’ve been given, but I just wanted to start a conversation and hear your thoughts and experiences really.

Rang up my local dealership (Hills of Woodford) to get a cost for a service, and adding CarPlay and a protective plate for the old CAN bus attacks I’ve been seeing.

On top of the service they quoted:

- £280 to add CarPlay (challenged him on this and he said it used to be £150 but as it’s over 3 years old it’s £280)

- £175 to install the plate (again challenged and was told that the £75 labour only fee is not policy anymore)

Pretty eye watering, so I said I’d check out a few other dealers and get back to him… I was assuming it’d probably be a standardised cost across all licensed Toyota dealerships… but tried anyway.

Rang a Steven Eagell garage and they quoted:

- £50 to add CarPlay with a service

- £70 for the protective plate.

It’s a crazy £335 difference, no brainier to go with SE, which is a shame as Hills is on my doorstep, 15 minutes walk away, and the nearest SE dealership is a half an hour drive away.

My question is, are Hills trying to pull a fast one on me? Or is it totally normal for dealerships to have such wildly different costs for what I thought were standardised addons?

Side note: both dealers said that Toyota now fit trackers for free with the protective plate installation. Anyone have any more info about these trackers and subscription costs etc? Can’t find anyone talking about this.

Cheers!