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!

[Terry10]

Sounds like a massive rip off to me. As for the tracker being fitted free with the plates then that is the first that I have heard of that. We are still waiting for the electronic upgrade that will supposedly stop this big theft problem with the Rav 4. That was supposed to available at the beginning of April so watch this space. I am personally quite disillusioned with Toyota back up at the moment. Enjoy your new car.

Terry

[forkingabout]

9 hours ago, Lofijunky said:

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!

Lexus dealers have been fitting a Thatcham S7 Tracker Retrieve to qualifying vehicles & offering a 3 year FOC subscription.

NOTE: This is a Battery powered ONE use only device, if it's activated it will have to be replaced.

Lexus dealers also fit a geo fence device that plugs in to the OBD port & links to a smart phone app.

The idea is the geo fence device alerts you to the vehicle being stolen, you then call the Police to report it stolen & obtain a crime reference number.

You then call Tracker with the crime reference number, they activate the tracker & hopefully the Police will find your vehicle.

IMHO it's a totally useless solution as it doesn't stop the vehicle being stolen.

[Adrian T]

Hi guys I emailed Toyota UK customer services regarding reimbursement for CAN-BUS plates and tracker that I paid £90 and £418 for and their response is,

 

Good Morning Adrian,

Thanks for getting in touch via our contact us page on our website. 

Just to offer you some reassurance, your vehicle has a number of theft deterrent devices, an immobiliser, intrusion alarm, motion sensor alarm and tilt detection sensors.  Unfortunately, new theft methods and tools are continuously being developed by organised criminal gangs to gain access to - or steal the latest vehicles.  This is a challenge the entire automotive industry is currently facing. 

We are continuously striving to improve our vehicles and whilst, regrettably we cannot guarantee that these efforts will eliminate all criminal activity and theft. We are working closely with the authorities to raise awareness of this crime as well as our technical teams, both here and with Toyota Motor Europe and our insurance experts to look at ways to further protect our vehicles and to develop technology and components to try to prevent vehicle thefts. 

We are happy to reimburse you for the fitment of the vehicle protection plates if you could please provide an invoice showing the charge. Unfortunately, we would be unable to offer you any reimbursement for the tracker or ghost immobiliser. I am sorry for any disappointment this may cause.

Thanks for contacting Toyota GB.

Kind regards

Amy

Amy Leek
Customer Support
Toyota (GB) PLC  
Distributor of vehicles, parts and accessories for the UK.

Ref:MSGDEV23519027

[NASY]

You must feel warm and fuzzy after that.

[Adrian T]

It’s better than nothing I suppose but surely Toyota should be contacting owners and reimbursing them automatically

[Grumpy stumpy]

SE charged me just £70 all in to fit the plates , Ipswich branch.

[Willss]

I had 3 different quotes from 3 different branches of the same dealership to replace pads and discs front and rear (varied from just under £600 to £850 for an auris).

 

Shocking variation within the same company for the same job using the same genuine parts!!!

[Nick72]

Weird.

But I guess each dealership is a franchise with different overhead costs they're trying to recover through the labour rate and probably an uplift on the price of parts. 

[Cyker]

20 hours ago, Lofijunky said:

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!

Yeah I don't know what the hell's happened to Hills; They used to be a pretty good place, at least for parts - I used to go there for parts as they had a parts desk so I didn't have to wait half an hour for someone to wander down like I did with Enfield, but the last few times I've been there they've been really bad - Where they used to offer a discount just for the asking, they instead tried to charge me double what Enfield and even the online Toyota parts site were charging for parts, and when I gave them the job of changing my 17" rims for 15"s and running the Dashcam wiring for me, they tried to charge me an extra £50 for some trim piece for my Dashcam wiring (I declined so they didn't do it and did it myself instead, no trim pieces involved!) sent me off with the tyres on one side of the car at 20 PSI!

It's kinda sad to see a formerly good dealership decline so much in a few short years...

[Nick72]

33 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Yeah I don't know what the hell's happened to Hills; They used to be a pretty good place, at least for parts - I used to go there for parts as they had a parts desk so I didn't have to wait half an hour for someone to wander down like I did with Enfield, but the last few times I've been there they've been really bad - Where they used to offer a discount just for the asking, they instead tried to charge me double what Enfield and even the online Toyota parts site were charging for parts, and when I gave them the job of changing my 17" rims for 15"s and running the dashcam wiring for me, they tried to charge me an extra £50 for some trim piece for my dashcam wiring (I declined so they didn't do it and did it myself instead, no trim pieces involved!) sent me off with the tyres on one side of the car at 20 PSI!

It's kinda sad to see a formerly good dealership decline so much in a few short years...

It's almost always a change of leadership. Like my Toyota dealership. Brilliant until the overall manager left to go to Mini and then garbage.

[Cyker]

Very well could be... I don't go there any more so I may never know, but it would suck - I hate how we have a society where one person can so easily destroy the work and good will a lot of other people spent years building up with no consequence to them, leaving the rest to pick up the pieces afterwards.  

 

[Willss]

My local dealership group got bought out a few years ago. Since then emphasis has been placed on selling and upselling everything. There are still a couple of staff from the 'old brigade' who I now wait to be free to speak to. The new staff have been trained in the 'correct way' to do things so don't try to help or offer answers/solutions they follow the guidelines (money making) to the letter. 

Once the old school, who get things done (sensibly), leave, it will be a sorry (more expensive) day. New staff are too scared/young/new to make decisions other than what the 'computer says'. 

As an example my water pump was leaking/needed replacing. Went to closest dealership and was told to book it in and it would be diagnosed and then I could return a few days later and get the pump replaced if that turned out to be the issue. Then spoke to someone at my usual (but more distant dealership), they looked at a photo showing the leak and said they'd book it in and make sure the part was instock and ready to be fitted. Common sense, more efficient and better for the customer but not in accordance with procedures!

[Lofijunky]

Hi all,

Thanks for all your replies - however sadly, and ridiculously, our RAV4 was stolen last night at 3am off our driveway via a CAN bus attack.

Stolen in under two weeks of having it! So it seems as quickly as I joined I’ll be leaving the rav4 owners club.

I thought it was being quick organising the service with the protective plate but apparently not quick enough.

[Lofijunky]

There she goes…

[ToyotaFanDriver]

So sorry to see that happened. Can only hope those involved will sooner rather than later eliminate them selves from the gene pool.

[philip42h]

2 hours ago, Lofijunky said:

Hi all,

Thanks for all your replies - however sadly, and ridiculously, our RAV4 was stolen last night at 3am off our driveway via a CAN bus attack.

Stolen in under two weeks of having it! So it seems as quickly as I joined I’ll be leaving the rav4 owners club ...

It seems a rather 'odd' 'coincidence' - the thieves won't have spotted your car simply in passing; they will have had to make a specific trip ...

I assume that you are aware that you should be able to track the location of the car using the My Toyota App (and thereby give the police something to work with)?

[Lofijunky]

I don’t believe there’s any kind of tracker fitted? Would happily be proved wrong! In my original post, I was going to have one fitted in my service on Friday but obviously didn’t make it that far.

We’re in far east London/essex border - there have been so many car thefts here recently. Especially RAV4s, which I wish I’d known about before buying this one, due to the ease of the CAN bus attack.

There are loads of quiet cul-de-sacs off a main road here, I believe they’re just walking up and down these closes looking for RAV4s. It’s definitely not the nicest car in our close… just the easiest to steal apparently. 

They came by at 1am, scouted it and started pulling off the panels near the passenger side (I now know with doorbell footage - heard noises but didn’t see anything when I looked out the window) then came back to steal it 2 hours later.

It has definitely crossed my mind that the dealership I bought it from is somehow involved, but the sheer number of these thefts, specifically RAV4s, popping up on my local FB groups makes me think it was just local criminals.
 

Downright abysmal from Toyota for it to be this easy to steal.
 

8 minutes ago, philip42h said:

It seems a rather 'odd' 'coincidence' - the thieves won't have spotted your car simply in passing; they will have had to make a specific trip ...

I assume that you are aware that you should be able to track the location of the car using the My Toyota App (and thereby give the police something to work with)?

 

[Nick72]

Just now, Lofijunky said:

I don’t believe there’s any kind of tracker fitted? Would happily be proved wrong! In my original post, I was going to have one fitted in my service on Friday but obviously didn’t make it that far.

We’re in far east London/essex border - there have been so many car thefts here recently. Especially RAV4s, which I wish I’d known about before buying this one, due to the ease of the CAN bus attack.

There are loads of quiet cul-de-sacs off a main road here, I believe they’re just walking up and down these closes looking for RAV4s. It’s definitely not the nicest car in our close… just the easiest to steal apparently. 

They came by at 1am, scouted it and started pulling off the panels near the passenger side (I now know with doorbell footage - heard noises but didn’t see anything when I looked out the window) then came back to steal it 2 hours later.

It has definitely crossed my mind that the dealership I bought it from is somehow involved, but the sheer number of these thefts, specifically RAV4s, popping up on my local FB groups makes me think it was just local criminals.
 

Downright abysmal from Toyota for it to be this easy to steal.
 

 

There should be a tracker. 

It's how find my car works in the My Toyota or MyT app works.

However, I believe after the thieves successfully achieve the CANbus attack, the next thing they do is rip out the DCM module so there's no Comms to report vehicle location back to Toyota and back to the App.

Pretty awful really. 

Even though the PHEV is not susceptible AFAIK to CANbus attack I'm still using a beefy hardened steel steering lock. It's just another deterrent.

What I the thieves doing with the cars? If they are shipping them overseas then it's organised crime. If not, then how are they making money? Selling parts or stolen cars is risky business since at some point someone spots it's a stolen vehicle or a part from a stolen vehicle?

[philip42h]

4 minutes ago, Lofijunky said:

I don’t believe there’s any kind of tracker fitted? Would happily be proved wrong!

There is - though you may not have set it up and it's not 100% reliable.

If you have your car registered to your My Toyota account, you can track its movements through the My Toyota App. Each time the car stops it reports journey details back to the Toyota servers using the inbuilt Digital Communications Module (DCM). It's not totally reliable, but it should tell you where your car has been and where it last stopped.

The selling dealer should have set it up for you and explained how it works. If you haven't set it up there remains a possibility that the dealer / Toyota GB can provide information (to the police).

[Lofijunky]

Sod’s law. I hadn’t connected the connected services via the app, and it won’t let me do that without verifying access to the car. Damn.

[flash22]

Sadly it will be cut up and out of the country, op may have been followed home or had a tracker/air tag type device placed on the car

[forkingabout]

The My Toyota " tracking " is one of the first things that professional car thieves disable, normally within the first 10 minutes.

 

[Lofijunky]

Got some more footage from a neighbour.

They came by at 00:30 and scoped it out, shining the headlights of their car (2022 White Vauxhall Mokka most likely also stolen! - reg: AV72BSY) very close to mine. What do you think they were doing here? Looking for the protection plate?

Then at 01:00 tried to steal it but got spooked by a neighbour knocking on a window. Finally came by and finished the job at 03:20.

 

 

[philip42h]

1 hour ago, Lofijunky said:

What do you think they were doing here?

My guess would be that he was simply looking for a physical steering lock ...