Hello And A Few Questions

May 30, 2007

Hi all. I own (from new) a 1999 GX 3dr, just short of 50k on the clock. It has been regularly serviced and MOT'ed at the same Toyota dealer I bought it from until last year after they repeatedly failed to answer their service line. I ended up taking it to an non-Toyota garage which was ok since I just wanted an MOT. I was never too happy with the Toyota garage anyway since they always attempted to overcharge me and I proved several times that they had charged for work that wasn't done or wasn't needed (eg, £7 to fill an already full water reservoir :blink: ). Anyways, last year was extremely low mileage even for me so I skipped a service but now I want to get one done. With the usual dread I started phoning the Toyota garage and get the usual long wait, after which I gave up. I'm now thinking of going to same garage I got the MOT done but thought I would check here to get peoples opinions first. I'm mainly concerned about getting a thorough job done since if I can't get a service manual will a competing garage fair any better? Should I even be worried, a car is a car is car after all? :D Just baiting you RAV fan-boys/girls there a bit... but seriously should I worried in any way?

My other question is about tyres. My RAV still has the original Dunlop GrandTrek 215/70R16 (99S) tyres and while still legal the front pair are starting to show wear on the outside edges so I'm planning on replacing all four (and maybe getting the brake pads/discs done at the same time). Just wondering what other owners have chosen and if I can avoid replacing the spare? BTW I suspect the spare has never been rotated despite me requesting it several times. How "budget" are budget tyres, should I avoid them?

TIA for any comment/suggestions :thumbsup:

PS: I'm clearly a RAV fan-boy and dread the day I ever have to give it up... but hopefully that's still many years from now, touch wood!

May 30, 2007

Hi all. I own (from new) a 1999 GX 3dr, just short of 50k on the clock. It has been regularly serviced and MOT'ed at the same Toyota dealer I bought it from until last year after they repeatedly failed to answer their service line. I ended up taking it to an non-Toyota garage which was ok since I just wanted an MOT. I was never too happy with the Toyota garage anyway since they always attempted to overcharge me and I proved several times that they had charged for work that wasn't done or wasn't needed (eg, £7 to fill an already full water reservoir ). Anyways, last year was extremely low mileage even for me so I skipped a service but now I want to get one done. With the usual dread I started phoning the Toyota garage and get the usual long wait, after which I gave up. I'm now thinking of going to same garage I got the MOT done but thought I would check here to get peoples opinions first. I'm mainly concerned about getting a thorough job done since if I can't get a service manual will a competing garage fair any better? Should I even be worried, a car is a car is car after all? :D Just baiting you RAV fan-boys/girls there a bit... but seriously should I worried in any way?
My other question is about tyres. My RAV still has the original Dunlop GrandTrek 215/70R16 (99S) tyres and while still legal the front pair are starting to show wear on the outside edges so I'm planning on replacing all four (and maybe getting the brake pads/discs done at the same time). Just wondering what other owners have chosen and if I can avoid replacing the spare? BTW I suspect the spare has never been rotated despite me requesting it several times. How "budget" are budget tyres, should I avoid them?
TIA for any comment/suggestions
PS: I'm clearly a RAV fan-boy and dread the day I ever have to give it up... but hopefully that's still many years from now, touch wood!

First off welcome to the club :thumbsup: and in answer to your questions...

1) These days even main dealers like Nissan, Ford, Vauxhall will service any make of car ( lets face it a car is a car to a garage ), so if you can't get your local Toyota garage to pick up the phone, first can you book it on line with them ?, my dealer i use has an on line booking form and they then get back to me.

Ring a few other makes of main dealer and get a price from them.

2)if you look back over the RAV4 threads tyres have been talked about before, my choice for tyre next will be GOODYEAR WRANGLER HP ALL WEATHER tyres.

As to the spare, so people say the rubber gets old weather used or not, so if you can afford a set of 5.. go for it, if not keep the spare as it is.

Take a look on www.mytyres.co uk for a good tyrwe price, or the company i have used before (they come to your home or work and fit them ) http://www.event-tyres.co.uk/

good luck.

May 31, 2007

Thanks for the info Bob :thumbsup:

June 5, 2007

Hi Bob, thanks for pointing me to Event-Tyres, booked to get all four done this Thursday and they worked out cheapest :yahoo:

June 5, 2007

Hi Bob, thanks for pointing me to Event-Tyres, booked to get all four done this Thursday and they worked out cheapest

Glad to be of help, i've used them in the past and the fitted guy was very good at his job, and the price was good considering they come to you :thumbsup: .