Horror Story at Dealership

[PinnacleCelica]

Not terribly bad, just another example of how badly they try to screw you over.

I was taking my car in because my tail lights were broke (likely a fuse), and my cruise control was not engaging.

So, after about 2 hours of waiting the lady comes out and tells me that they found the problem. A blown fuse for the tail lights and a unplugged power cord for the cruise control. However, she then says "but its not under warranty due to the aftermarket prices you installed". I got a weird look on my face and said "my intake caused those problems?!". She proceeded to tell me that when i was installing the intake i must have dislodged the power cord and someone ****ing up the fuse. I was utterly in shock. I got really pissed off (my being a not real big 18 year old). I said "for your information MA'AM, the cruise control stopped working AFTER i took in my car to get the water pump replaced.. AT THIS DEALERSHIP.. and i installed my intake roughly a year ago, so i think its your idiot technicians that caused the problem, not me." She then proceeded to tell me that aftermarket mods void the warranty and most people dont know that. I said.. actually you want me to think it voids the warranty when actually it voids the PART of the warranty that the part affects if it deemed the problem was caused by the part. Well to make a long story short.. i ended up getting it all under warranty.

See it pays to stand up for yourself. I had to do it earlier with a speaker they said was fine.. i took them to one of their new cars and asked which system sounded better.. and they noticed the distortion on mine... so i got 2 new speakers. The funny thing was.. it ended up not being the speaker but the panel below it (haha fu dealership).

[toyota-tech.com]

they try to take advantage of young people these days :(

[IRL]

Thats nothing man...in my case, I went to the dealership for my Check Engine Light. I was getting the "misfire in Cylinder 1" code...fairly common. Well, my dealership decided to tell me that my ECU was fried becuase of my AFC...thats what caused the misfire. They wrote up an order for a new ECU...with a nice charge of $1400!! Plus completely VOIDED my warranty for the ENTIRE car!! I flipped...literally lost it for the nonsense I was hearing. I asked her, "if my ECU is fried...how did I drive fine all the way here...and drive fine for the last 2 months since the light has been on". She had no response to that.

I left, took my car to another dealership where a real technician looked at my car. Their diagnosis...they told me that the other dealership was ON CRACK. They told me there was nothing wrong with the ECU...obvioulsy...and continued to work on my car with my warranty in tact.

Needless to say, I wrote a long letter to the original Toyota dealership...they responded with an apology.

Moral of the story...every city has atleast 1 or 2 dealerships that just don't know squat about the cars that they sell/service.

[MilinGTS]

i would love to go off on a dealership

i have been itching to go off on someone lately.

if anything were to ever go wrong with my car....oh i'd let them have it

you should too.

nobody should tolerate them trying to play us like idiots.

my dealer asks me if i have "nos" in my car every time i go. i laugh.

[PinnacleCelica]

Yeah i figured it can get worse, luckily i haven't had any major problems that they can really BS me on, im sure they would.

[TRDGT5]

Man where do I start with my warranty issues. About a year ago I had jus bought a GTS and I went in for a routine alignment cuz the car was pulling to the right whenever I tried to str8n out my wheel. They needed to keep the car there the whole day for this. So I went back and as soon as I picked up my car I noticed my clutch was fried. I mean man was I fo**en pissed. The whole front was jerkin whenever I pushed the clutch pedal in and there was this weird grinding noise coming from 2-3rd gear shifts. So I they told me nothing was wrong. So I went back in the day after and I told them what happened and they said nothing was wrong. So I wait a month for the regional DSPM to come and check it out and she goes nothings wrong with it. So I went to another dealership and they said the same thing...telling me it was common thing on clutches. They told me to come back until the tranny was broken-in until about 10-15,0000 miles. So recently I went in to another dealer and had it checked out and this tech finally admits to hearing that same noise I heard coming outta the original dealership at ONLY 300miles. He tells me my clutch springs are loose and that there might be a transmission failure. I was like WTF. So I got in touch with Toyota USA headquarters and ****. They basically telling me I gotta pay for the parts and the labor for all this crap I went through. Even though I acknowledged this problem since 300miles. I was hella Fo**en pissed. Now i'm in the process of suing Toyota and that original dealership. But I don't know if it's worth it. They keep telling me since it's a wear and tear item I got no case a/g it but I figure since I got everything written out from all dealerships that I may have a case a/g them and get my money back for the whole damn car. What do u guys think?

[Blue Lucifer]

SUE SUE SUE!