I stopped using our local dealer for service after they tried to sell me tires when I clearly didn't need them. The tread measurements they wrote on the inspection sheet weren't even close. They were either dishonest or incompetent.

My tires passed inspection less than 3 weeks ago. They told me they need to be replaced ASAP. I’ve still got a few thousand (my prediction is 8-12k) miles before I hit the wear bars. : rolleyes:

A tread talking about crooked car dealerships could become longer than the Covid thread.

If you are in Staunton or Harrisonburg, you might want to drive over to Waynesboro and have your flywheel dust cover replaced. Just make sure you have a new one before throwing the old one away.

Then there is the Michelin tire place that scuffed up my aluminum wheels and dented the front brake line.

And don't use Drumhellers for towing because they are not careful in placement of the chains and could knock the front-end out of alignment.

The clowns at the local Toyota dealership just told me they will only accept cash or a loan through Toyota Credit for a new Tacoma. They will not take a check from my credit union. What a bunch of scumbags!

quote:

Originally posted by Pistolria:
The clowns at the local Toyota dealership just told me they will only accept cash or a loan through Toyota Credit for a new Tacoma. They will not take a check from my credit union. What a bunch of scumbags!

Sounds strange, TC must be paying top fees for financing deals.

If the purchase is a good deal, you could finance it through Toyota Credit, then send the CU check to Toyota, pay them off in 30 days and move the loan, should stop the dealer getting commission from the lender...

They called me earlier about the survey I filled out. Tried saying that until there’s a diagnosis for a problem they have to charge a $99.95 fee. I explained very slowly, “This is a recall. You run a diagnostic as part of the process. You don’t charge UNLESS there’s extra work unrelated to the recall. Did you also miss the part where the mechanic sent me a text with a link to a video explaining what he found and that he sent it 30 minutes BEFORE your service writer scam artist tried getting the $100 out of me? I’m not buying it, literally or figuratively.”

Finished the call by telling the girl I understand she’s trying to explain without throwing the guy under the bus to a customer but she went about it all wrong.

Sounds strange, TC must be paying top fees for financing deals.

If the purchase is a good deal, you could finance it through Toyota Credit, then send the CU check to Toyota, pay them off in 30 days and move the loan, should stop the dealer getting commission from the lender...[/QUOTE]

I'm going in with the CU check and seeing what they will do. If not I'll just pay cash and finance with my CU after the fact. I want to screw with them at this point!

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
It’s a scam to even pay for a scan. What other business do you have to pay to get an assessment of the problem.

Shops should be able to charge for the service and labor provided to diagnose a problem, they are working on the problem figuring it out.

Imagine if you have a working relationship, oil changes, rotations, buy tires etc from one they'd wave the fee...

Price the tools the use to do the scans, not inexpensive. Talking with the shop owner who was scanning my truck to find the source of rough idle, the BT scanner and dongle cost him $30K, I'm sure he leased it, but still, it's not free to him.

Old days of opening the hood and looking in are gone, everything is controlled by ECM, BCM, ETC.

I'm at the point where I won't even buy a car from a traditional stealership anymore. My last car was a rebuilt Honda Civic I bought in March 2020. Bought it with 26k miles and now it has 55k miles. Saved myself a great deal amount of money, too.

This place specializes in rebuilt Honda and Toyota vehicles.

quote:

Originally posted by Pistolria:
The clowns at the local Toyota dealership just told me they will only accept cash or a loan through Toyota Credit for a new Tacoma. They will not take a check from my credit union. What a bunch of scumbags!

Was this at Arlington Toyota?

Coggin at the Avenues

quote:

Originally posted by Pistolria:
Coggin at the Avenues

Damn, they are supposed to be the “good” Toyota dealership.

quote:

Originally posted by Pistolria:
The clowns at the local Toyota dealership just told me they will only accept cash or a loan through Toyota Credit for a new Tacoma. They will not take a check from my credit union. What a bunch of scumbags!

That doesn’t make any sense at all. Rates are extremely low and car values are presently inflated. If anything TMC takes on more risk by financing anything right now. Our local dealerships are pushing everything they can to the indirect lending side for that very reason.

If you did want to still buy from them, if only to give them the figurative finger- your Credit Union may allow you to deposit the check and then write them a check, therefore paying “cash”.

Our local CU writes checks out to the dealership or borrower, Navy FCU does the same thing. You just have to send them the title within X days or they convert it to a personal loan. For extra fun you could bring your check and a garbage bag filled with coin.

quote:

Originally posted by SpinZone:
Damn, they are supposed to be the “good” Toyota dealership.

The salesman told me to just bring the CU check, he said the finance guy was full of shit.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
That’s why I traded a nearly new RAV4 (pretty good car other than my warranty issue) for a Subaru. Toyota dealers have lost my business for a while. Call it a timeout. Maybe forever.

Our Subaru dealer in town is also a Toyota dealer....they're both a bunch of cranks.

The last two vehicles I bought was through United Buying Service.

http://ubs4cars.com/

It was the best price compared to quotes from other dealers with all the options listed when ordering from the factory.

Past buys had problems with warranty work and I ended up fixing the problem myself.

The wife took the 2018 4Runner in for a 45k service and they said all the pads and rotors needed replacing. I ordered the parts from Olathe Toyota for about 25% less and they wanted about $400 for labor. The front pads were down to about 3 or 4 mm ok but the rotors outside of being rusty as hell were fine and didn’t look warped and didn’t drive bad. So a resurface and pads change would have been fine or just pads. The rears are fine with about 5-6 mm of pads and the rotors are good. I should have checked before I ordered the parts. Guess I’ll have them handy when I do the rears next summer/fall.

quote:

The last two vehicles I bought was through United Buying Service.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Washington and Baltimore area.

My '17 Civic Si tells you what do service and when. So I just do what it says, exactly, and tell the dealer to only do what the car says. I always refuse the overpriced cabin air filter and buy the part and do it myself. 5 minute job but they will imply it takes a half hour or some silly time.

I like this a lot better than in the past when dealers would always recommend more frequent intervals (usually the "severe duty" schedule in the service schedule or a conglomeration of the most frequent intervals across all car models they sell), replacement of things like differential gear oil every time the schedule said to "inspect", and "packages" of stuff at 15K/30K/45K/60K/etc with unnecessary items not in the schedule, and things missing that ARE in the schedule. I always pulled out the schedule and showed them to do what it says and made reasonable decisions for things that took some judgment.

Usually I let it slip that I've worked in the auto and powertrain manufacturing business most of my career and and I know a few things about how engines work, how they are built, and how they are serviced. Usually after a few attempts to upsell me on things they get the idea that I'm not someone who's going to play their games and they stop trying. The whole "flush" thing seems to have died down. One writer said I needed to do that for something (might have been brake fluid which the car maintenance minder did say was time to replace) but after that time they haven't said anything about flushes.

And when the "finance manager" tries to sell me extended warranties I often say, "thanks for telling me how unreliable this car is, I expect a car to be trouble free for 100K miles except for normal service so if this car might need this much work between 36K and 60K I don't want to buy it and will get something reliable." They hate that.