A month or so ago the 4Runner went in for routine maintenance at 27K. Afterward, the service advisor mentioned that the inboard driveshaft boot was damaged and leaking grease. I wanted to clarify this so we talked to the mechanic. He said the boot was leaking but not torn or cracked, and he seemed kind of pissed, which I found odd.

A couple of weeks ago there was a large drop of grease on the driveway. I looked underneath and there was a good amount of grease on the driver's side and a little on the passenger side boot. I got online and learned that this has been a problem with 2019 and 2020 4Runners with low mileage. It also said that it should be covered by the 5year/60K drivetrain warranty if the boot wasn't damaged.

I explained the situation to the local Toyota Dealer and they confirmed that it would be covered by the warranty if the boot was intact. I took it in and after about an hour they gave me an estimate for about $1000 to repair both sides. They also informed me that it would not be under warranty as the warranty's "fine print" only considered the RWD components to be the drive train.

Getting annoyed at this point I requested to speak to the Service Manager. To my credit I did not raise my voice or utter any expletives. I asked him how the front wheel drive components were not considered drive train as it is a 4WD vehicle- it's right in the name. I also told him that the primary reason it was purchased was because of its history of reliability. He did not understand nor try to defend the fine print to the contrary. I went on to explain that we had been customers for over 30yrs, bought 2 new vehicles from them 4 years ago, and had come to expect better treatment. He assured me that they would advocate for us as best they could and that their warranty specialist was investigating.

I got in the truck to drive home and before I could start the engine the service adviser ran (literally) over to give me the happy news that the warranty specialist had in fact determined that repairs would be under warranty.

It looks like it will work out to my satisfaction, but was just a weird experience overall.

Sounds like a piece of shit dealership.
I'm a legacy Toyota customer at this point, having purchased a '94 Corolla from my mother in '01 and servicing it with Toyota for several years, followed by an '04 Tacoma and now a '17 4Runner, I get what I consider to be straight forward service from my local Toyota. The service manager was an advisor way back in the day and we have a rapport, so I don't get much fuckery from them.

Yeah, it sounds like they were trying to see if you would bite. I find it hard to believe that the warranty specialist could figure it out that quickly after initially saying you had to pay. Something shady there. But I’m glad you got it covered.

My assumption is that he figured you were taking your business elsewhere (another stealership) who would undoubtedly agree that it was covered under warranty, thereby losing you permanently as a customer. In short, he was bluffing with a pair of 2’s and folded.

Might they possibly collect the warranty and charge the customer? Or are they just trying to get a better rate on the repair if the customer pays vs the manufacturer? I mean, either way they get paid, so what's the incentive to try to deny and obvious warranty item?

Toyota can be a conundrum. I had a beautiful two tone RAV4 Adventure. Nice vehicle. Loved it. It was brand new. Ridiculous low mileage. Still well under the warranty. The electric tailgate wouldn’t work on a regular basis. Every 3 days it would just stop. You would have to try every switch on the vehicle to get it to open all the way.

They, Toyota, acted like it was completely normal. Came up with every excuse. They said they couldn’t duplicate it. So I left it with them. Then they said the battery voltage was too low for the tailgate to work properly. They never would tell me the correct range although the battery readings seemed perfectly normal for a one year old battery.

Only thing that worked was I got the manager and service managers phone numbers. Every day for 2 weeks I videotaped my attempts to get it open. They finally relented and started replacing one part at a time. I had had enough. I sold the vehicle and went back to Subaru. Not sure if I would ever buy a Toyota ever again. Great cars but that experience left me angry.

I think warranty work doesn’t have as high of billed labor hours so they don’t want to do warranty work. But once they saw you have spent some money not just in vehicles but in service, they realize they done fucked up.

Service is the big money maker in a dealership, not sales.

The Toyota dealer in my town (who also owns the Kia and Nissan lots) is a coke snorting jackass of the lowest order. Their service department has been caught in so many fraudulent situations I can’t believe Toyota hasn’t booted them. Those assholes tried to charge me $100 for the diagnostic check on a recall issue.

https://support.toyota.com/s/a...-7683?language=en_US

Says front and rear drive systems there.

If Toyota has a dealership in Texas that treats prospective buyers decently, you couldn’t prove it by me, based on multiple attempts to buy a vehicle from them, at less than MSRP+, over a span of probably 40 years. The arrogant bastards seem to have the idea their shit smells like ice cream.
Little sister had her 2022 Tacoma’s 30K mile service done yesterday and the cocksuckers lied to her about around $500 of things they implied were needed to keep the warranty in effect.
I hate motherfuckers that take advantage of a woman.

It’s only going to get worse IMO, not just Toyota but all makes.

I’ve been saying this for years now, the dealer groups that are springing up and accelerated in the last 10-12 years are a detriment to the consumer and dealership employees and a boon to the automaker and the dealer group owners.

The days of the mom and pop stores in a geographic area are done. When I started working in dealerships circa 1970 GM was at the point of discouraging multiple line (Chevrolet-Oldsmobile and similar ilk) and in the case of different automakers (GM-Ford) requiring separate showrooms, lot areas, service facilities, etc) not so much today.

Used to be that we had separate service, parts and sales factory reps. Not today, those jobs are combined, pay one person to do three jobs and all three in most cases will be half assed done. Our reps back in the day had a excellent (in most cases) knowledge of their job and knew who to call and who’s string to pull to get something done. Not in today’s dealer world.

Dealers got used to “if I can make X with one store how much more can I make with three or Tex or a hundred X’s?” Greed.

Auto manufacturers used to hold the “pull your franchise” card when dealers were dishonest, incompetent or underperforming. Haven’t heard much of that happening anymore, they just get sold to another group.

Once a dealer group (if this is the case?) dominates an area you’re pretty much stuck into dealing with them, the days of driving twenty or thirty miles to another store are dealer group owned.


The wave of the future.

Yep. I bet the dealership groups are huge lobbyists against manufacturers selling directly to consumer. We have Auto Nation and Napleton which are pretty large. I know Napleton is in Central Florida and Chicagoland.

Dealing with a car dealer is such a dreadful task. That's why so many people are willing to pay more at places like Car Max.

When I bought a truck 4yrs ago I found out that the dealership owned 3 other chevy dealerships, all with different names.

They didn’t want to do the work under warranty because they don’t make any money off you for it.

I’ve had to fight to get warranty work too, my Mazda5 had a fuel tank issue early on and I took it in to have it fixed under the warranty and the dealership tried to weasel out of it too saying that it would cost me like $2500 out of my pocket. I had to show them where it literally was spelled out in the warranty where it was in fact a covered repair and they grudgingly complied. That was the last time I ever went back to that place.

They aren’t called “Stealerships” for nothing.

That’s some BS when under warranty. After warranty runs out I would never take to a dealer.

Blowing them up on social media may help. Especially if you tag the maker.

Tagging the corporate entity in any social media complaint will get the HQ social media person alerted. In my experience the last thing your local shop (auto, hotel, name your product) wants is the corporate microscope up their rear.

In our local area we have one major "stealership" with at least 12 different "brands" owned and operated under one name.... Also other dealerships not under the "group owned"... some dealerships under the group name are completely seperate locations and some are two or more brands on the same property with their own showrooms and service areas.......... the days of the "mom and pop" service has disappeared never to return. .................. drill sgt.

I stay away from dealer "scheduled services". Most often they are just a way of making money where they push things that are not required and they know most people do not understand that. Things like timing belt replacements are an exception.

I do my own oil changes and keep my records, I do not need them to change my cabin filter, air filter, rotate my tires or anything else that is not free. If I have a repair under warranty it goes to the dealer. If it is out of warranty it goes to a local shop.

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
That’s some BS when under warranty. After warranty runs out I would never take to a dealer.

Blowing them up on social media may help. Especially if you tag the maker.

Tagging the corporate entity in any social media complaint will get the HQ social media person
alerted. In my experience the last thing your local shop (auto, hotel, name your product) wants is the corporate microscope up their rear.

As employees of a power sports dealership we knew when a bad online review was received. We were “encouraged” to ask all of our customers, friends and families to give the store positive reviews in response.

I wasn’t one to play those games so I didn’t go along with that. One of many reasons I left within a years after it became part of a dealer group.

Warranty Specialist?


really?

have had Toyota's for years, and a Honda or 2, and Coopers, none of the dealers has Warranty Specialist,

the regular service guys took car of it

They all have a "guy" that has to communicate with corporate and get the warranty approved through corporate. That's what the warranty specialist does.

Many common repairs the service advisor can do it. More rare or in depth repairs are likely to need some approval from the corporate.