In For My Second Free Service

I asked my dealer last time in and he said that they put in 4.0 quarts, works for me.

 

Yep! Slowwwwwwww! and Easyyyyyyyyyyy!

 

When I took mine in at exactly 12 months old but only 8,000 miles ... Oh No oil
Change sir , it done at 10,000 miles , I said hmm , showed him the book , I said
What am I missing .... Oil change 10,000 miles OR 12 MONTHS ,,,,
Not only did I get the free oil change , got a big thank you for coming , and if TOYOTA
Contacts me , give the dealership a good comment ..... And wasn't overfilled

 

The point IS that it would have been visible IF you looked closely.......and the guy wasn't trying to scam you. What he was pointing out is EXACTLY what happens to many/most modern tires that are not rotated often enough. It tends to be worse on FWD vehicles.

You can choose to ignore the advice if you wish but it likely will catch up to you some day.
In addition to extra wear, it can adversely affect traction......and sometimes road noise too.

That same guy likely wouldn't tell you now if you had a bulge the size of a basketball on one of your tires. Sometimes what the dealer service people tell you actually is the TRUTH.

In this case it probably was a half truth. The condition he was showing you is not caused by being out of alignment (probably) and thus wouldn't be fixed with an alignment either. That symptom usually is uneven wear across the tread rows; typically the outside edge of the front tires wears faster. A big difference indicates bad alignment.

 

When talking about car dealerships, "free service" is an oxymoron.

 

Maybe not.......if you get what you paid for.

 

Let me tell you a story about my former Toyota dealer that I bought 4 new cars from. After I bought my new 2011 Prius from that dealer and about 3 months after they changed my oil I put it on my portable ramps to look under it to see if I wanted to change the oil myself in the future. I discovered the plastic cover that covers the oil pan area was missing. I took it back the dealer and told them they were the only one that had changed my oil and they had to have left the cover off at the last oil change. They would do nothing about it. The service advisor told me "I don't know if your car is equipped with a cover". I wrote a letter to the President of Toyota. I was told to take the car to the dealer of my choice, have the cover replaced, send them a receipt and Toyota would reimburse me". The part alone was $262.00. Toyota reimbursed me for the part plus labor. Needless to say, I dropped that lousy dealer and found another dealer.

 

I certainly did. After I wrote Toyota and turned them in to the Better Business Bureau they wanted to replace the cover. Not a chance. I had it replaced at another dealer. I will buy my next new car at another dealer as well, someone who hopefully will appreciate my business.

 

Well done !!

 

make sure to leave them bad reviews on various websites including google maps/places

 

That mirrors my experience with my "first" Prius Oil change. I actually bought a new siphon. But as I was siphoning out at least 3/4th a quart, and accidentally knocked over the bottle I was siphoning into..I thought to myself "Why am I doing this? Why am I taking my time, my effort, which becomes my mess to clean up, because a Toyota Dealership isn't capable of filling a Prius with the right amount of oil?".

It's not just this experience, or this thread. IMO far too many of them. Almost seems like it is more likely the dealership will overfill than it is likely they will get a proper amount in.

I've had it. I think everyone that experiences a over fill should "politely" complain to Toyota. If they get enough complaints maybe they will send out bulletins to their dealerships in an effort to educate their service departments, and/or maybe future Prius incarnations will have a greater oil fill capacity that makes it uniform with other Toyota products.

But we as owners, shouldn't have to siphon, and we should be able to have the expectation that a Toyota Dealership CAN do an oil change properly. We shouldn't get songs and dances about how over fills are OK...or good enough. It's all bs.

 

I've opened the hood of my PiP a couple times to show others what's under the hood. I take too much for granted. Due for 20K service in a few days. I'll be sure to check the oil.

 

I had the same experience at the 15k service at Westchester (NY) Toyota, and I fell for the alignment gambit to the tune of over $120. Stealer guy said it was "recommended". Realized later there was NO rec from Toyota, only from the stealer.

 

I did quite a lot of online research before I selected a dealer. I read a lot of reviews, and got a good feel for how each dealership treats their customers. None of them are perfect of course, but once you filter out the bad apples, who will trash a dealer for no good reason, you get a much better idea of what they're like than by reading their own advertising and solicited, selected testimonials.

I think it comes down to sustainable business practices. That means having the discipline to avoid profit-taking where it might be better used to build customer loyalty. The old saying goes: "one happy customer will get you two more, but one unhappy customer will lose you ten."

I believe the same philosophy (sustainability) is the reason Toyota has risen above most other car companies over the years. Where other companies have given in to the temptation of cutting costs for the purpose of boosting quarterly profits, Toyota has continued to work on quality. The end result is one of the most profitable car companies on the planet.