Potentially Reckless, unethical, incomplete, false and self-serving advice from my Toyota Dealership

Engine components never get frozen in time and remain new as decades of use pile on. Are the new Toyota redesigned piston rings and pistons absolute great improvement to reduce the issues ( such as excessive carbon build-up ) that their faulty design caused? Absolutely yes.

My own selection criteria for used cars has never led me to an engine replacement either.
Much appreciated, thank you!

I'm not angry at anyone. Never said that I was. Right? You've left out vital information that played a role in this situation such as the heartache/stress of watching your mom facing impending death, which led me to trust a Toyota Service Advisor who lied to me and told me that Toyota ( Corporate) had approved ways to de-carbon an engine and created a "De-carbon Service" which after contacting Toyota Corporate, they said that's not true. They haven't passed anything like that on to their dealerships. About $400 of blasting spray cleaner crap here and there and putting some fuel cleaner in the gas tank. They could have caused more harm than good; it's possible and not approved by Toyota. A lot of this post has to due with Trust. And we should be able to trust our Toyota dealerships shouldn't we ? .. no matter if your young, elderly or your mom is dying. Right? You opined a 90% certainty that my car had a blown head gasket when I purchased it. How do you know? Have 90% of Gen3 owners here reported head gasket failures at 220k miles? If so, you might really be right. Is that what 90% of Gen3 owners are saying? Show me. As far as the cost of the installation goes, I never approved the dealership to begin work as we were still discussing charges and the cost of installation in text so the charges for that have been reversed. You some how left out the part where I reported that the Toyota Service Advisor told me to keep driving the car with the CEL light on. I have that documented in text. That's terrible advice which can keep evolving into a worse scenario for the vehicle. That won't go well for the dealer. I'll most likely contest the $400 "de-carbon service" which isn't authorized or approved of by Toyota. Yes, my mom died and I've grieved but now I have strength and time to stand up to this bs. Again, I'm not mad at anyone as you insulated but I will make things right.

 

Yes, vehicle will break, absolutely..although my 21 year old Toyota Spyder has never needed anything mechanical and runs like the day I bought it, maybe a little better. My 2010 FJ Cruiser made by Hino is like a tank and rock solid. No mechanical issues whatsoever. It's too bad that the Prius quality isn't like these vehicles.
Most of my post is about getting betrayed, lied to and taken advantage of by a Toyota dealership. Should they be held to a higher standard than our local shade tree mechanic?

Don't all third Generation Prius vehicles have the exact same EGR cooler and valve?

Yeah, didn't the engine basically have to fail severely to receive any relief from the warranty? My vote would be to issue a recall.. excuse me, I mean 'Parts Campaign' lol

 

ASSUME. No, I didn't. What makes you think that I did ??

Thank you very much for your sage advice in this matter. You may be happy to know that Bank of America held the dealership accountable and demanded to see any documentation where I agreed upon installing my new engine as we ( the dealership and myself ) were still engaged in dialog about their advice and accountability not to mention the cost for installing the new engine was still being negotiated and the dealership had absolutely zero documents showing that I authorized them to begin work on the car. If the Service Manager wasn't so arrogant, rude and unprofessional, I would have paid them something as I'm not an unreasonable person; however, his poor and hostile treatment had me saying... you can eat the cost. And they did.

I couldn't agree with you more. We were treated much better back in the day. We got professionalism and we expected professionalism. Now it's completely different as you've accurately detailed. I'd guess that we're both approximately the same age. I'm 59. I bought my first new Toyota right out of high-school. The newly redesigned 1984 pickup. 2WD ( I didn't have a lot of cash at the time. Lol ). In 1985 my older brother bought the first Gen MR-2 AW11. After driving his car, I was on a mission. I loved that car and found a great deal on a Red 1985 nicely equipped AW11 with only 8K miles and jumped on it. I kept that car in amazing condition. In 1992 I had decided that I was going to quit using it as a DD during the summer and put it into storage.. a couple of months later, a pickup truck not paying attention hits the AW11. I was bummed and to this day regret not getting that car fixed or finding another well cared for 1985 AW11. In 2003 I purchased a silver MK3 MR-2 ZZW30 and still have it in almost showroom condition. I, not unlike yourself watch closely how my prized vehicles are treated and when possible I'll watch while service is being preformed on the vehicle. I saw dealerships doing some stupid things. Your story about spotting your vehicle outside the dealership sounds very much like something I would absolutely do. What year and color is your AW11 and how long have you owned it?

 

The dealership had absolutely zero, nothing to show that I approved of any work involving removal of my old engine and installation of my new engine as we were still in discussions about their liability in this situation and we were still in negotiations as to what the cost would to do the work would be. I had all the texts from the Service Advisor to prove what I was claiming was 100% the truth and the dealership had nothing authorizing them to touch the car. Pretty simple. My credit card company told them to pound sand. If the Service Manager wasn't a raging arse, I would have paid them a fair price but after he mistreated me... nope. Not happening. Grow up and learn how to treat the ones that put food on your table professionally. But they don't think of their customers like this anymore.

1000% agree that Advisors aren't mechanics and I don't believe that I said that I thought they are. A properly factory trained Service Advisor ( that's why I used all caps previously) will have the intelligence to pull up TSB'S and factory enhanced warranty enhancements and the like which all point to problem areas of specific vehicles. Additionally they won't tell their customers to keep driving a vehicle after it throws a CEL and it reveals cylinder misfires. Amazingly enough, he suspected head gasket failure! And told me to keep driving so coolant wouldn't pool in the cylinders. I had my mom to worry about at the time and I really regret taking his ignorant advice. If Toyota Dealerships present these people as 'Service Advisors' to fool or confuse their customers which you seem to be saying they they are really inadequate or unqualified to Advise, then that's Fraud.. plain and simple. No other way to say it more accurately.

You seem to have missed the most important parts which were stated and those are 1) Reckless, dangerous, and predatory advice by a Trained Service Advisor and 2) The most important part doesn't have to do with the car but it is a factor and that is my mom was dying and I was the only family member caring for her daily. In situations like this you want to be able to trust your Toyota Dealership and that's where they took advantage of me because I had also shared this information about my mom while talking with the Service Advisor. They should be ashamed of themselves. I'm not upset at myself at all, why would I be? $4,500 for the one owner car with a clean Carfax, immaculate inside and out, one of the better colors ( IMO) Silver with a sunroof that I use daily. $1,889 for all the fluids, new spark plugs, etc. $3,600 for the Hybrid PitStop Gold Standard engine that is 100% refurbished, electrosonically cleaned, GEN4 PISTONS AND PISTON RINGS, Not the defective/faulty GEN3 ones, new EGR , Redesigned GEN4 INTAKE which isn't prone to clogging like the GEN3 design, new water pump, all new valves, etc., so on and so forth. I'm getting 51 MPG and it runs like new. Total cost right at $9,989. I didn't pay a penny to their Service Manager for the engine remove/install who was completely a jerk, very rude, completely unprofessional and frankly had a lot of issues to work through with a therapist. So the $3K plus engine removal and new engine replacement and new fluids associated were free of charge to me because the dealership acted without my approval to remove and replace the engine as we were still in negotiations about their accountability, liability and cost. $9,989 for an immaculate GEN3 with a brand new, completely refurbished engine that doesn't have issues and defective and poorly designed parts and components of the everyday GEN3. One owner, always garage kept and a sunroof to boot. Hybrid Pit is pretty awesome, I'm thinking that I should be able to get 300K miles out of this professionally rebuilt engine. $9,989, I'm pretty happy, no thanks to the stealership. But they got what they deserved, didn't they? Sometimes things just work out as they should.