Be wary of service departments...

Not that this is any new news, but I thought I'd talk about my experience.

I bought a 2005 prius a few months back with keyless entry. After purchasing it, I noticed that the keyless entry system didn't work, nor did any controls on the fob (only a red light would flash for 1/2 a second when any button was pressed). I explained the problem to my dealership (Framingham Auto Mall) from who I bought it from and they told me to bring it to a local Toyota Dealership (I live 65mi from Framingham) where they would do the diagnostics and fix the problem on their dime (30 day warranty).

I went to Lia in Wilberham and they couldn't figure out what was wrong, I had to bring it to them 3 times. On the third time, they told me the transponder computer and keyless system inside the car was fried and that it would need to be replaced. They told me that the fob was okay and they tested the battery and it worked fine. They tried programming another fob and couldn't leading them to believe that the system inside the car was toast.

They then told me that I had to wait 3 weeks for some "specialist" to come in and diagnose the "difficult cases" they needed help on. I said screw that and went to a much larger dealership (Balise Toyota in Westspringfield). They worked on the car for about a day and called me saying that I needed a new transponder computer, a new keyless entry system, as well as a new fob. This would all cost after labor $1800. My dealership which whom I orginally purchased from politely declined the go ahead on this because it was way too much money. I was pissed because I know that my dealership would have had to take much longer to fix this problem, let a lone screw me over because everything they had done up to this point wasn't too professional.

Anyways, to make things short, I dropped off my car to my dealership for a 4 days and let them fix it. I picked up the car today and the system works flawlessly! I am so glad it got fixed.

The culprit?

All they did was purchase a new fob and programmed it to work with my SKS. Thats it. No stupid computer replacements etc. It only cost them $350 in all as opposed to $1800.

Be careful what the dealership tells you about whats wrong with your prius. In this case, I feel like they just plugged in some computer and read what it said and went ahead and said "ok, the computer says we need to fix this, this, and this." Maybe because both dealerships knew that I wouldn't be paying for it and had no problem with what it cost since my dealer was comping it, therefore they came up with these ridiculous claims. I don't know but it makes me mad.