Plus the problem the OP is having is with an American-run dealership. :dubious:
Hilarious. I stopped buying American over similar antics. I bought a Chevy at one dealership for the great deal and had near-identical issues like the OP getting it serviced at the Chevy dealer closest to me for factory warranty issues, complete with snide remarks about how I should have bought from them.
The kicker is two-fold. Dealerships make way more money on warranty repairs, parts and service than they do on car sales - none of them should give a damn where you bought your car. The other - if they did care about car sales, they’ve been given a golden opportunity to woo a customer away from another dealership by giving exemplary service to a competitor’s buyer.
Instead, as seen here, such antics sour people on the entire brand.
Toyota’s office was full of bs as well. For a brand like Smart or Fiat, yeah, they’re desperate to maintain their marginal dealer network and wouldn’t care if the service tech shot you. Toyota and Honda franchises jump when they crack the whip, as the brand office has a lot of power with them and if one dealer is souring the market, he’s easily replaced.
Did they actually check the code? They’d know if whatever caused the light to come on originally wasn’t loss of pressure from an unsealed gas cap. You probably didn’t turn it past three clicks. It happens to the best of us.
Does sound like shitty service, though.
He did. US-market Corollas are built in Missisippi.
First of all I’d like to say IGNORANCE FOUGHT! (IN THE PIT, NO LESS, the jungle itself and man is still thriving) I will be buying one of those devices to sync to my Android based phone. A lot of technology in cars has made at-home minor repairs impossible, but that is an amazing tool!
I know what you’re saying about the clicks, but here is why I’m 99.96 percent certain that wasn’t the cause: I noticed the light was on when I left my girlfriends house. I remarked to her that we leave the car alone 2 days and the Check Engine light goes on - how strange. She remembers saying to check the oil at the gas station. I knew I needed gas because I only had a quarter tank when arriving in girlfriend’s driveway (we were listening to Dresden Files). I fueled up, closed up the cap, and left. The light was still on, as I remember seeing in the morning, a painful reminder that coffee wasn’t for another 20 minutes. Therefore if it were improperly sealed to trigger the light in the first place, I would have been ultra careful to tighten it correctly. And the likelihood of me closing it incorrectly twice in a row after 20k miles of never seeing this light is far too low. Furthermore: I’m a dangler. That’s right, I dangle. Whenever I get gas I dangle the gas cap, it’s what the straps are for, and plus I’d know immediately if I forgot to screw it back on - it’d be dangling. Of course, try explaining this whole lot to a customer care rep and they will start parroting lines back. Anyway, I figure dangling the cap isn’t gonna hurt anything.
I have no idea what the actual code might have been for it. I know that after the “forgot the button” mistake I feared it might mess with the timing of the oil change.
And I remain suspicious to the fact that the only thing supposedly wrong with my car was a gas cap not on, and yet they took 25 minutes getting me my car back.
Curious: You claim to both have bought and leased. Which is it?
Not that it really matters, as far as I know.
Lease, I always mean lease. I make payments for something I use, my brain always thinks buy, unless I’m in accountant mode, in which case it’s so specifically lease it is irritating.
Dealership service manager here.
I don’t understand Their attitude either. I enforce a no bad mouthing rule with my service advisors. It is silly to bad mouth another repair shop, it justs drags you into the mud.
I’m perfectly happy to service your car.
However with that said if you bought the car with us I have more leeway. For example you bought a new car last week and today you hit a giant pot hole and destroyed a tire. Bought from my dealership? I’ll spring for a tire as an act of good will and charge it against the profit the new car dept made. Bought it somewhere else? Sorry sir but that is from an outside influence and not a matter for warranty. Would you like to purchase a new tire?
As far as a diagnostic fee goes, on a car under the base warranty we rarely ask for a fee. An exception would be if we know up front it is isn’t going to be warranty (large hole in oil pan from rock for example) we might. If we do quote a fee we waive it if the repairs are done with us. (Warranty or customer pay)
If the car is under an extended warranty (as they are quite often limited no make that very limited warranties) we charge an up front as we don’t know in advance if the failure is from a covered item. Again do the repair with us and the fee is waived.
Just a friendly suggestion here, pull your warranty out and read it. Either you are taking giant liberties with what it actually says or you don’t know what it says.
It is a regular occurrence where someone comes in and tells me to fix their car that it has a 100,000 mile warranty. The answer is usually:
I’m sorry sir the warranty on that part is:
(Pick one)
6 months
12 months/ 12,000 miles
36 months / 36,000 miles
60 months / 60,000 miles
(Or in the case of extended warranties)
That part is not covered. Period.
Automotive warranties are a bunch of limited warranties of various durations.
If you do go to the dealership and you aren’t sure about the code they pulled ask for a printout of the codes they found.
You don’t need to take it with you just look at the date and VIN to make sure it’s you car and note the code. A quick Google will fill in the rest.
As far as buying you own code reader goes they are not going to give you the level of information the dealer has. I have also seen them mis identify codes.
If the car is under warranty and the code looks like a warranty issue stop there and take it in. Warranty does not cover you worked on it first and fucked it up. (Once had a guy put a battery in backwards. Not a matter for warranty cost him $2500)
Facebook worked for me when I had trouble with a company. Posted on their wall, heard from them the next day.
[Quote=Really Not All That Bright]
He did. US-market Corollas are built in Missisippi.
[/QUOTE]
Nice try Really Not all That Bright but I’ve learned that somebody who says that phrase probably isn’t smart enough to understand you.
Reported.
nm.
Not if you’re in California. At least that’s what they told me at Autozone when I asked them to read the code from my minivan. I bought a $20 OBD on Amazon that worked with my smartphone. Worked fine.
I wanted to get the code checked out in part because I had been getting a weird vibe from our Honda dealership and wanted to know what the problem was BEFORE I took it in. I forget what the actual problem was but I Googled it and it was not unusual and caused by spiders living in some part of the engine. They diagnosed it properly at the dealer but insinuated that they had never heard of it before. Maybe they hadn’t, but I seriously doubt it.
Nobody offers it free in California. Something to do with emissions compliance that requires a certification to provide OBD2 scans.
I’ve heard that this was a issue in NY, not that they could not scan the car, but the result of the scan given to the customer was considered a professional diagnosis, which if the customer bought and installed the parts and the repair did not work the provider of the scan could be on the hook for the costs of the parts. It appears they have gotten around it by letting the customer use the scan tool themselves now.
It has to do with if you are making repair recommendations in California you need to be a licensed auto repair dealer (ARD)
It’s part of California’s consumer protection laws.
Moderator Note
This thread was revived by a spammer who has since been wished away to the cornfield.
But it’s a good thread! Nothing wrong with this thread, nosiree!
You’d be wasting your time. Toyota is too big to care about one disgruntled customer. It’s a thing with the automakers. Look at GM, they didn’t even care that people died due to a fault in their design. Why the hell do you believe a car manufacturer will care that you lost a hundred bucks?
Note, this thread was started almost two years ago.
Ah ha ha ha!
Started reading the thread - Oooh, I know I can help! I can write something about a laptop based scanner - oh someone already mentioned it - what the fuck that’s me?
>>looks at date<<
Grumble grumble