Bout my '10 Prius in Spring of '12 w/ roughly 28k on it. Fast forward to present day and it's now sitting at 59k. Knowing my schedule, I take it in for the intermediate service and for them to take another look at my rear right wheel well. My interaction begins with a different service lead which is my first mistake. I mention the milage, she recommends the Major Service because I havent had my air filters changed, throttle body or AC serviced. I counter with my coupon for the intermediate service and mention the noise. I leave and get a phone call 3 hours later - they found the source of the noise in the wheel well. Bad bearings. Cost? $800+ which includes part, labor and the alignment they recommend. I asked if it is covered under warranty to which he replies "Only if you purchased the extended warranty". Puzzled, I hang up and glance at my warranty documents. In black and white on the 7 year/100k limited powertrain warranty it reads "Axle and Bearings". I call back and speak with the service lead who called. Mention what I found and he replies "Yea, thats the warranty I was referring to". Of course it was. Get a call back later and all I have to pay is a $50 deductible. That wasn't the end of the upsale barrage: You need your brake fluid changed because its going dark and then repeated the whole filter/throttle body/ AC service pitch. Ladies and Gents, never been pitched this much nonsense at this location and have came here for all my service. I think this warrants a talk with the service manager. If any of you can provide insight on the services they recommended, it would be much appreciated. So today I've gotten: •Replace engine oil & filter •Rotate tires •Clean cabin air filter •Inspect brakes •Inspect ball joints & dust covers •Inspect steering linkages •Inspect drive shaft boots •Inspect exhaust pipes and mountings •Inspect engine coolant •Inspect radiator & condenser Rear Right wheel bearing replaced Final price out forth coming but estimated at $160
first, look at the maintenance schedule in your o/m. secondly, what have you done between 28k and 59k? thirdly, you should inspect/replace the cabin filter every 15k and the air filter every 30k. D) i would change the tranny fluid. (not recommended by toyota, but a priuschat must) 5) synthetic oil change ~$60. inspections, wouldn't pay them anything unless i witnessed them. the brakes should get a thorough inspection and maybe lube the slide pins when the wheels are being rotated. F) plus the $50. deductible, $160. sounds reasonable.
I agree. If they really feel strongly about it, they'll prove to you that the work needs to be done. My mechanic always suggests things based on mileage or time and then we discuss them. About half the time I get the work done and half I don't. Some I agree to have done are just preventative because we take long road trips. Unless it's a safety issue, you can always just say No. Technically, we probably don't even have to change oil at 10,000 miles, but it's probably the smart thing to do. It's kind of funny though. We don't object to doing that, but we object to almost everything else a dealer recommends. And many of us who take our vehicles to an independent mechanic probably get the very same work done without question, we just don't trust dealers even though they're arguably the best trained to work on our vehicles. It probably starts at the very beginning because no matter how good of a deal we got buying our vehicles, we all overpaid and we know it.
I didn't say I trust my dealer yet either. They did just fine on my 10,000 visit, at least with everything I was able to double-check. Didn't say you didn't, just that you still over-paid and they made a bunch of money. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my purchase, just don't kid myself that I put one over on them with the deal. I got a much better deal, percentage-wise, on my 1970 GTO because they didn't hold back as much for dealer kickbacks then. Numbers are for illustration only, but let's say KB was 10% and markup was 17% in 1970. Now it's closer to 14% and 13% respectively. That means that even if you pay dealer cost, the dealer still makes 4% more than he did back in 1970. At least that's the way I look at today's Below Dealer Cost sales I see on various vehicles.
I heard it only costs Toyota $5000 to make our cars (The Prius) and they sell it for as much as the 5s which is $30k
I think it is time to petition Danny for: A sub-forum for people to whine about dealerships Ability to ignore sub-forums
As my thread says, I had a much better experience at 60,000. For better or worse, I don' t have the extended warranty.