Rightly or wrongly any work I have done on my car (Toyota) I take it to the main dealer, I know it costs more but it gives me a warm feeling that everything is done right by fully trained Toyota technicians, it is now ten years old and has a full main dealer service history and winter or summer it has never let me down (fingers crossed).
June 2020 it had a full service, MOT and I was advised that the brakes were fine but next year (2021) they would more than likely need replacing.
July 2021 again it was service time (intermediate) and I budgeted for the service, MOT and new brakes but was pleasantly surprised to find my car dident need new brakes, result and saved me a few quid.
But for the last month or so it niggled at me, how come last year they thought I would need new brakes but 10K miles later I don't ?
I got my paper work out and checked the brake data:
- 2020, Front pads 8mm, rear pads 4mm
- 2021, Front pads 9mm, rear pads 7mm
Something not right here or is it me ?
I got in touch with the main dealer last week, told them the "problem" and they reacted very quick, got me booked in and loaned me a car for the day while they did the checks.
The new figures as of today are:
- Today: Front pads 6mm, rear pads 4mm
Pretty disappointing to be honest so basically can you believe anything they say or is it just one of those things ?
In there defense the 2020 service was a main/full service and during that the wheels come of whereas this year was the intermediate service and the wheels don't come off so the sizing is more of just a look and estimate for the size, I think the technician needs to go to Specsavers :)
Doesn’t surprise me, I had a ‘free health check’ on a VW at a service and was told the console bushes were cracked and needed replacement, I had my Independant check them and they said they were fine, at the next service ( part of a plan ) at a different VW dealer no mention of the console bushes at all.
Cheers..
Jase
I guess that warm feeling isn't so warm after all.
I put some new pads in my Neighbour’s Volvo, a week later he had it MOTd at the main dealer, it passed but they said he needed new brake pads, and gave him a price, he hasn’t been there since.
Similar experience at a main dealer. Had my car serviced by them including new brake pads. It had developed a misfire when I got it back so in it went again. They fixed the misfire (poorly refitted plastic air pipe) but told me it needed new brake pads.
Numbers on a keyboard, could be a typo by the apprentice....no harm done, go back to your fuzzy warm feeling.
The apprentice who's being charged out at main dealer rates?Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers
Is the fuzzy warm feeling piss, being taken..? :)
I'd ask for their comments on it to see how that pans out.
I lost faith when the VW main dealer rang me up to book my golf TDI in for service and quoted me to replace the spark plugs.
In the same vein, the main dealers advised that my sisters Aygo needed an aircon service when it didn’t have aircon.
Once they came to collect the car from my parent’s off licence. Being an oriental name, the driver obviously thought he was collecting from the chip shop next door which wasn’t open so he sat there for hours.
I would have been tempted to authorise that and see if it was on the bill
Cheers..
Jase
That is the point where you went wrong.
I have had such bad service from 3 separate Toyota dealerships with my Hilux over the past 5 years that I could not wait for the warranty to be over so I could take it to my decent, reliable, trustworthy independent garage.
Our car has a warning for low brake pad thickness; we drove another 6,000 miles before they actually needed replacing.
It cost £165 at my local garage for rear pads.
I had something similar a few years ago when I had a Honda. There’s a big difference between percentage used and left! 3 years running I was told front pads need changing, queried it in the 3rd year and was eventually refunded one lot of charges.
Never seen a tech measure pad thickness at service time, they guess after a quick look and quote either in mm or %, of course the service desk want to upsell jobs so once it’s less than half they’re on the (bonus) sale, I heard people query 50% worn “it took 3 years to get to that so why should the other 50% wear out in the next 12 months.” At times I had to leave my desk so I didn’t laugh at the p*sh coming from the service desk, I didn’t get paid bonus on non trade sales so I didn’t care.
Been using these for years and very common practise to measure pads at service. Beauty of these is that in a lot of cases where there’s a no wheels removed service these can still be slipped in.
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I have had a Porsche dealer telling me that my 911 needed new tyres all around. I asked the Service Manager - who I was on first name terms with - to come out to the car and show me. After we'd looked at the tyres, which I had replaced less than 2 weeks before, he mumbled something about the technician having obviously got two cars mixed up...
I do have all my cars main dealer serviced. By and large, they do a decent job. Once you get to know them, and they realise that you know a little bit about cars, you're much less likely to get any attempts at unnecessary scaremongering or upselling.
Or I could of been driving around in a car that needed new brakes but the technician/mechanic dident/couldn't do his job or was just too idle to check properly ?
One of the managers I worked with years ago would always blame the apprentice rather than admit to his own short comings :)
This has been an interesting debates topic for a while. I have found independent dealers far supieror in their care for a vehicle and cheaper too. Unfortunately main dealer service history is a big deal for the resale value of the vehicle which is a pain. I get my vehicle serviced at a main dealer for the `stamp` and go to an independent specialist for all work.
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I took my Ford Mondeo in for a recall and of course got the usual we'll give it a free full health check crap.
Indeed I was told it needed the air con serviced ( re-gassed) and my brake fluid needed changed (it didn't ) all for £155.00. So I called a friend I have who actually works in the same dealership and was told they are told to say it to every customer. This is precisely why I distrust dealerships.
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