generator12
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2010
- Messages
- 666
The lady took her-three-year old 4-cylinder Camry to the largest Toyota dealer in Wisconsin for its 36000 mile checkup. They quoted her some $550 in services for this. She balked and told me about it.
I looked at the list they had given her and saw items that were clearly excessive. I went to them with the list and asked why some of the listed items were on it and not on Toyota's recommended services for 36K. "This is what we recommend to keep your Toyota running properly". I asked about the item "Replace spark plugs with extended mileage units", realizing that they're all coming with 100,000 mile plugs. He said, "If they're not the correct ones, we'll install the correct ones". I said, "How much will you deduct if they ARE the correct ones?". "Nothing" was, of course, his answer. I said the $550 was too much for a scheduled maintenance service - replacement of fluids, a few minor adjustments, and - of course - all the "inspections" which were intended to create an even longer list of work that the vehicle "needed". "Hey", he said, " We're not so bad. The others around here are even higher".
"Just do the factory recommended services" I told him. It came to just over $300. (Itself, somewhat excessive, in my opinion.)
Where does a person go with this? The media won't touch it because these guys do a lot of advertising - the whole industry does...!
Disgusting.
I looked at the list they had given her and saw items that were clearly excessive. I went to them with the list and asked why some of the listed items were on it and not on Toyota's recommended services for 36K. "This is what we recommend to keep your Toyota running properly". I asked about the item "Replace spark plugs with extended mileage units", realizing that they're all coming with 100,000 mile plugs. He said, "If they're not the correct ones, we'll install the correct ones". I said, "How much will you deduct if they ARE the correct ones?". "Nothing" was, of course, his answer. I said the $550 was too much for a scheduled maintenance service - replacement of fluids, a few minor adjustments, and - of course - all the "inspections" which were intended to create an even longer list of work that the vehicle "needed". "Hey", he said, " We're not so bad. The others around here are even higher".
"Just do the factory recommended services" I told him. It came to just over $300. (Itself, somewhat excessive, in my opinion.)
Where does a person go with this? The media won't touch it because these guys do a lot of advertising - the whole industry does...!
Disgusting.
