Dealer Service Experiences

[Jomartijr]

I'd like to hear of you guys' and ladies experiences with Toyota dealer service depts.
I had an unsatisfactory first visit last week and left with the impression service personnel including service managers view the Supra as not something they want to deal with- that's it's a BMW essentially, over engineered and difficult to work on.
So question- are you guys encountering this?

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[Zupra1776]

I had a good service experience, but it's obvious they are hardly prepared to deal with these cars. I went in for an oil change that I scheduled several days in advance. When I got there they said "Oh OK, its a supra, hold on let me call the tech in the back to make sure the one lift we have that can actually fit under the FRS and Supra doesn't have a half torn apart car on it already." "Sometimes it does and we have to reschedule or figure something else out."

Me: Surprised Pikachu face....

Long story short, they didn't have a car on the lift, all was well, they were very nice, but if they'd had a car on that lift and tried to reschedule me I would've lost it after scheduling that appointment nearly a week in advance and driving about 35 minutes to get there.

It's hard to blame them though, the car is a bit of a bastard child compared to the cars they're used to dealing with. I ikely won't be visiting any Toyota dealerships for service anymore unless it's something warranty related, which I may tune and throw that out the window anyway. Also considering how easy it is to change your own oil on these, and I change every 3k, I don't see the point in paying them $200+ to work on a car I know they don't want to work on.

 

[Derog]

Went to three dealers before anyone acted like they wanted to service it (1st oil change). Even with the third dealer I had to leave it over night while they ordered an oil filter. None were prepared to even do an oil change.

 

[satx_phantom]

I’ve only been over to my dealer to see if they’d upgrade the head unit firmware (they were unable in the end…another story), but I’m comfortable taking my car into them for service. I look at the fact that there are 4 or 5 of their employees with these cars (working in sales, finance, and service), and a couple Supra qualified techs on staff now, that it’s probably worth sticking with them for now. I have almost 4500 miles, so when the prescribed 10000 mile service comes around we’ll really see what they are made of. FWIW they were happy to try doing the firmware update, free of charge, it’s just that Toyota Corporate was of no help in admitting one existed. I didn’t feel dismissed in any way, nor did I sense the service department uninterested in working on the car.

 

[puzzled]

I'd like to hear of you guys' and ladies experiences with Toyota dealer service depts.
I had an unsatisfactory first visit last week and left with the impression service personnel including service managers view the Supra as not something they want to deal with- that's it's a BMW essentially, over engineered and difficult to work on.
So question- are you guys encountering this?

I don't. I do my own maintenance.. and pay myself with chocolate chip cookies for work well done.

 

[Jomartijr]

I don't. I do my own maintenance.. and pay myself with chocolate chip cookies for work well done.
[/Q
I do my own oil, filter changes, tire pressure monitoring, wash/detailing. But otherwise this Supra is just too complex to much more.

 

[Loco38SUP]

Here is my experience with 3 dealership service departments in the Seattle area.

Dealership #1 = ???

Dealership #2 = ???

Dealership #3 = ???

That about sums it up.

-RJM

 

[Jomartijr]

If you know anyone else that has a GR Supra encourage them to add their experiences.

 

[Loco38SUP]

If you know anyone else that has a GR Supra encourage them to add their experiences.

Will do.

All the bad experiences I’ve had were with regular Toyota cars. So there is no way in hell I’m letting them touch my Supra. I’m doing all maintenance and small fixes myself.

If I need major warranty work I will take it to BMW first then go from there.

-RJM

 

[Jomartijr]

Major warranty work on a Toyota marketed auto wont be covered by a BMW dealer....will it? I cant imagine that would work.

 

[Jomartijr]

I've begun looking for a first rate independent operated shop and foot the bill myself. It's not right but one does what one must.
I have another appt with a Toyota dealer Mon am. I'll see how that goes.
Heres an off topic thought- a good technician who bought into solving this problem would put the car on a lift, set up a dial indicator, do a run out on the tire and wheel. Then check the balance, correct as necessary the front tires- instead of claiming he couldnt detect a problem while I sat right there and demonstrated the vibration. Maddening....

 

[Loco38SUP]

Major warranty work on a Toyota marketed auto wont be covered by a BMW dealer....will it? I cant imagine that would work.

If they could do the first diagnosis then pass along info. to Toyota that would save a lot of time. The whole “No problem found” BS doesn’t fly with me.

-RJM

 

[Jomartijr]

Nor did it fly with me. We had a faceoff in the service managers office who said if there wasnt a problem they had nothing to work with. Added informally after the issue discussion he had worked service at Aydi- Mercedes- BMw and woudnt have one- they were over engineered and too difficult to work on....this from the SERVICE MGR.

 

[NitroYellowMKV]

My local dealer Toyota of North Miami is great, the tech does only supra's really and is super smart and friendly, along with the advisors, they treat the car perfectly and always hook me up, brought it in for a CEL couple weeks ago and it was actually from something the shop that installed my exhaust did, and he still warranty'd and hooked me up, it was small, but still have had a great experience at my local dealer.

 

[Jomartijr]

That's encouraging and thanks for sharing.

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