PSA Steer Clear of Michael's Toyota of Bellevue for Service

[tg_mkv]

Went in to have the dealer install a part I needed replacing under warranty and just to give the car a once over before I ship it off. They replaced the part and it turned out they ordered and replaced a completely different part than was asked for, so now I gotta go back next week to grab the new part and take it with me to AZ to have it installed there.

Then after being handed back my keys (which keep in mind were in a BMW leather glove the entire time), the side of the key with the red strip came off almost immediately. I had to try it a few times just to make sure I wasn't seeing shit before realizing someone had actually broken my key while the car was with them. Brought it up with my service advisor who pulled the whole shocked expression and decided to go straight on the defensive after talking to his manager and "watching the security feed". Basically dude tried to pitch how the key "never leaves the car when the tech is working on it", and when I asked what happens in between when the car is being moved and how the keys are stored he never gave a solid explanation and tried to explain how the key must've been broken before it came in for service (ha). In the end he gave me two options gluing my key or having the car completely rekeyed since "Toyota doesn't sell the shells separately", and it wouldn't be till over a week until they could get the part. Went to another service rep after and asked for the shell off the used Supra outside and he managed to grab a shell from somewhere and finally replaced the shell they damaged.

This whole process wasted 4.5 hours of my day I'll never get back and I'd advise anybody on here to keep their cars far away and find a good mechanic or DIY oil change it. If there was any way to put me off this brand for good, they definitely pulled it off after that experience.

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[Delta1Seven]

Dealerships are the worst!

The last time I went in for warranty work (to replace a part they damaged during another warranty claim), my curious mind had me reviewing my dash cam footage after I got the car back. They were revving my car during a cold start which really grinded my gears (no pun intended). Realistically, it probably didn't do any damage, but like why do this to someone else's car... I don't even do that to my own car.....

 

[WSUPRA]

I wouldn’t recommend going to Michael’s in Bellevue. They don’t deserve your business. When I was shopping for mine, they were my first trip as they had a red Launch Edition I was seriously considering getting. The car was listed as having 5,929 miles (in fact, it still is). It actually has around 6,500 miles when I went to test drive it which was the first red flag.

They were huge pricks when it came to negotiating. They absolutely refused to budge on price even when I pointed out there were much better deals on lower mileage LE’s in surrounding areas. I’m a younger guy so they likely were trying to take advantage of me by saying “how much of a steal” the price is, and all the work the dealer had added to it to justify the high asking price. They ended up admitting they were asking so much more because “we’re in the backyard of Amazon and Microsoft, somebody is going to pay this price for the car if you don’t”. Also, the LE they have in stock used to be the owner’s so I wouldn’t be surprised if he beat it to hell before putting it up for sale. The owner also called me directly a few days after my test drive trying to close me on the deal for $200 below asking ? /endrant lol

Anyway, I ended up flying to Iowa to get my Launch Edition for $49k OTD with ~3k miles and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Who knows, maybe they might budge on price now considering they’ve been trying to sell it since last September lmao.

This was my experience with them in 2021 haha

 

[Hillbilly]

@GoldenEye used to work for Toyota of Puyallup. I think he’d recommend them for service?

 

[Sereph102889]

Went in to have the dealer install a part I needed replacing under warranty and just to give the car a once over before I ship it off. They replaced the part and it turned out they ordered and replaced a completely different part than was asked for, so now I gotta go back next week to grab the new part and take it with me to AZ to have it installed there.

Then after being handed back my keys (which keep in mind were in a BMW leather glove the entire time), the side of the key with the red strip came off almost immediately. I had to try it a few times just to make sure I wasn't seeing shit before realizing someone had actually broken my key while the car was with them. Brought it up with my service advisor who pulled the whole shocked expression and decided to go straight on the defensive after talking to his manager and "watching the security feed". Basically dude tried to pitch how the key "never leaves the car when the tech is working on it", and when I asked what happens in between when the car is being moved and how the keys are stored he never gave a solid explanation and tried to explain how the key must've been broken before it came in for service (ha). In the end he gave me two options gluing my key or having the car completely rekeyed since "Toyota doesn't sell the shells separately", and it wouldn't be till over a week until they could get the part. Went to another service rep after and asked for the shell off the used Supra outside and he managed to grab a shell from somewhere and finally replaced the shell they damaged.

This whole process wasted 4.5 hours of my day I'll never get back and I'd advise anybody on here to keep their cars far away and find a good mechanic or DIY oil change it. If there was any way to put me off this brand for good, they definitely pulled it off after that experience.

I've also had a lot of horrible experiences with Toyota dealerships since purchasing my Supra.

1: Damage side skirt. Dealership tried to send me home saying the car was finished, as if I wouldn't notice. They ended up replacing the damage part.

2: Went in for a simple oil change that was scheduled ahead of time. Told them specifically I would be waiting with the car and only had about 45 minutes. An hour and a half later and I finally decided to go up to the desk and ask what was taking so long. They told me they were performing the "Brake System Safety Recall" that required recalibrating the entire computer system. Keep in mind, my car was bench unlocked and tuned, and one of the main reasons I specifically decided to stay with the car when I went in for the oil change was because I knew an oil change would never take as long as a recalibration so they would never have time to do the recall if I was with the car...... They did it anyways because fuck me I guess, who cares if I waited for almost two hours for an "oil change".

I have not had a single good experience with my local Toyota Dealership in my two years of owning the Supra.

 

[GoldenEye]

I can definitely weigh in on this. Regarding Toyota of Puyallup they have 2 Supra certified techs and both are very smart and very chill guys, I’d recommend them. Regarding the service department in ANY dealership I can tell you they’re all a mess, lol. Picture what they do and you should easily see that it’s chaos all day long. The big difference is honesty and integrity, that is pretty hard to find unfortunately…

 

[WSUPRA]

I've also had a lot of horrible experiences with Toyota dealerships since purchasing my Supra.

1: Damage side skirt. Dealership tried to send me home saying the car was finished, as if I wouldn't notice. They ended up replacing the damage part.

2: Went in for a simple oil change that was scheduled ahead of time. Told them specifically I would be waiting with the car and only had about 45 minutes. An hour and a half later and I finally decided to go up to the desk and ask what was taking so long. They told me they were performing the "Brake System Safety Recall" that required recalibrating the entire computer system. Keep in mind, my car was bench unlocked and tuned, and one of the main reasons I specifically decided to stay with the car when I went in for the oil change was because I knew an oil change would never take as long as a recalibration so they would never have time to do the recall if I was with the car...... They did it anyways because fuck me I guess, who cares if I waited for almost two hours for an "oil change".

I have not had a single good experience with my local Toyota Dealership in my two years of owning the Supra.

To be fair… if they had a record your car came in for service, didn’t perform the recall, and your brakes failed. They’d be in some serious shit.

 

[Sereph102889]

To be fair… if they had a record your car came in for service, didn’t perform the recall, and your brakes failed. They’d be in some serious shit.

I fully understand that, and that is why I didn't get uppity or mad with them in any way. I only expressed how I wish someone would have told me, that way I wasn't sitting there for almost another full hour without knowing what was taking so long.

 

[romanLegion9574]

@GoldenEye used to work for Toyota of Puyallup. I think he’d recommend them for service?

Only downside is that it's a bit of a hike from Seattle down to Puyallup.

 

[tg_mkv]

This was my experience with them in 2021 haha

Yeah they tried offering me that same supra for like 800+ a month (on a lease) with nearly 10K down for 7500 miles a year...easy pass, but somebody bought it..

 

[tg_mkv]

Dealerships are the worst!

The last time I went in for warranty work (to replace a part they damaged during another warranty claim), my curious mind had me reviewing my dash cam footage after I got the car back. They were revving my car during a cold start which really grinded my gears (no pun intended). Realistically, it probably didn't do any damage, but like why do this to someone else's car... I don't even do that to my own car.....

All the more reason for me to want to install a dash cam, just worried about losing any more visibility lol

 

[Delta1Seven]

All the more reason for me to want to install a dash cam, just worried about losing any more visibility lol

I installed mine to the right of the rear view mirror. It's almost invisible from the driver seat

 

[kaj]

I have a Michael's, here in Fresno. I wonder if it's the same group because ours sucks too

 

[Loco38SUP]

Well…make that one more dealership to add to my list to stay away from.

-RJM

 

[romanLegion9574]

I was happy with Toyota of Seattle in Sodo. Only downside: you need to drive into Sodo on those crappy roads.

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