Switching from dealership service, need advice

All dealers will do this upsell, arm yourself with the owner's manual and it'll list all the services you need. Just follow that and ignore the upsell

All records are accessible from any dealer

 

Most, but not all dealers will do the upsell. Hope you're lucky enough to find one of the very few who won't. They are out there, but hard to find.

 

If all you are paying the dealer for are oil & filter changes then just DIY, go to any indy shop, or even a Vo-Tech school.

 

If you don't mind, what was the $1200 service? One item? Or a "suite" of services?

 

Her blinker fluid was dangerously worn. Not safe to let it be driven like that.

 

It could have been the "fuel economy maximizer" service that we all need



iPhone ?

 

In the San Francisco area, Luscious Garage is beyond compare and they easily beat the dealers in quality.

As for unneeded maintenance, that has me perplexed, because there are a lot of very good maintenance procedures not listed in the manual, but these aren't the ones dealers come up with. They're all in the NutzAboutBolts videos in this thread -- lubricating the brake pins (mine were all totally dry), cleaning the EGR pipe, throttle body, the MAF sensor (all easy stuff), transaxle (transmission) fluid change, cleaning the battery fan (especially if you have pets), cleaning the AC condenser, the PCV valve.... none of that is in the manual.

Instead, dealers come up with nonsense like adding fuel system cleaner.

 

Owner's Manual? Repair Manual (aka Shop Manual)?

Lubricating brake caliper pins at least is part of "Brake Inspection", indicated in the Maintenance Schedule. Well, it should be. It's explained in the Repair Manual. But the book is a poorly written tome: there's no section titled "Brake Inspection", and itemized "do this, this and this". Depending on the education and diligence level of dealership, this may or may not get done.

 

To be honest I had a really horrible experience with Toyota dealers.
Toyota Germany in Trier, after changing a cover of my front axle gave me an engine oil leak. What the hell were they doing I have no idea?
Toyota Luxembourg in Luxembourg city tolled me I need a timing belt and accessory belt changed. I don't have any of them. I have a chain and no accessory belt cause everything is electric powered. I checked that and was confirmed by different dealer.
Toyota Belgique in Arlon, they were complaining that I brought my own oil (Liqui Moli 0W20, which I like) and my own filter (K&N oil filter). They were complaining cause they wouldn't make money on me but after I said, ok then my bumper is falling a bit (was badly fixed by Toyota Luxembourg after I got hit on a parking lot) and I want a fluid change in my transmission, they tolled me that the bumper is just bent plastic and can't do anything about it and they don't do fluid change in Prius cause it doesn't need one!
FFS ...
The only servers that actually did good, not being the experts in hybrids was A.T.U in Germany.
I'm so disappointed in Toyota services!

 

Here in California, both One Toyota of Oakland and Fremont Toyota quoted me over $300 for a transmission oil change because they had to flush the fluid out of the torque converter.
I told them that a Prius doesn't have a torque converter and no flush was necessary. They told me I was wrong. Wow.

 

If humanly possible, just DIY it. About $40 and a couple of hours.

 

Yeah ... bring the repair manual printout with you I did that once I think Mendel (maybe someone else) uploaded here a few times.

And yet I was told they have to hook some computer up in addition... then I said NO thanks, since you do not knwo what YOU are talking about.

The best offer was $149 at another dealership but I declined since I thought it was too high shouldn't be any more work than an oilchange, especially if it is done at the same time (lift the car take the undercover off etc)

 

Unfortunately, authorized dealers have to kill the end customer with outrageous services and prices.
I do not go until a warranty issue arises.