This is the review I wrote for Cars.com and on their dealer Facebook page. "I took my 2016 Toyota Prius Two Eco in for its first 6 month, 5,000 mile service. It should be pretty routine, rotate the tires and check the fluid levels. When I got the car back, two valve stem caps were missing from the right side tires and the air pressures we all wrong. The driver's side door recommended pressures are 39psi front and 36 psi back. The tire pressures were a mixture of between 32.5 psi and 34 psi, nowhere near what the driver's side door recommended pressures called for. It's pretty sad that they couldn't get this right. This is on top of when I bought my car new, they sent me out the door with the 'Tire Pressure Warning Light' lit. The tire pressures were so low it looked like they hadn't been checked since it left the factory in Japan. I have made it a habit to check the tire pressure levels when it leaves the DeLuca lot. You should too. Even stranger, they left a chicken bone in between my two windshield wiper arms. It must have fallen off the worker's chest when he was giving me my complimentary windshield cleaning. This is what happens when you have your car serviced during lunch time. Luckily I found it before I needed to use my wipers as it would have been flopping all around. I became so concerned by the shoddy attention to detail that I popped my hood to ensure all my dipsticks and fluid caps had been reinstalled properly. This is my second disappointing experience at DeLuca in my two visits. Just beware that their attention to detail is lacking and follow-up on all work performed"
I get the same great service at the largest Toyota dealer, Longo Toyota. I try to avoid them all together
Wow, you should get something out of the crappy service, or lack thereof. Maybe a Heatshield windshield sunshade, or some other accessory you'd like?
I get the same "great" service almost everywhere these days. I just traded my C in for another C. Got such bad vibes from the sales staff at DeLuca that I went to Gainesville for my new C. I'm still debating whether or not I'll go there for my routine service or not. After your post, I probably will.
I must be lucky. I just had my 1st service done at 9,500 miles for an oil change. I had a 9:00 appointment and was out by 10:00. They even let me watch them do the work, and let me look under the car while they were doing it. When they were done, the car was washed and everything was clean, and all for free.They asked me why I didn't have the 5,000 miles tire rotation done I said I was 2,000 miles out of town, and didn't feel like wasting a 1/2 day for service in California. I have no complaints (so far) about the service at my dealer. (Russ Darrow West Bend WI.)
Mine had "lost" the parts for warranty repairs, reckoned they "must have been returned". It wasn't till I remembered the ladies name who had spoken to me three times on the phone re the parts, did they go over and ask her. I could hear her say "I remember that conversation, the parts were definitely here and were marked "HOLD till {date}". They found them, had been returned to stock, but took about ½ hr from when I arrived. Fortunately they took much quicker to install than they'd estimated. With tyre pressures, I always re-check them after either service or tyre service. Many of their pressure gauges aren't in as good condition as the one you keep. But even so - check them on one gauge, and the next gauge will read differently, they're notorious. When I check them at a service station when fuelling, I overfill, and next morning when cool I re-check with my gauge.
I had mine serviced at Gatorland Toyota in Gainesville and I was satisfied. I had my pre-purchase inspection done there and, as much as the dealer that I bought my car from poo-poo'd the inspection report, it was not exaggerated in any way. The tires were in pretty bad shape, the wipers were streaky, and a bulb needed to be replaced. After I bought the car, I returned to Gatorland for new tires (buy 3 get one free), alignment, and the bulb replacement. They even threw in a free carwash. I didn't have the Toyota work order history yet, I didn't know that I could get all of the prior work history online through the Toyota website so I wasn't aware that the last oil change had been done just a few months ago (about 1,000 miles before I bought the car); when I asked if the car needed an oil change, the guy was honest with me and told me that it wouldn't need it until around the 50,000 mile mark (he recommended every 10,000 miles.)
Since my initial post, I've noticed a couple more things regarding the lousy service I received at DeLuca Toyota in Ocala FL. There were smudge marks on my driver's side door which I've attached a photo off. Of a safety concern, they switched my headlights from AUTO mode to off during servicing and didn't return the setting to AUTO. This meant I was driving for a few days without Daytime Running Lights and my lights weren't turning on automatically like I expected. Driving in the dark alerted me to my lights not being in AUTO mode. This is just another lack of attention to detail that is concerning when your car is returned to you from dealer servicing. What other details were lacking attention? When I take my car in for my 1 year, 10,000 mile service and oil change, will they remember to replace the oil plug and the oil cap and dipstick? My car was returned to me in worse condition than when I dropped it off of servicing.
My expectations were way too high for this Toyota dealer. They have been lowered considerably and I'm not expecting much from them for now on. My vehicle will get a more detailed inspection including a tire pressure gauge before I drive away next time.
You have to understand a dealership sees many cars a day, different mechanics, different Jr. mechanics, different drivers all have access to your car. As a rule, you should always do safety checks yourself whenever someone else drives your car. You can't assume everything has been left the same after you hand your keys to someone else. I don't like to defend dealers because they are held to a higher standard because of the crazy prices they charge for "factory trained service", but there are some things you just have to let slide. Your headlights might have been on AUTO, but if someone from the dealer had switched on your headlights and then switch them off, they would not know it was on AUTO. This really has nothing to do with attention to detail. I can see complaints from bad dealerships that install your parts incorrectly on a recall, forget to drain the coolant (and lie to you afterwards they did drain it) after you request they drain it, keep my car for 1 month saying they needed parts when the parts been at the dealer all along, dent your car from the car wash, make you wait 3 hours for a simple 15 minute service, etc, etc. Those are issues I had to deal with at my crappy dealer. Sounds to me, you've got it pretty good LOL.
