Dealer Experience - OMFG

[BMWAF]

So now that I've put a little time behind me and my first dealer experience here in Melbourne I thought it was time to share. Warning: It might be worth grabbing a coffee at this point.

So.. despite the many warnings and contrary advice, I decided to book my car in for an oil change at my dealer at 1500km. As the dealer insisted on doing their bullshit 1000km check, I figured I'd give them a chance and get an oil change done too. Most of you will spot my first two early mistakes.

Anyway, this is my first Toyota and I was pleasantly annoyed that they don't provide loan cars. They do offer they're Kinto hire car service which in fairness is conveniently located at the dealer and reasonably priced.. but still, this is an additional cost I hadn't considered. Fine. I drop my car in early, hire a car and tell them I'll be back in in the afternoon.

Around 2pm I get a call from the dealer. In his cheery voice the service technician tells me that unfortunately, and I quote, my Toyota service centre "doesn't have the right oil" for my Toyota. I mean what the actual fuck? I thought I took my Toyota to.. you know, a Toyota dealer?

Insert BMW jokes.

As you may expect, I let them know that this is a pretty idiotic turn of events and they briefly apologise, telling me to come in in a few days once they get the oil in. I return a few days later and they do indeed get the oil change done and offered to pay for the second day’s Kinto fees. Not sure this makes up for wasting two days of my time but I chalk it up to a learning experience and move on.

A few days later I get a call from the dealer to let me know the instrument cluster I need to have replaced has arrived and that I should bring the car in next week so they can fit it. I should now mention that my instrument cluster was dropped at birth and after taking pictures of the scratches and marks on it, Toyota Australia agreed to have it replaced under warranty.

Great.

I’m not sure how a dealer who doesn’t stock oil for my car is going to fit an instrument cluster but what choice do I have? I once again bring my car in to the dealer, dropping it off early and again wait for a call. At around 2pm - maybe this is when they start actually working on cars? - the phone call comes in.

"Yeah.. umm.. sorry, we can't fit your cluster. It turns out we need it configured and we can't do that here. We need to send it away and there is a two week turn around. Can you please come pick your car up?”

So now I'm less speechless and more pissed - that's two from two. I get in to the dealer about half an hour later to find out that my car isn't actually ready to pick-up because these fuckwits decided to pull the entire dash apart before realising they couldn't fit it! There's oily hand prints all over the interior and now to quote Jules Winnfield, I’m a race car in the red; I’m a mushroom cloud laying motherfucker. After stewing in the waiting area for a good half hour while they put my car back together, the service guy decides it would be a great time to basically tell me to get over it and that they'll call me in a few weeks to get the work done.

Yeah, Fuck that. I lose my shit and ask to see the dealer principal.

He is of course, in a meeting. I tell them I'll wait. Ten minutes later he appears and when he hears the story he seems to understand. He apologises and seems sincerely appalled at the turn of events.

He promises he will get things sorted and provides me with his contact details, telling me he will be my point of contact until this all gets sorted. He offers me a free interior and exterior detail and a free loan car for when the work needs to be done and that they will work around my schedule. I’m still not happy but I’ve dropped down some DEFCON levels and accept his terms, telling him an interior detail is fine but I don’t want anyone touching my paintwork. He agrees, we shake hands and I drive home trying to work out if I would’ve had the same issues if I had’ve just dropped some more cash and bought an actual BMW.

A week later I get a phone call from a chirpy receptionist to tell me my cluster is here and that I can bring my car in any time to get the work done.

Awesome.

Wait. I ask her to check to make sure it’s ready and she sing-songs that it's definitely ready. I play the asshole and slow my voice right down to tell her to go check again and to call me back in five minutes. Her voice drops an octave and I hang up. She calls me back in five minutes and you guessed it, she starts apologising because it turns out the cluster isn’t actually ready.

Great.

So a few weeks go by and finally the dealer principal texts me to let me know the cluster is finally ready and that I should call the dealership to organise to have it fitted. True to their word they work around my schedule and with trepidation on an early morning, I drop my car off. The dealer principal is there to greet me and while I don’t feel confident, I’m slightly less apprehensive. They give me the Service Manager’s Kluger to drive (maybe that's his penance) and tell me it should be done in a day or two. We discuss the interior detail and he assures me it will be all good and that “the boys know not to not wash the exterior” of my car.

For the next few days I get daily insights from the dealer explaining that they have made no progress and reading between the lines, they essentially have no fucking idea what they are doing. They have opened a case with “Toyota Technical Service” and have engaged a “Toyota Field Engineer” to work on it. Beyond calling NASA they seem to have everyone working on it without any progress.

After four days of these texts I finally get the message I’m waiting for. Success. The cluster is in and its all working fine. I can’t help but wonder if they finally threw in the towel and just gave BMW call?

Anyway, I drive in to pick-up my car and the cluster is in. The interior is detailed and looks clean. And of course - and I’m not sure how you fuck this up - my car has been washed. Fuckwits. I call the dealer principal that night and let him know and he apologises and says he’s going to send some pointed emails but I can’t help but feel this is just how this dealer goes about their business: One fuck up after the other.

So here we are. I have fully learned my lesson and am actively looking for a local BMW mechanic should my car need any work done. And pray every night to the car gods so that I may have no more warranty work that needs doing by Toyota!

And jokes aside, we definitely bought BMWs because Toyota have no fucking clue how to manage these cars.

PS: I have purposefully not posted the name of the dealer but if you’re bright you could probably work it out. If not, on this forum I’m just a PM away.

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[Supra_UK_]

Unfucking believable

 

[Teleguy11]

Mine is at my local Toyota dealership right now getting an alignment after someone backed into my left front wheel. They told me today that there is bent suspension parts. Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

 

[Loco38SUP]

This is exactly why my car has never been back to a dealership since original purchase. Unless its a catastrophic mechanical failure there is no way its going to the dealer.

-RJM

 

[Diablo]

This is exactly why my car has never been back to a dealership since original purchase. Unless its a catastrophic mechanical failure there is no way its going to the dealer.

-RJM

. I take my car to an independent Bavarian motors shop. F Toyota and their BS. THIS ISN’T A GODDAMN CAMRY.

 

[MKV2021]

Sorry about your misfortunes, but I gotta say, your narration style kicks ass. 10/10 would read again

 

[BMWAF]

Sorry about your misfortunes, but I gotta say, your narration style kicks ass. 10/10 would read again

Haha. Thanks mate. I do enjoy a good whine from time to time.

 

[AHHH]

Is this dealer in a metro area (i.e. not far from the CBD) or more of a distance away?

Wondering if your mishap is a combination of incompetence and lack of GR/Supra experience, or mostly just the former.

The dealer I’ve chosen in QLD has built a solid rep, and all service correspondences so far have been through a “GR Specialist” - but still waiting to see how I go when I get to the 1st service interval.

 

[digicidal]

I'm simultaneously glad and sad that the problems I've experienced at my local Toyota dealership are the case of a broader "pandemic of incompetence" and not just my own bad luck.

 

[BMWAF]

Wondering if your mishap is a combination of incompetence and lack of GR/Supra experience, or mostly just the former.

There's definitely some communication issues along with a healthy dose of incompetence but I think its a bit of everything to be honest. I know they sell a bunch of Supras as they are a huge dealer. Of course high sales has zero correlation with the quality of the service department.

 

[BMWAF]

By way of an update, it looks like the dealer either forgot to plug something in; forgot to code something or something else less fun.

Firstly, my settings are freaked out in that they say they are off but are actually on. For example my lane assist keeps “assisting” even though the setting is turned off. After toggling the setting it finally turned off but now I’m wondering what other settings aren’t accurate.

Also - and I’m happy with this one - the cruise control settings no longer appear in my HUD. I can’t remember if there is a specific HUD setting to add or remove this but no matter what settings I plug in now, the green cruise control settings remain in the cluster. Like I said, I like this as the HUD stays clean.

And I’m not sure about this one, but I think my front collision HUD warning no longer pops up. Driving last night I tried to get it to pop up and I couldn’t make it appear. If anyone knows a way to test this function of the HUD, I’d love to know it. Furthermore, non HUD owners: How does the warning appear for you - I presume its in the media section of the cluster?

Now I’m sure most of you can understand, my dilemma is do I just live with this and maybe see if I can recode it via Bimmercode or do I call the dealer?

Oh and lastly, Bimmercode can no longer code my cluster. Apparently it will be included in the next Bimmercode update.

It just never ends!

 

[Schang105]

Sorry to hear that OP. In truth, Gazoo Racing is a European motorsports organization based out of Belgium and Germany which just happens to be run by Toyota. As far as Toyota Motor North America is concerned, GR product is on a different planet which explains why the dealers don't know how to help you (us).

 

[BMWAF]

Sorry to hear that OP. In truth, Gazoo Racing is a European motorsports organization based out of Belgium and Germany which just happens to be run by Toyota. As far as Toyota Motor North America is concerned, GR product is on a different planet which explains why the dealers don't know how to help you (us).

Thanks! And that's interesting.. especially since the European's seem to complain that their Supras are largely gimped compared the the US ones.

 

[zrk]

dropped down some DEFCON

I believe that the lower the DEFCON level, the closer to nuclear war we are... Perhaps you went up some DEFCON levels?

 

[FuzzyRev]

Haha. Thanks mate. I do enjoy a good whine from time to time.

As a Wisconsinite, I must insist that you pair it with a fine selection of cheese while you do so.

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