if recalls are free, why not get them done?

[OregonB]

Looking at an '05 gx470, carfax is thin on service history, but whats' up with none of the recalls being completed, including the ESC fix? Any ideas-just lazy? Just in case carfax was buggy, I dbl-checked with a Lexus dealer. I mean, all things being equal, it at least tells me the owner was paying attention to his vehicle.

 

[LockedCollector]

Car maintenance is not priority for many many people, especially when having to interact with car dealers. Some rather get a root canal.

 

[seanz0rz]

The rear springs were recalled when I purchased my 4Runner (recall was to add conical bump stops in the rear springs). I called, made an appointment for the recall, took it in and waited all day for them to tell me they did not have the parts in stock. After being quite irritated they had wasted my entire day, I decided it wasn't worth taking back and dealing with the stealership again. I was also going to lift the vehicle and put in air bags, so I didn't need them anyway.

My point is sometimes dealing with the dealerships is worse than whatever the recall fixes. For things that can be reprogrammed in the computer, no problem. If they have to take my dash apart, I would consider not having it done, depending on the problem and the severity of the consequence of not fixing it.

They also might have not been notified of the recalls, or believed it was a scam to get them to come into the dealership for some more upsells on brakes and spark plugs. The dealers have really shot them selves in the foot with shady practices and bad customer service.

 

[RyanStl]

Not that I would do this, but I understand it can be a pain in the ass to find time to take your car to the dealer. When you have kids, work, busy schedules, and the recall isn't keeping the car from running it is easy to ignore. Also, I have tried to have recalls taken care of, but multiple times the dealer did not have the part, so it was delayed to another time. Once, I got a recall once from my old recall ridden Ford Windstar that advised you do not park the van in your garage due to possible electrical fire. That one was taken care of immediately. So, for some it may take a fire under their pants to take action.

 

[87warrior]

I am hesitant to take any vehicle to the dealer for recall work after the fiasco I had with Chrysler/Jeep.

In 2014 I had a '06 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 55K miles on it go into the dealer for a transfer case shift recall. Apparently a control computer could shift the transfer case into neutral when starting the vehicle causing it to roll away. It was a simple computer flash done by the dealer and took about 30 minutes, start to finish. Well, once the recall was done the transfer case never would reliably shift into 4-low or neutral. After fighting the dealership throughout the next year to fix what they broke, the Jeep had a host of new parts installed (some at my expense others at the dealers expense). A year later, October 2015, the Jeep was going into 4-low in the driveway consistently, so my wife and I took it to the San Juans. On our way to Ouray we decided to take Cinnamon Pass from the Lake City side and I tried to shift to 4-low at the point when the trail gets rough. It wouldn't go into low range and we made the judgment call to sell the Jeep (now with 70K miles) the second we got home, so without hesitation I made the Hemi power us up and over the pass in high range (transmission temperature be damned).

Sold the Jeep a month later and then bought a Cruiser. Luckily the only outstanding recall on the 100 is the trailer light converter box, which my Crusier doesn't even have.

 

[IBWOZ]

I had a nightmare experience with a head gasket recall on 94 Toyota pickup . After I dropped the truck off at dealership I knew they would be contacting me with other things that needed replacing . Howerever I wasn't expecting a $3000.00 repair estimate in circa 1998 . I freaked and told them to put my truck back together immediately . They said they couldnt because many of the parts were unusable . I hightailed it back to dealer ship and demanded to see the my truck and all parts in question . The service manager proceeded to tell me they were already putting my truck back together the best they could ! A couple hours and many choice words later my truck was returned to me . I got about 2 miles before my battery jumped out of the tray and collided with the fan . Upon further inspecting I realized my lower radiator hose clamp was so loose I had lost most of my coolant in the short distance I drove .