I think this is probably the most important point. I don’t think toyota is to blame for these indiscretions. It’s the US dealer market. I know in my city, the major car dealers own the dealerships for almost all name plates. They are obviously not in business for the manufacturer. It’s actually somewhat surprising that the automakers don’t manage that better.Looking at the cartoon above got me to decide and chime in. Quite a few years ago, I took my LX470 to the local Lexus dealer for some service. When I picked it up, they informed me that they noticed that the engine was idling a bit rough so they replaced the injection system, including the manifold. And that as service to me, were able to charge Lexus for the “repair”, even though my LX was out of warranty coverage. That couldn’t have been a small charge.
What?!? The engine never idled roughly. I wondered if they’d even done the replacement so I took a look and sure enough, shiny new manifold with new gasket sealer visible in places. So basically they were screwing Lexus.
Fast forward to this month. We took my wife’s GX in for a speaker replacement (under CPO warranty) because the sound was distorted. When we picked the GX up the friendly service writer said that there was a problem getting the radio to communicate with the new speaker so they ordered a replacement radio. Oh, and by the way she said, the technician scratched your radio faceplate by accident but you’re getting a new radio anyway and a new faceplate will come with it.
This is that same Lexus dealer. They ended up charging the parts and labor to Lexus. Again, that couldn’t have been a small charge. Hey, but the scratch is gone! Oh, and the new front speaker was working just fine with the scratched radio. They do think that we are stupid.
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