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To Dealer or not to Dealer

You should be grateful they could be arsed opening the back door.
 
Definitely all dealers are not same. My LC went to Reading Toyota just for broken AHC fix. Instead they happily charged me for diagnosing and told it ll cost 15K to fix and after that also the truck is not safe to be on road. Later got it fixed elsewhere and found out it’s common for these cars to have this and can be easily fixed by replacing that broken joint at the back. Not that expensive also to fix. Went again to buy oil filter removal wrench as I wanted to have original T one. They didn’t have a clue what it is and showed me where tool box is in my car and asked to use those tools. Decided never to go back.
It appears that Dealers are struggling to stay alive. Few weeks ago, left Lexus at dealer for service and took loan car. For the first time in so many years they asked me to fill fuel in it and use. Felt like they are begging me and felt pity on their business status. I calculated and I used 1.29£ and left change in the car. This too is Reading Lexus.
 
Don't you just hope Mr T reads this and realizes their whole reputation relates to a bygone era .

What does anyone build nowadays that could endure what the Top Gear Hilux did ?
 
Raj said:
Definitely all dealers are not same. My LC went to Reading Toyota just for broken AHC fix. Instead they happily charged me for diagnosing and told it ll cost 15K to fix and after that also the truck is not safe to be on road. Later got it fixed elsewhere and found out it’s common for these cars to have this and can be easily fixed by replacing that broken joint at the back. Not that expensive also to fix. Went again to buy oil filter removal wrench as I wanted to have original T one. They didn’t have a clue what it is and showed me where tool box is in my car and asked to use those tools. Decided never to go back.
It appears that Dealers are struggling to stay alive. Few weeks ago, left Lexus at dealer for service and took loan car. For the first time in so many years they asked me to fill fuel in it and use. Felt like they are begging me and felt pity on their business status. I calculated and I used 1.29£ and left change in the car. This too is Reading Lexus.
Click to expand...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009ZS2ZHY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

for the oil filter wrench
 
Prior to getting the Collie, I had a few BMWs and used BMW dealerships, even though in the back of my mind I had a suspicion that it was a rip off.

So when I initially got the Collie, and as it was around 5 years old and had a full MDSH, thought I would try and maintain that (if I knew I was going to keep the truck for 20 years, I probably wouldn't have made that mistake).

My eyes were opened when a couple of years later, I took it in to Watford Toyota for a recall on the rear axle (can't remember exactly what but involved taking the rear brakes off, something to do with the hub I think).

Got the call to say it was ready and when I reported at reception they bought the truck from the back round to the front customer parking area. I heard the truck before I saw it, a loud metallic "tuk, tuk, tuk..." sound of metal on metal. Went outside to see, mechanic's parked the car with engine running (no noise now) handed me the keys. Ok, I thought, must have been something else. Got in and started to drive off - didn't get more than the the length of the car "tuk, tuk, tuk..." - noise was coming from rear axle, like a industrial version of playing cards in bicycle spokes IYKWIM.

Told the "mechanic" something's not right - what's that noise. Mechanic looks at me dumbly and says he can't hear anything unusual. At this point I was a mixture of incredulous and irritated. Asked for the service manager - he arrived outside 5 mins later. I told him something is not right - he says all recall work was done, checked and passed. I told him to drive the car 10 yards - which he did (actually less than 5) before he admitted there was something wrong!

Anyway they took the car back and had to keep it overnight to resolve. What was meant to be a 4hr job ended up with me without the car for nearly 48hrs and perhaps the car in worse shape than it went in!

Moral of that story is that I have never used a main dealer since for any of my cars. I now always look for a local independent specialist or just a reliable local mechanic.
 
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Agree with Shane, if only Toyota had learned a very valuable lesson with that hilux and continued with that same quality and reliability, under extreme conditions that would not be normally encountered. As far as I know, no other vehicle has encountered that treatment and survived, albeit a 'little' battered.
 
Hino Japan were responsible for originally gracing us with the Hilux so i wondered what they are doing now and found this

1648985176935.png
 
Hino were previously into hgv's back in the 70 and on, and probably before that.
They were much favoured in Ireland, but never really caught on that well here, then seemed to disappear. Not seen one for many a year. They were obviously rugged enough to cope with arduous tipping work.
 
Tipper operator near us ran Hinos for many years, but not seen one for a couple of years now.
There's an 8 wheel Hino grab loader in the area, 07 plate, i walked past it one day when it was working on fast idle, the engine sounded sweet and quiet making the typical european 5 years then its knackered rubbish sound like a skeleton knocking one out in a biscuit tin.

If you have a poke nose around on Youtube you'll find modern Hinos on logging and other arduous work making progress only matched by Russian trucks in the rough and deep water.
Hino don't need to bother with trying to make sales in europe's ever more penalising emissions fad, they can't make the things fast enough for the rest of the world.
Anyone driving or working on the very latest euro trucks will know the vehicles are becoming ever more complicated to diagnose and fix often with very extended periods of downtime.
 
Hutton said:
Accepting that to keep your vehicle in warranty you have to go to a main dealer, I am more and more convinced that this main dealer stamp in your service book is nonsense. Also, my local dealer is about give up the Toyota franchise which means my nearest dealer will be a 3 hour round trip. If the work the dealer does is marvellous and at a reasonable cost with mechanics full of knowledge then I would go to a dealer. However, my experience is the opposite. Independent workshops have served me far better with good guaranteed work at less than the dealer charges. The point I am trying to make is why is so much emphasis placed on having dealer stamps in your service book when you come to sell the vehicle?
Click to expand...

so Aberdeen won’t have a Toyota dealer anymore ?? Crazy
I have always used dealer in Elgin anyway. Staying near Insch it takes about same time to drive to Elgin as Altens. I think labour rates cheaper too.
 
For 200 series, Boarder Toyota dealer at St. Bosewells on A68 was highly recommended by member on US LC site. There are many 200s in that area. It should be good for all other LC numbers. When I am free, planning to visit them for a chat. In my opinion we need one or two independent mechanics and one good dealer who knows and values our cars
 
I have a few Main dealer stories too! The wildest one is when Jemca Sidcup put the 120 on a ramp and the ramp jammed up. Took them 3 days to bring it down!

(admittedly it was 3 days since the ramp maintenance company had to come out and fix it... )

Fwiw, Steven eagell in Cambridge have been ok, I have had a few fixed price things done with them recently as I can't find any local competent option.
 
I bought a 100 from Jemca Croydon and trusted their reliability. Got home about 130 miles and found following.
4 mismatched tyres
Large hole in spare about 5cm in diameter.
Front wheels jammed on as thy had attacked both hubs with a chisel and forced the wheels on with the nuts
Rear aircon disconnected
Air cleaner full of pine needles
Empty washer bottle

They said to take it back. Instead I got a quote from my local Toyota dealer for about £2000 and they paid the bill.

It gets worse. Jemca Croydon are angels compared with my local VW dealer. In a very small way like Putin in Russia. Money first, conquer the customer, lie and deceive.

Just have a look at Google reviews, VW Stourbridge.
 
Yep, Mike Harris. I think he was the one and only from the start, probably why they were so popular with the Irish. A good no frills workhorse.
 
Not all dealers are the same, unfortunately too many give the good ones a bad name.
Some of us actually care about the customer and their vehicles.

I also get quite a bit of work from the local specialists who just load the parts cannon, send it to us as they can't fix it.
If replacing a part it needs to be proved faulty imo.
Spend a lot of time coaching the other lads so diagnose correctly. Plugging it in doesn't magically give you all the answers.

I can remotely connect to a car now so can look into faults before the car is on site!

Our guys wouldn't get away with cutting corners with services etc. We had a bad spell of people but they quickly get found out.

My Hilux will go next door to toyota for service as want the 10 year warranty, my mate will do mine though. It won't get washed there but I'm fussy about that generally.
 
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