1 year service on 2011 Highlander

[DavidHB]

took my one year old highlander in for its free maintenance. the oil is a year old and even though i dont have 10000 miles, it is supposed to be changed.

i get home and checked the dipstick. it was very dark, just like before i took it in. i drain it and its the old oil. i know color is not an indicator of an oil's quality. it is however an indicator of age. this was not new oil.

so i call the service department and the advisor tells me that since the car didnt have 10000 miles they arent supposed to change the oil. i tell her that its 10000 miles or one year and the repair order said it was changed. she puts me on hold. comes back and says, "o right, didnt know that." i say, then why are you advising people on service.
she wants me to bring the car back. i ask her why would i want her dealership to work on my car and what else didn't they do?

so tomorrow im going in to see the manager. with the old oil and filter. he wants to see it.

i will let you know how they handle it

[Loudog2]

I don't trust dealers. Watch them, they might try to put regular instead of synthetic in. Tell the manager you want to be present for the oil change.

[DavidHB]

i wont be letting them touch my car again unless its warranty work. the free service doesnt cost anything because they dont do anything

[TrailDust]

Let me move this thread over to the Feedback: Buyers, Sellers, and Vendors forum so the broadest number of TN members can be made aware not only of this issue but of the specific dealer. By all means, post up details about which dealership you visited. BTW, I'll leave a redirect in the Highlander forum so fellow owners there can easily navigate to this thread. Thanks!

[DavidHB]

thats fine. thanks.

toyota wants these new cars to go 10000 miles or one year on this oil if you dont fall into any of the severe service criteria. and then they dont even change it. so if i didnt notice, i could have easily driven another year on this oil. then if i had an engine problem, how would i have known it was the original oil from the factory, put in two years ago.
i have had problems with dealers before but for some reason this failure and incompetence bothers me more than any other incident.

[kipsy]

that why even with the free 20k worth of services i am still going to my buddies garage where i get to watch them change the oil, use the correct oil, and check the whole suv over every 5000 miles.

the 7 yr/100k ext. warranty is for check engine lights and general insurance against odd breakdowns.

[MAToyotaSales]

Yikes

That is pure incompetence on the SA's part. Believe it or not, when I brought my families 2011 Camry over for it's one year/10k the same thing almost happened to me. Not intentional, just human error. Kind of scary to think how many people this may have happened to.

It has NOTHING to do with the service being "free". It is not free, Toyota pays the dealership to do it and if anything happened to your engine the dealer would be held responsible.

[JMSinMD]

What dealership in Maryland was this so we can all avoid them?

When I was a Toyota Service Advisor I had 1 customer who asked to be present during service and I let him as long as he stayed put and worse safety glasses. I do the same thing at the shop where I take my car, I've been working with 1 mechanic for the last 7 years and although I trust him 100% sometimes I'd rather watch than be bored in the waiting room. Otherwise if I'm not there I know he's not selling me ANYTHING that isn't a must, he knows when the works needs to be done he'll get it, so he's never pressed. Because of his level of service the 6 cars in the immediate family go solely to him, anything from just an oil change and rotation and balance to timing belts/water pumps/etc. He gets it all.

BTW if anyone in the Baltimore area wants to work with 'my' mechanic pm me and I'll give you his contact info.