Best Dealer Service Dept In the Sound

Saw some previous poll/threads about this, but they were very focused on sales and pricing. I already have a truck, but need a place to take it for 5k mile service. I did my own oil already at 1k and will do it again soon if the dealer doesn't. Ideally I'd find a good service department to use for the next 2 years for ToyotaCare, but at least I'd like a service department that people know won't scratch the shit out of the truck, overtorque the filter housing/lug nuts, etc.

 

Being a former Toyota tech I think thats a risk youre going to run into at any dealer unfortunately. Lube techs are entry level positions and it shows. The only thing you can do is somehow make it worth an actual service team's time to do your service so that its at least a service tech that had to be sent out for training as has a little more on the line than a minimum wage lube tech.

 

It would help if you add your current location and then transfer this thread to the regions area. Cheers!

 

There are only 3 toyota service departments I've used in the puget sound area:
1) Renton, a long time ago. And they were good and prices were fair. Things could have changed.
2) Bellevue, most recently used to be my go-to dealer as I'm only 2 miles away. Until something happened in the past year or two where they started playing shady dealer service department stuff.
3) Kirkland, only used them once when I first got my truck and asked them to take a look at transmission fluid level - I would be happy to pay. And they pretty much laughed at me and to stop looking for problems on the internet.

So, I'm just as eager to find a good service department.

 

what's the hierarchy in the chain of techs ?

 

Given we're in the "North West" zone I assume everyone knows 'The Sound' is 'The Puget Sound'.

 

We'll be bringing in our new Tundra to Swickard (lynnwood) here in a week or so. I'll for sure report back.

Broad Stroke, in Lake City, is my preferred shop for the '03 Tacoma though. Love those guys.

 

I don’t know what’s the sound and correct me if I’m wrong but this got move after I mentioned it. Am I correct or am I lacking of attention to detail today? If so I Apologize. Cheers!

 

lube techs are techs that have no prior experience and only do oil changes and tire rotations, service techs do a bit more like alignments and small repairs, then you have your higher ups like master techs and shop foreman. More or less, its been awhile. I worked at Michaels Toyota in Bellevue which also cranked out a ton of cars in the lube bay, so that could be a factor too. we were regularly doing 15-20 cars a shift by ourselves so fairly high volume comparatively.

 

Michael’s Toyota of Bellevue. No questions, one of the best dealers in the “sound”.

 

Id love to hear this “playing shady dealer service department stuff” …. Enlighten us

 

I'd always had my Toyotas serviced there with the same advisor guy and had generally good experiences. This started when I couldn't get the same guy, I think he doesn't work there any more, and I got assigned a new guy.

It's been about a year and a half so I don't remember the exact prices so prices are in the ball park of what I remember.

I brought it in around 60k miles with a list of stuff I wanted to get done - mostly fluid changes I didn't feel like doing myself because was still the rainy season - front/rear diff, transfer case, coolant and transmission. They quoted me about $1500. I know there's a special warm up procedure for the transmission and that's specifically why I didn't want to do that.

My truck was also taking a LONG time to warm up in the colder months. Like the temperature gauge doesn't move off the bottom for 10 minutes sometimes. Could take 20 minutes for the temp gauge to move 1/3 of the way up and for the heat to start blowing on 35 degree mornings. Before they quoted me I asked them while they're doing the coolant and have the system drained if they could check out the thermostat and just replace it. They came back and told me the thermostat is some sort of a computer controlled unit that's more than $500 and would be more $750 with labor. I was confused why it would be $250 in labor and thought they were trying to double charge me or something, but service writer guy assured me they're difficult to replace. Also, until that point, coolant thermostats in my mind were $30 parts. Turns out aftermarket ones from Napa and Autozone are about $120, but still a far cry from $500.

Service guy spent a lot of time trying to talk me into doing their 60k service. What he was recommending wasn't what was in the owner manual and closer to an oil and filter change and a lot of inspection for close to $1000. I asked him if all this inspecting was making sure the colored fluids were between the clearly marked lines in the see through containers and he became upset.

In the end I told them to go ahead and do the transmission and a coolant change. I did the axles and transfercase myself because those were particularly expensive. I hadn't been driving much when the plague was in full swing but with more regular driving the warm up time got back down to reasonable lengths so ended up doing nothing about the thermostat.

 

Ended up taking it to Burien Toyota for the 5k service.

I originally was going to make an appointment at Toyota of Seattle, but all their appointment slots were booked for the next day. Burien Toyota's website had a slot every half hour! This turned out to be a green flag for Seattle Toyota and a red flag for Burien.

Arrived and Burien was self-admittedly swamped. They had every slot open because they don't book slots based on capacity, but just let you book whatever and take in everyone they possibly can regardless.

The service department manager checked me in, and told me he'd have me sign some papers before work began. I waited 20 minutes, and since I planned to go get lunch while they worked, came back and asked a different guy "they're gonna have me sign some stuff before they start working on it right?" They reassured me they would as if I was a moron for asking.

Spoiler: they didn't. I got a surprise call 1.5 hours after check-in that my car was ready. The service writer was apologetic and was under the assumption I had signed off - I wanted to make sure I knew what they were doing to my car and had the option to decline anything I didn't want. When this was raised with her manager, who had checked me in, he was unapologetic - "I forgot but it's a free 5k service so it doesn't really matter right?"

I asked what rotation pattern they used, and was told they probably didn't rotate my tires because they were busy. I was given a checklist implying the brakes were checked, fluids, etc...

I checked the marks I'd put on the tires with a paint pen and discovered they had in fact rotated my tires; they simply swapped the front and rear tires without doing any crossover side to side for either.

Burien Toyota reinforced my distrust of Toyota dealerships, but at least they didn't damage or scratch anything, and they were forthcoming about not rotating the tires (although it turned out they did after all). Perhaps poorly run but not deliberately dishonest. I'll have to try another dealership next.

From what I've heard, despite some people here saying they've gone downhill, Michaels in Bellevue still has their shit the most together for service.

 

Toyota dealers don’t do any cross rotating. It’s only front to back. Which is the correct way to do it.

And that sounds like a horrible experience. They should all be slapped.

Do yourself a favor and give Michael’s Toyota a try next time, and then report back.

If you don’t have a good experience there, I will talk to the GM personally myself.

 

Marysville Toyota has been good for the one time I was there for oil change, warranty work and recall.
Parts dept is solid too.

Both depts. kept me in loop.

 

Bellevue was pretty good to me when the truck was under warranty. My radio stopped working and turns out my then 2 y/o was putting coins in the cd player slot lol. They didn’t give my any grief for that. They also replaced my leaking coolant transfer pipe (3rd gen guys get it checked out). Anything not covered though they do a shotgun approach and replace everything that may be related to what’s wrong.

I broke my rear drum backing plate when it froze up one time and they said it was the axle and wanted to replace everything touching it for 2500. I replaced the part and had auburn off road push the axle out for like 125 and spent maybe 250 total in parts and we did the labor ourselves. Just my 2 cents.

 

That's good to hear. Maybe it was just that particular experience I had - and I hope so. They did a solid job and was treating me right until that point, because when it's time to visit the dealer again I'll probably go back there.