I live in the East Central Florida area, and all the Toyota dealership service centers here are just plain terrible.
Daytona Toyota is just terrible. Parks Toyota of Deland is just terrible. Seminole Toyota is just terrible. Toyota AutoNation of Winter Park / Orlando is just terrible. And even the one in Titusville is just terrible.
I think my next car is going to be a Honda, but only if their service centers are any better, but I'm now expecting that they're probably not, either.
Does anyone have any advice on this?
Do not take your car to a dealer. Find and honest, independent mechanic that appreciates your business and wants to work with you. Toyota makes some great vehicles. You should be saying, "No more dealers for me."
I would never take my vehicle to the dealership, if I can help it. In fact, for the past 26 years I have never stepped foot at a dealership service center. Obviously, for newer vehicles and under warranty you don’t have much of a choice if it needs repair and it’s covered under warranty - but I cringe at that since there is too much incompetence at those places these days based upon all the stories I hear from friends, family, co-workers, members here, and other mechanics.
With all due respect, it is silly to write off an entire brand’s lineup because you can’t find good service.
Can you not find a good, honest independent mechanic around you? Can you not do some of the work yourself?
it doesn't matter what car brand you buy
I don't think the brand matters when it comes to dealership service centers, they all are quite bad. While most third-party mechanic shops seem to work on the premise that quality service leads to lifelong costumers, dealerships work on the premise "lie, deny, and deflect" until the vehicle is out of warranty, then charge as much as you can out of warranty to get unknowing customers to either pay ridiculous rates or frustrate the customer into buying a new car and trading in. This is just based on personal experience dealing with Toyota, ford, chevy, Audi, VW, Honda, Saturn, Pontiac, and Subaru dealerships in the past. Others' experiences may vary. I no longer deal with dealerships and used local mechanics for things I cannot do myself, I've had to deal with a Toyota dealer service center for the last week on a problem they caused to a new car at the Clarksville, TN dealership service center, and they have been difficult and less than helpful, to say the least. Some are probably good, some are probably worse, some are probably hot garbage. I had nothing but good experiences at a Toyota dealership service center in Melbourne Florida when my Tacoma started having problems with the hood release (before the recall came out). They fixed it for free when it was way, way out of warranty and they had every right to charge me for it. I went back to work, and a coworker asked where I went to fix it, and when I told him, he went off about telling me how they ripped him off and they were horrible. The only difference between me and him was I was from out of town there temporary, and he lived there in Florida.
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Ugh, I hate dealership. Aka Stealerships.
I haven’t found a dealership I loved. Whether it is buying cars or getting service. They all are rip offs.
Whether Toyota or Honda, they all suck.
You should be glad you own a Toyota which does not need as many repair/mechanic visits as some of those horrible brands out there that basically the owners would be better off if they lived in front of the dealership service department or a mechanic shop. The point is that dealership service departments are just awful and I would never stop buying a Toyota or Honda because of this. They are great quality cars so buy them but have a honest independent mechanic do the work on your car unless it's a brand new car and you have to take it to the dealership while it's under warranty. Stuff like oil changes or some other basic things one can learn to do on their own, or if not then have an independent mechanic do the work for you.
That's a good one. There are no decent centers for any dealership brand
