Hmm.. should have known that it wouldn’t be straight forward where Toyota were concerned.

The car was collected this morning for the window repair and 40,000 mile service. I let the driver know I needed the car back at 4:30.

I had a call from the garage this afternoon. The cable on the window winder mechanism has snapped, wow that was a surprise, that’s what we told them, they don’t have the part in stock and will have to order it. It will have to be booked in in a couple of weeks as that is the first collection they can do. It would have been useful to have know this ahead of time; I could have booked two appointments to start with. Then he went on to tell me that the rear brake pads were 85% worn and needed replacing. This I just didn’t believe as the car has done less than 9000 miles since they replaced the rear discs and pads on the car a year ago. It’s just like when I had the Carina, everytime it went into the Toyota main dealer, it needed at least 1 £200 extra job doing urgently. Also, the sump is leaking and will need to be resealed at the cost of £275, oh yes and the driver’s side windscreen washer isn’t working and needs replacing. Again, I disputed this, as I had used it driving to work this morning when it worked fine.

He went away to check the brakes and washer for me and call me back in 5 minutes. After 45 minutes, he rang back. After taking the wheels off the pads were fine, on being pushed he admitted less than 50% worn. He explained this as ‘the pads taper and if you don’t know what you are looking for you can easily make a mistake’. This is from a main dealer! The drivers side washer is working, but not as strong as the other side, they could clean it for about £10, no thanks. They will block up the window to make it secure until the repair. At 4:30 I rang the garage for an update. They haven’t blocked the window up as they didn’t think I would want to pay £90 an hour for someone to do it. I think I am in the wrong trade!. I paid for the sevice and was eventually transferred to booking to arrange the booking for the repair. The car is now booked in for 31st October to be repaired. I eventually got the car back at 5:20.