Failure is the Key to Success

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.

Tags:disorganised,toyota dealer