Why I won't take my Innova to Toyota's authorised workshop anymore

People buy Toyotas cause of their affordable service, reliability and fuss-free ownership experience, not this.

BHPian B747fan recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Our 2016 Innova Crysta 2.8 GX AT went for its 150k servicing earlier today at Mayank Toyota, Jodhpur. We had stopped using Toyota ASS since 2020 when the earlier dealer shut shop during Covid. This was our first time trying the new dealer. The car had slight vibrations at speeds of 80 and above, and there was also slight noise from the engine bay, so I recommended my dad send it to the dealer instead of using the FNG (This is my dad's daily drive and hence I barely drive it). Now in the morning when the car was dropped off, we were told that wheel alignment and balancing should sort this out.

Along with that, we were quoted front brake pads, front brake disks, general service, oil filter, oil change and the usual bits, with promised delivery by 6 pm. In the evening(around 4 pm), they called my dad and tell him that the tyres were bad and would require replacement and that we could not perform wheel balancing and wheel alignment on these tyres. Now here is the catch, the tyres have plenty of life left, having been driven around 20-25k kms. We told them to leave the wheel balancing and alignment. This is when they hesitated to deliver the car by today evening and told us it would be ready by tomorrow morning, but upon insisting, they told us we would deliver it in the evening. They then called us to tell us that the car was ready, and we sent the driver with the money.

In the meanwhile, there was an argument between my dad and the SA at Mayank Toyota about the vibrations, and my dad told him to visit an outside wheel balancing and alignment shop with him tomorrow to take their opinion on the matter, to which they agreed, however, they stuck to their point that the tyres are worn and hence there is vibration, and that wheel balancing and alignment cannot be done on these tyres. (Now I have not personally inspected the tyres, so I am not sure if the wear indicator is showing the need to replace them.)

The driver reached the service centre and was told that the car would be delivered tomorrow morning, and upon telling the SA to call and confirm, he was told that we had already told them, which they had not. So he came back. Now it was almost 7 pm, and the service centre closes at 6:30. We tried calling the SA, and the contact number of the service centre, but they did not pick up, which is completely different behaviour compared to when they have to advertise about their "Free general checkup scheme with free engine oil filter replacement". My dad got around 2 calls every day for the last 2 weeks or so to send the car for servicing to avail the same. We eventually managed to get in contact with their team, and they started misbehaving on call, my father told them to watch their tone.

The car is still at the service centre, and the SA said that he will replace the tyres with tyres from another car tomorrow and do a test drive, to which my dad said okay, but I don't think that's a good idea. Plus this kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable from Toyota, the same company that advertises service within an hour. They had received the car at 10:37 am, and the initial estimate had a promised delivery time of 6 pm. However, they failed to do that. Attaching both the initial estimate and the final invoice. Even after charging over 30k, they were trying to sell more stuff than what was required, they even wanted to do underbody rust treatment, as according to them the exhaust was rusting.

People buy Toyotas cause of their affordable service, reliability and fuss-free ownership experience, not this. Not sending it back to them for future service, will stick to FNGs.

After I complained on Twitter(now X) and here, overnight they reduced the bill from 30k to 26k, and their behaviour has completely changed. From being rude(The person who was rude on call was their GM ) to fully cooperative.

As for the tyres, they have fitted just 2 years ago, and the main point is that they told us that they will not be able to do wheel balancing and alignment on these tyres, while earlier they had told us that alignment and balancing would fix the issue. When I asked one of my friends who is an expert in the automobile industry, he said they can be performed regardless of the condition. The tyres are Goodyear Assurance tyres, fitted in late 2021. My dad has taken it to an outside alignment and balancing shop to get an opinion from them.

Quick update on this: The issue has gone after alignment and balancing from an outside shop. This shows that the dealer was trying to sell us more than what was required clearly, the tyres will easily last another 10k kms at the very least. This is not the first time we have had an unpleasant experience with Toyota.

Back in 2019, our Innova had an accident where the airbags were not deployed, and at that time all the dealer said was that the sensors were fine and they didn't know why it didn't deploy with some random excuses like the sensor wasn't impacted etc.

The images show the extent of the damage and yet there was no concrete answer from either the dealer or Toyota. I posted it on both Twitter(since deleted the post) and Instagram(have the post archived). The repairs cost around 5L (that was the initial estimate, I don't remember the final amount but it was close), which was almost 1/3rd of the ex-showroom cost.

Here's what BHPian audioholic had to say on the matter:

Alignment/Balancing experiences: Toyota service centres or any other service centres always mess up the alignment and balancing work. In my case, they have taken me for a ride/messed up stuff and whatnot. We had a Toyota smiles package for 2 years and 20k kms and hence that had alignment and balancing included in the package. still, they scammed me.

Incident 1: During the 10K service IIRC, the SA calls me up and tells me that the camber bolt on RHS has to be changed else alignment can't be performed. They skipped alignment even though it was already paid for in the package and wanted me to visit their body shop for this to be corrected. Immediately took it to my regular shop Madhus/Tyre Professionals and didn't mention anything to them. They corrected the camber without any complaint and the alignment was back to normal.

Incident 2: Again during 20k service, they say that the camber adjustment plate is bent and has to be changed which will cost 1500. This time, I believe them and get it changed and yet they didn't get the alignment right. Also in the comments section, they mention that two of my rims are bent and balancing can't be performed. Looking at all this, I immediately took the car to Tyre Professionals. The alignment was completely off(as if they had messed up what was even the case before sending the car to service) and this was corrected. And when I got every rim checked for runout or bend, there was none. And it's not the case that the rim was unbalanced. After this, since the Smiles package ended, I have only serviced the car from Toyota and never opted for alignment or balancing as the case with all cars. Even though they seem to have good equipment from Hunter, the workmanship is shoddy and they will mostly skip that part unless someone goes back with a complaint.

After the 20k km service, my car is now almost at 40k with regular 5k alignment intervals, and the camber and caster have been stable only with a minor toe deviation. And recently got new tyres after a tyre blowout, yet the rims are in perfect condition. Probably the comment on bent rims by the SA was to convince me to change them so they could sell the 'bent' rim to someone who had a bent rim.

The sad part about Toyota's service is they are used to very rich clientele who won't take a second look at the bill before paying up or the fleet operator who is looking for ways to cut corners. So a lot of scams happen where good parts are replaced and the replaced parts are sold to fleet owners so SA would make money out of it. Happened with me for wiper blades.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.