Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

This morning I took my THC in for it's first oil change and also asked to have the center console squeak fixed. About 5 minutes from arriving at the dealer I reset the consumption screen just to see what my mileage was for that stretch of highway (38mpg). When I picked my car up in the afternoon I noticed that my "trip A" meter had been reset and when I switched to the consumption screen it showed over 30 minutes of use with various bars (not idle). Also the consumption screen mileage was down to 27mpg. Now I wonder how they put 20 minutes of use on my car during this service and they must have been gunnin' it to take my mileage down that low. I can't imagine that they needed to perform a drive test to find the center console squeak. There's a TSB for that and you just have to push down on it to hear it.


Should I complain or do you think that will just get me blacklisted by the mechanics? Unfortunately I didn't track my odometer when I turned it in so I don't have the exact mileage as proof.

To top it off my squeak is still there. The invoice just said that they added insulation.

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

Your Trip A Odometer gets reset by default when they reset the service interval monitor. That happened to me, too. Dunno about the rest. Good luck.

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

Woah! I would point this out to the dealership and ask for some kind of refund!
The idiot must not have been aware of all the technology in the car that can track him.

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

Yup, I agree when you perform the reset procedure for the 5k miles oil change the trip A meter gets reset as I do my own oil change and did it to my TCH. As far as the console squeak it took me 3 times back and forth to the dealer to take care of the noise, you need to be persistent and add the toyota thin sticky pad in many differenent areas until noise is gone, one problem area for my console noise was between the thin plate where it is written PRNDB and the main shifter and they have to be very very careful to not break the fragile plastic clips of where it connects with the main shifter. Good Luck...

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

I had this happen to me on my Sienna a year ago. I raised the roof with the manager and they admitted to using it to transport a passenger somewhere else. They then gave me $10 to cover it.

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

$10 :omg: gee wiz! I would have hoped for at least a free oil change.

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

Actually if you have navigation system in your car and have track history turn on, you could look at the bread crumbs and see exactly where your car drove in the last 200 miles or so. On the other hand there are so many subtle ways to mess up your car for the future that I would not risk antagonizing a dealer or mechanic against myself if I ever wanted to come back there. For example a guy I know, who used to work as a mechanic would rip rubber boots covering front ball joints to customers that he didn't like too much. Water would get inside, wash out all the grease and new ball joints would be required within 6 months or so. Something like you should never piss your waiter because next time he may spit in your food and I've seen that happen as well.

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

Now this is really interesting. Are you still with them?

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

Regardless....I would look for a new dealer!
If I had the option of another dealer, I would really raise hell :angry: with the one that joy rode my car and make sure a bunch of people could hear! Get a coupon for parts or something. Some TRD wheels would be nice:zip:

Re: Dealer out joy riding in my car?
 

So what menu is the "track history" under. Don't believe that I've ever seen that one.