What Toyota dealership in SE Melbourne do you recommend for servicing ?

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  rmamila on 19/08/2013 - 14:07

  My car is up for the second service next month. I don't want to have it's fuel consumption increased again this time. According to that dealership it's their computer which does all the work and it should be the right consumption.
  However to my common sense and observation it takes significantly more fuel from next day of the last service. In first 6 months, I drove 8500 km more than half to go to work and come home. All this time it gave consumption below 13L. However for the next 5 months for the next 5000km I drove it was always above 15L.
  Therefore I know something is wrong even if Dealership says their computer is always right and blame on bad fuel. Which can not be the case for the whole 5 months. At one stage a person at dealership said the car is not new and the consumption goes up over the time.
  Do you expect a car to be old after 6 months when you spend over 50 grand on a brand new car?

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  berger on 19/08/2013 - 20:40

  We bought a new car from Patterson Cheney in dandenong/keysborough. The sales tem were good, not pushy, and our first service was hassle free. Courtesy car no issues. next service is still a couple months away, but should be ok, and it's capped price.

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  rmamila on 19/08/2013 - 22:57

  The place I bought mine and serviced does not give courtesy cars.

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  rmamila on 19/08/2013 - 23:00

  If they give a courtesy car, I should still be able to go bit further away from my home and work to get to a reliable place to service. Thanks for the information. Patterson Cheney is not that far from my place. Probably I have to drive 8 km away to get there.

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  r2160 on 20/08/2013 - 08:26

  Do yourself a favour. Try the three different types of fuel for two tanks each. This will show you the difference. Make sure you have the tank almost empty to start

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    rmamila on 20/08/2013 - 21:53

    I normally fill the tank when it's about to finish and never filled the cheaper E10. After the first service I even once filled with premium unleaded just to get the same economy as unleaded one. I noticed the difference on the first trip after the service from dealership to home. For some one who kept looking at the economy meter on Kluger for 6 months continuously should easily be able to tell the difference if something is not normal.
    I know all the explanations given by the dealership are not true when my friend who drives the same model for 3 years has no issues and constantly giving the same economy what I used to get before the service. If it's gonna take 18L/100km on average as dealership guy said we should be able to go to ACCC against Toyota as their secs say well below that as an average.

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  backpaqer on 20/08/2013 - 08:53

  I bought a car from new and logged every refill and every odometer reading for the first 12 months using premium unleaded. Then did the same thing for regular unleaded and suffered a drop of around 1-2 litres per 100 in fuel economy. As far as fuel consumption in cars go, the engine computer in new cars should pretty much be self contained and not require any adjustment of any sort. I ordered the factory service manual with the car when new and the maintenance section itemises everything the workshop needs to do at each interval…the only thing they have to change is the oil…everything else is pretty much check-check-check. And the last time I ever took the car to Brighton Nissan (when Ken Morgan was running it!) they didn't even do the most basic checks - for example, every service should inspect the air filter and there wasn't even a fingerprint on the airbox where a service guy would have needed to push it back into place…of course the filter was filthy…never went back and the car runs perfectly with only minor maintenance…just coming up to 200k for a fresh set of spark plugs now. If you get onto some car forums in the USA for your equivalent car, they are very well educated on DIY over there and maybe even able to tell you how to do a computer reset so that your engine computer can relearn your driving style to optimise fuel economy.

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    rmamila on 20/08/2013 - 22:07

    Thanks for the details. This dealership had cheated one of my work mate before. I only got to know about that after I bought the car from them. Otherwise I wouldn't try not to buy from them. My mate had fitted a new radiator to his Camry from them and next day he has noticed a fluid leak. When he went back he they have checked and told him that a stone might have come through the grill and hit the radiator and damaged it. They have asked him to pay the full price again to replace the radiator again.
    Luckily he hasn't agreed with them and taken it to another mechanic only to find out the radiator has damaged not from the front side but from back side as it has fitted in a way that it had forced against a screw or nut and it has damaged it. It's their own bad workmanship but they tried to make more money and rip him off again. When I bought the Kluger he too bought a 7 seater but without thinking twice he went for Mazda CX9.

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  rmamila on 21/08/2013 - 10:32

  Does anybody know what happens if I go to a different Toyota dealership for servicing during the factory warranty period?
  I have 3 years factory warranty and then extra 3 years dealer warranty. I am not sure if I have to stick with the same dealership for all 6 years to get the dealer warranty. Even if that's the case it won't be a good idea to service from this place for that long as they screwup something in their first service and still didn't do anything to fix it when I took it back to them.
  As backpaqer has mentioned even if they didn't check the items they have to check during the service and just do the tick on the paper, then the consumption should stay same which was far better than after the service. They should have done something to trigger more fuel consumption.

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  [Deactivated] on 22/08/2013 - 15:54

  Chadstone Toyota is pretty good and professional for service wise.

  Also, you get free car wash each visit and provide pick n drop off to nearby shoping centre if you don't want to wait there while car is getting serviced.

  Thats only place I go and happy with the service, so far only did my capped price servicing with them.

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    rmamila on 23/08/2013 - 14:47

    That's a news to me. I've never got a car wash despite buying the car from them and visited them multiple times. I've bought the car from Glenwaverley and did the first service from them. Then had visit couple of times again to fix the issues on the new car.

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      [Deactivated] on 23/08/2013 - 21:23

      I bought car from Chadstone Toyota on princess hgway (opposite hungry Jacks) and been with them for 2 yrs, 4 car service and 1-2 extra check up for car tyre pressure issue. Every time, car came washed.

      I never been elsewhere, so can't really compare. But I liked their service so far.

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        rmamila on 25/08/2013 - 23:39

        Do they provide a Courtesy car as well? I need to find a place where they provide a Courtesy car so that don't have to take a leave from work to do the car service. I am happy to go to a dealership out from my daily route as long as I get a car to drive for the day. I have some experience with Nunawading toyota as well. Their prices are better than Glenwaverly but I am not sure about their service/quality. It can be similar to Glenwaverly one. Nunawading toyota had given me a Courtesy car once too.

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        [Deactivated] on 27/08/2013 - 12:44

        Hi

        I normally get my car service on saturdays ( one saturday a month they open, I think its 2nd saturday). You can ring and book it for saturday service if like. They provide drop off and pick up to nearby train station or Chadstone Shopping Centre if dnt want to wait there in showroom. Car is ususally serviced within 2/2.5 hrs time.

        And on courtesy car, no idea as never needed & asked for it.

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  backpaqer on 23/08/2013 - 08:37

  The "Dealer" warranty is usually only a 3rd Party Insurance product sold by the dealership - it's not specific to them, just a product they sell (and make a little more money on) - check the paperwork just in case, it could be a new product which is indeed only backed by the dealership - in which case I'd be checking the price you paid versus an aftermarket insurance product (which means you can get your car serviced at any reputable auto-shop). As I mentioned with the Nissan (2000 Maxima model) - everything is pretty much "inspection only" on most services, you would only need parts replaced in extreme circumstances (when something breaks)…I've gone through two alternators - first one was replaced by Nissan for just over $1000…second time it went I bought one from the local auto-store and fitted it myself for $260 in one hour (fortunately I had the factory manual explaining the procedure as it is not an easy job). From my observations, dealerships will sell you a brand new car at a very low profit margin and hope to make it all back by robbing you blind in the after-sales services. In my case, Ken Morgan even ripped me off in the sales process by having my car fitted with a non-genuine spoiler and when questioned about it said that there was no such thing as a genuine Nissan spoiler - boy were they embarrassed when I could supply them the part number of said non-existent spoiler (thanks to my dad who works in the industry).

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    rmamila on 23/08/2013 - 14:58

    Thanks for the info. I will have a look in my documents. Still I don't think it's a good idea to stick with them for the service as I got the problem only after servicing from them and it started next day. Still they say that it's normal for a Kluger to take 17-18 L when it had given me less than 12 average for previous 7000km and even the last tank before the service. After the service I never managed to get less than 15 even if I drive on freeways. My average is now close to 17 despite filling from same fuel, same gas station, drive on same route to work at same time. My car is still under 1 year old and when I think about future services from them, I am very concerned.
    Only plus point I have is that they are just 3 km from my home and 4 km from my work. It's right on the way I drive everyday. If I have to go to another dealership I have to take leave from work to go there. Still Dandenong and Chadstone is not very far for me.