Yeah, it’s not hard to say " Not right now I’d like to wait and do some research". Fuck just make something up for God’s sake. Tell them you don’t have the money right now or or if the dealer will pay for it you can do it.

The pen is mightier than the sword 🤠

That moment when your filing all the sales paperwork at the toyota dealership and the salesman is pushing all the warranties and coverages on a new car…

buy this extended warranty, this and that, car can break down, this can happen, you never know with reliability…

All this bullshit rhetoric about Toyota quality, all of a sudden your telling me you dont stand by it? Then why tf am I buying this toyota car?

One Toyota dealer I went to kept telling me my brand new battery was bad. I ignored them but bought a battery jump pack just in case. The last time it went for repairs I went to a different Toyota dealer when my car was overheating and they said my battery was in good condition.

The problem is that when it comes to dealerships, there is a massive power imbalance. When you go into a Best Buy to buy a computer, chances are you know what you want, all the prices are clearly labeled in the store, it’s easy to compare prices with other retailers, you know how much computers should cost, etc. Best Buy has very little opportunity to swindle you. But that’s why they swindle old people, upsell them, and load them up with geek squad warranties. Computers are to old people as cars are to most people.

Most people going into a dealership for car trouble don’t know what’s wrong with their car, none of the prices are transparent, there’s no way to compare prices, people don’t know how much stuff should cost, the technical details are confusing to them, etc. This gives dealerships open opportunity to capitalize on their conflict of interest and prey on you.

It’s why I’d encourage everyone to at least learn a little bit about cars and basic parts & maintenance.

A lot of them don’t lie to get business though. It’s very common for a dealership to straight make shit up if the customer isn’t car savvy. Sometimes you actually have a good product or service that people want. That said not all dealers are like this. I have one 20 miles away that does immaculate service. Never tries to upsell and doesn’t just throw parts at the issue.

Name a business in the retail world with the same monopolies enjoyed by car dealers.

I like going to the dealer for these. I act super interested in the tacomas and 4Runners and supras and GRs and ask to test drive any manuals they have. Rarely they even let me!

Yes. Keep receipts.

This! I don’t. I kept their devices (gave them away to a mechanic) (looked up the brand - $1,300 or so - recording devices) they left in my car after they drove it around for 200+ miles. They never even called about it 😂. Win some, you lose some.

I don’t feel bad for most people who have dealerships rape them, but when it’s the elderly, it really tics me off. My elderly aunt went in and they wanted $85 to replace a cabin air filter in a 2013 Kia. Luckily, she called me from the dealership to ask me if it was a good price.

That’s a wild way of looking at life my dude. The technicians are literally just doing their job. If you have a problem with them, you are under no means being forced to go to them.

Dealerships fuck over their employees more than they will you. The customer gets off lucky by only having to go once, maybe twice a year, but the actual employees there? They’re typically under such strict metrics and expected to turn over so much work that this sort of stuff is required for them to make any money. Meanwhile management that put those policies in effect will talk down an angry customer while saying thats not the kind of buisness they run, they invented it.

Ouch… I can honestly say I’ve never taken advantage of anyone while I’ve worked in the car business. And I’ve been doing it for 11 years now. And just because we make our money off of sales doesn’t make the food we put on the table any different than an accountant who counts the beans the salespeople make for any company. Harsh words.

Imagine being an adult and blaming someone else for your decisions.

Exactly it takes 2

Aaaand this is why it sucks to buy used cars. Diffs and transmissions do go bad. In fact I’d wager their early, avoidable death is why most most cars end up junked anyways when chances are everything else works fine. All because manufacturers and dealers sell this trap that they rarely need to be replaced and people fall for it.

Honda (pilot/passport) is change diff fluid after 15,000 miles, then every 36,000 after that. My M3 had diff fluid done (under warranty) at 1200 miles (yes, 1,200 miles) and again at 30,000. New parts wear. That wear contaminates the fluid. It’s a simple service, just spill and fill.

I was going to say this. Inspect doesn’t mean that’s the change interval.

On the newer model rav4 and highlanders with all wheel drive the front transfer case and rear differential fluid is due every 30k. Toyota LX gear oil. The ones I’ve seen at 50-70k actually come out very dirty and dark colored. A lot different than you standard gear oil you see in decent condition at 60-90k

Just looked up a 2020 AWD RAV4. For 15k they say “Inspect transfer oil” this is for normal maintenance, but a little lower in the 15k explanation they say, “if towing, car-top carrier, or heavy loading replace transfer oil and rear diff oil.”

Now at the 30k, they just explicitly say replace transfer case oil for all conditions.

Mind you this is RAV4 gasoline engine. The Hybrid has other interesting maintenance items, such as clean HV filter every 5000 miles

The Car Care Nut schedule seems the most sensible. Replace engine oil every 5000 miles. Change transfer case and rear differential gear oil every 30,000 miles. Replace the transmission “drain and fill” every 60,000 miles with WS ATF. The filter never really clogs unless you never change the tranny fluid. I personally will be changing 30,000 miles just to be a little cleaner. Note you should do flushes, or drain and fill every 10,000 miles, as you need some debris to help with gears engaging. Too often and the transmission can slip.

Ignore the dealer as they’ll change whatever they think can extract money from you. And they’ll follow garbage advice like lifetime fluid, or go the other way and recommend flushes or cleaning out sludge or carbon build up.

This is a very, very important note: flushes aren’t necessary if you change the fluids like you’re supposed to. There shouldn’t be gunk waiting to build up in the first place.

With quality full synthetic oil, 10k miles is fine. In Europe it’s not uncommon to go 15,000 miles (25,000km) between oil changes. Now, this “partial synthetic” Honda and Toyota dealers use? Yeah, I wouldn’t go more than 5k.

Toyota shot themselves in the foot by marketing the sealed transmissions as having “lifetime fluid”. Fluid analysis has indicated that the cooling properties of the World Standard ATF break down after around 40,000 miles. They are banking on the fact that Aisin transmissions used in Toyota’s (still reliable overall, but comparatively the least reliable aspect of the powertrain) will in most cases outlive the cars themselves before they are written off as totaled by an insurance company or salvage titled over the years.

The Toyota maintenance schedule doesn’t mention transmission servicing at all on most of their vehicles. However, the Lexus maintenance schedules recommend a fluid flush at 120k miles in the severe schedule for some of their cars with an identical engine/transmission (e.g. Lexus ES vs Camry). Meanwhile, both Lexus and Toyota dealerships will happily sell you a transmission flush regardless of the maintenance schedule. I’ve learned nobody really knows what’s best since they’ve omitted key maintenance info for marketing/metric purposes, so you’re best off flushing every 100k miles at most.