I’m just done with the dealerships in my area because they both have service departments that will literally drag their feet unless you’re hounding them on the phone (I’m not talking 31 minutes for a 30 minute job. I’m talking a week to a week and a half for the same 30 minute job with no real clarity on what’s even going on), or you’ll get techs who half ass their job and claim everything is fine when in reality there’s a problem so simple to fix brewing, but yet since nothing got said, nothing got done. Then the problem causes issues that just about left me stranded in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Luckily I ended up fixing it myself (since it was fucking simple) but it pissed me off. When I confronted that service department they denied it, I had to pull out the fucked up part for them to realize I wasn’t kidding. I didn’t want any reimbursement or free shit from them. I just wanted them to acknowledge they fucked up. I would say I’m going to another brand but I’ve had shadier crap from dealers (cough A Chevy dealer tried to upcharge a headlamp replacement to over 4K cough) for other brands and I’d likely end up with a much worse quality car in the end. (I picked Toyota because I didn’t want to have a car break down because I breathed wrong.) At this point, I’m just gonna spend time learning to do more basic work on the car myself and keep it out of the dealership as much as I can. As for dealer markups, I’ve specifically watched a Subaru dealer try the same shit on my parents when they recently got their Crosstrek. The dealer problems are just sadly universal. I do wish Toyota could do something about the way some of their dealers behave but I don’t even know what they could realistically do. At this point I’d rather learn to do some shit myself/find a decent shop to go to and make my car live as long as physically possible because I don’t like dealing with dealers whatsoever. I’d recommend anyone reading my rambling to do the same.
Stay away from mine! I want mine to outlive us all. I want to drive mine until the wheels fall off.