Has anyone had problems getting their Prius serviced by non-Toyota service shops?
I have an '04 Prius with 85K miles on it. Except for an air conditioning problem, it has been fairly reliable. However, except for routine oil changes, independent mechanics are very reluctant (read: won't touch it) to do anything major to this car. My own mechanic who works on our Murano will do brakes, and things like that. He even said that they can clean the throttle body, but nothing else.
This is a concern, because here in S. Florida, I cannot seem to find an honest and competent Toyota dealer. I have been to all of them in Miami-Dade and Southern Broward county, and do not care to go back to any of them. One dealer couldn't fix an A/C problem, another dealer wanted to sell me new front brakes at 60K miles (found out later there was nothing wrong with them), at major service intervals they want to load up on the work. And to top it off (pun intended), when one of these guys does an oil change, I have to check the dipstick because 9 times out of 10 it will be way above or below the mark.
Has anyone else had this problem, if so, what do you do? My Toyota extended warranty expired this month and I am getting nervous if something major happens to the car.
Steve