Is this Toyota dealer dishonest or?

The software that the dealer is using probably is smart enough to insert the year and model for your vehicle but not smart enough to know the specific requirements for it so they use a generic recommendation based on the most service-intensive vehicle. For example, vehicles with drum brakes should have periodic cleaning and have the adjustment checked.

Follow the recommendations in your owner's manual.

They have had a full year to get it right! Is this anything other gross incompetence, misrepresentation and fraud for personal or corporate gain? Blaming software and at this late date - does this have any validity people? So what kind of service should I expect with this sort of thinking?

He didn't say recommended by whom. He recommends you bring in the car more than necessary so he can make more money.

Ray's comments were spot-on.

I hope you find peace.

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Why don't you call the dealer up and ask why the letter says "4 MONTHS" instead of 6. Maybe he'll /claim/ it was just a /typo/.

Would be a good excuse on his part while he still snares those who don't read the manual.

Note that it doesn't say WHO recommends 4 months or 5,000 miles.

Certainly the *dealer* recommends that.

Well, of *course* he is.

You need to get it out of your mind that these people have any interest in your as a person. They see you as a cash cow to be milked. And they will do everything they can to separate your money from your wallet.

It's not misrepresentation in the least.

Grow up, fer chrissakes.

Must depend upon the dealership. I walked in once quite a few years ago, asking about a tune-up, pre-winter, since I'd had only minor services done up till that point. The service manager asked how many miles I had on the car (~10K, IIRC), & then asked how it was running. Fine, I said. He replied,"In that case, don't bother until you hit 15K (IIRC) miles, since that's what's recommended as the first major servicing for your particular car."

Cathy

Dealerships generally purchase software from vendors, who make it generic enough to be able to sell to dealerships for any make and model. The letters and advertisements are basically just a mail merge. The recommended interval used to be 4 months or 3,000 miles, they probably just changed the mileage.

I have a feeling that I will find out if this is their standard business practice. They may just want to 'mail-merge' a correction or retraction to everyone. A major chain was recently convicted and at least fined big time for selling un-needed parts and services. Don't know the details but in CA you better not do this or you may find yourself doing a classic perp walk.

Have other T owners gotten similar letters with incorrect service intervals?

Almost all dealers advocate much more maintenance than required by the manufacturer because dealers now derive most of their profits from the service dept., not the sales dept. If you follow the strictest maintenance schedule listed in the owner's manual, you'll likely spend only 30-50% the cost of the dealer's recommendations. There's one maintenance item that may actually not be recommended enough: brake fluid change. If you have ABS, get it done every 2 years, regardless of mileage (removes moisture, which is absorbed from the air, even through rubber brake lines).

Chassis lubrication now often consists of merely spraying rubber preservative on the joint boots (ball, CV, steering rack) and suspension bushings. Rear brake service probably entails inspecting the shoes (if they're drum brakes, I hope they pull the drums since there's usually an inspection port for only 1 of the shoes, and shoes and pads don't always wear evenly) and adjusting the parking brake.

Eh? I've never heard of any such requirements.

I had a similar situation. I simply showed them the recommendations in the owner's manual (as Ray O recommended) and asked why they were suggesting different. The dealer backed off.

Arthur Hass

MO full name wrote:

With the advent of automatic transmissions, many people no longer routinely use their parking brakes, and using the parking brake is what adjusts the shoes on Toyotas with drum brakes. Periodic cleaning will lessen brake squeal.

IIRC, in the old days applying the (drum) brakes while in reverse would adjust them. Is this no longer the case? Or maybe Toyota's just different?

Toyota used two different systems. One is as you describe, just applying the brakes in reverse. The other type is adjusted by applying the parking brake. Even so, the automatic adjusters often do not do an adequate job and so they require manual adjustment. The backing plates have plugs for access to the star wheel, and the repair manual has procedures for adjusting the brakes because of the limited adjustment range of the automatic adjusters,