Bay Area Toyota/Scion Dealership Reviews?
 

How was all of your experiences at the various dealerships in the Bay Area?

Which ones has the best and most professional service department?

I wanted to bring my FR-S in to get my passenger auto up/down feature fixed (I have the issue in this thread: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...+window&page=2)
I've heard some horror stories about dealerships (joy riding, damaging, etc.) and wanted to avoid all that if possible.

I was originally planning to bring it to my local dealership, City Toyota in Daly City - had an OK sales experience when I bought my FR-S. But today, I went in to pick up some stuff I ordered (touch up paint with the coupon posted awhile back).
As I walked back to my car, I overheard the sales guys talking rather loudly - some unprofessional stuff not worth repeating. But, enough to make me not want to bring my business to City Toyota.

The service department is obviously separate from sales - but the actions of anybody working there reflects the management and the dealership as a whole. So, I'm looking for a dealership with a more professional attitude for service and to buy parts from in the future - any recommendations? How's SF Toyota or Melody Toyota?

Or maybe I'm completely off base - is the service at City Toyota great?

Its not called "Shitty" Toyota for no reason. I actually know someone who works in the service department and he says the same thing about that dealership.:D

not to brag cause i work at toyota marin but our service guys are pretty chill and great, would never damage your car. parts department is pretty average.got me what i needed in a reasonable amount of time.

anyone but city Toyota.

City Toyota is pretty shitty. Took my car in 3 times for condensation in tail lights. They couldn't "reproduce the issue" so they kept my car for a day or so for the first two times despite me having the pictures and videos for it. The third time I brought it in was when there was condensation in it before they actually took it apart and replace the gasket (still kept my car for a day). There's still condensation in my lights but barely which I rather not bring in anymore to get it fixed. They also tried to put the blame on me by constantly asking if I directly spray water. Aside from that, they wouldn't even volunteer to help me remove the rust dust on my car even when it was only less than 2 weeks old and barely driven (No more than 30-40 miles at the time and I got it when it had 15 miles). They said that it was my own job to clay bar and remove it myself when the car is practically brand new and was there when I brought the car home. Despite those issues, I've also complained that the front license plate frame holder damaged my front bumper due to the fact it wasn't drilled. They would not help me fix the bumper let alone saying they are going to drill it through. I refused that and just went on with the TSB to disable DRLs.

which department do you work on? so i guess you know my black car?? ;)

If we are talking about SERVICE DEPARTMENT not SALES I've had really good experience with Peircy service.

The only issue I've had so far in my 28K miles was tail light condensation but they never hassled me about it. I brought the car in and the service adviser was super chill and even apologetic for the problem. Also when I get my oil changed/service they've never had my car for more than 4 hours and never put over a mile on the ODO.

Sales people at Toyota one of Oakland and Hayward Toyota are nice. Service departments are both totally incompetent in my experience.

Years ago I brought my MR2 Spyder in for an oil change at Hayward. They lifted the car improperly (at the wrong lift points) and damaged/bent the rear body panels as a result. The MR2 is particularly prone to damage if you don't lift at the proper points. I raised holy hell on them and they to their credit, were super apologetic and paid to have it fixed by a body shop etc. But after that I took my car to Dublin Toyota for regular maintenance instead. They've been pretty good and we still take our tC there for the easy stuff (oil changes). For warranty issues I also took it to Toyota101 in RWC with no problems.

But now that I am out of warranty on the older cars, I'd rather take it to other shops that I trust for maintenance instead. I recommend Motorsport Techniques in Hayward and Exact Motorsports in Milpitas, both are very good. (5 and 4.5 stars on Yelp, respectively).

im in sales,only been here 5 months now. i have only seen a asphalt and hot lava and whiteout being serviced. i watch the service guys though work on the cars. very thorough cause the gm is close by and managers. we are very strict on customer service.

really great when you service your car you get a car wash.

Same experience. I had my condensated tails replaced and they told me they had to order it, they didnt bullshit me about me spraying water onto the tails. Now, my trunk lip (aka spoiler) is coming off, i told them about it and they ordered the part for me at no cost. They only thing that i didnt like the last time i was there was how they washed the car. Did it half assed.

Capitol Toyota/ Scion Dealership here in San Jose seems decent. I actually bought my FRS there. When they were bringing it down from the display ramp, the front underside produced some sparks and immediately my son alerted me to that as we were driving home the car since i did not see it (was too busy signing papers and stuff). after a few days, i actually did the actual walk around to inspect the car and noted some of the issues I didn't see since I bought it at nite (almost closing time). They never questioned any of my complaints and addressed the issues straight forward. The only thing I didn't like was that they had to keep my car over the weekend to totally have it painted ( the front bumper underside). I would have been fine with touch up since its not really a big deal to me, but since they are going to keep it over nite, I elected to have them repaint the bumper. On the day of pickup, the service manager calls me and lets me know that he spotted air bubbles- (small) but he can see it, and didn't feel right giving me the car then. So, he asked if they could keep it an extra day to correct the issue and I told them yes. Mind you , at the time I dropped off the car, I put a yellow post it note ,the actual mileage of the car on the front mileage gauge. It read my mileage and please do not remove ( have fear of the service techs driving and putting crazy miles on my car). When I went to pick up my car, the post it notes was still there and they only added 5 miles to my original miles since the painting shop is actually 2 miles from the dealership and had to drive back and forth twice to the shop. The car looks great and totally happy with the service techs and manager at the place. Hope this helps...........:w00t:

the Putnam group's lot of dealership are good people too.

Putnam Toyota has great guys. I know of 3 mechanics who my dad trusts in working with our cars, including our garage queen FR-S.

One of them owns a classic Celica, the brother owns an AW11 Mr2. There's also one who owned a Lotus Elise, and another one has a clean, modded S2k.

They know their stuff even in the aftermarket world.

Thanks for the input everyone, guess the gut was right to stay away from City Toyota.

Do you happen to know the name of one or all three 3 mechanics? I think I'll schedule an appointment with Putnam, maybe I can request one of those specific guys.

Also, have you see the new white FR-S parked on Callan w/ dealer plates, down the hill from King Plaza? Counting your friend's raven (I'm guessing he's gone for college right now), there's 3 of us within a 2 blocks span on Callan haha.

I bought my Whiteout from City Toyota :(

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Marty, Adam, and Aaron are the 3 my dad trusts. Marty did the PDI on our FR-S. He didn't even drive the car to the service bay, he let my dad drive it!

If you're there, drop by my dad so he can introduce you to them, tell him you know me from the forum. His name is Bernoulli. Tell me when you're there I'll let him know =)

That's awesome to know that there's someone that we can trust in the bay area. would it be okay if I can do this as well? Reason being is that I have that chirping issue now and would like to find a way to get it resolved by a trusted mechanic.

Wanted to at least get a response before just walking up and saying that we all know you ^_^.

I've always heard good things from putnam.

How exactly are you planning on getting it "resolved"? The people that have gotten their HPFP replaced just end up getting the chirping again after a few months.

Just embrace the chirping!

Saw on a search that there's a replacement for this that finally worked -- unless I read it wrong.

Here's the quote:
Originally Posted by infinite012 http://www.ft86club.com/forums/third...s/viewpost.gif
I just got back from my local dealership and they told me there is, indeed, a revised TSB. I saw the paperwork and it looks like it was revised 5/8/13 and the new fix includes a new pump, a new plunger (this wasn't on the old one, I believe), as well as new hard fuel line, o-ring, and misc things. I'll be going back once the parts are in and hopefully say goodbye forever to the chirp



2nd thought, I'd probably end up waiting a bit before making an appointment to see if this really fixes the problem.

Oh interesting - thanks for that, hadn't seen that post!

Still though, I realize everyone has a different opinion on these types of things, but I can't say that I personally consider it a "problem". My rationale is it's just a noise, and doesn't affect the ability for the car to put a huge smile on my face every time I take it out to the twisties! :D

This. I feel like a "fix" getting rid of the noise will hurt the fueling performance. All DI cars are noisy, every single one of them. Most people on this forum have never owned a DI car before and are just freaking out, or are pissed their cheap ass car makes cheap noises, lol.

Don't you think Toyota knew it made this sound?

Sure thing! Talk to my dad first, best time is when he's not with a customer because he's usually on the sales floor, but he usually talks to past customers in the customer/service lounge. When you do talk to him, ask him about the mechanics, because you probably won't be able to find them because they'll be in the back :)

My dad had already talked to them about the chirping issue. When was your car built? Adam is usually the one who is really good at troubleshooting issues (he's currently working on our Prius's mysterious dashboard rattle).

But anyways, they haven't done anything with it especially since our car only has 270 miles. But some of the things that get complained about...like noises, are normal. I'll ask if they've worked on the cricket or chirping stuff. They've only had one problematic FR-S and it had to do with something in the engine...don't really know the issue but it ended up being covered by warranty.

Ahh, I got my car at the end of March, with about 9 miles on it -- The Car was built late February. I do hear the chirp, but someone else has mentioned that it may just be the way it is. Since there's no detrimental effect I probably won't go in yet. I will keep your dad in mind and the service center there in mind since there's already a name, and person of reference for good support and trustworthy support on this car.

I'll probably just take my car there for servicing and warranty maintenance =).

Hey, I'm looking for some dealerships around the bay area that have a decent price on a Frs and Brz. Anyone recommendations based on the experiences? I want to take my purchase on a dealership that isn't shady and actually takes care of their customers.

No recommended dealers from me, especially if you want a base model with no options. I'd rather pull teeth for a day or some other annoying task than try to get a Bay Area dealer to order a car with no options. I was willing to put down a deposit (and did, and got screwed) and willing to wait months but no dice, no options = no profit for them.

Bought mine at Steven's Creek, ONCE they got the car I wanted the buying process was simple, just had to sit there for four hours and turn down maintenance add-ons, extended warranties, and "theft protection" while watching my $80 doc fee be put to work scanning papers. They called back later and tried to up my interest rate, said they'd write a check TO ME for the difference in interest over five years, I agreed since I was planning to pay off early and a .15% bump in interest rate was inconsequential, free money basically. Check was NOT mailed to me and instead went towards paying off the car, didn't want to waste my time complaining, so I let it go.

This seems to be standard practice for dealers (except the interest increase bit, that was shady, I could have just said no since we had a contract though). Hope I never have to buy a car from a dealer again, much less step on the lot of any Bay Area Toyota dealer.

Best dealership I've ever been to was Penske Acura, I wouldn't hesitate to walk into any Penske dealer to shop around, very low pressure. Unfortunately the closest Penske Toyota is in Clovis, I should have put more effort into buying from them in hindsight. Almost flew up to Oregon to buy an FRS it was so frustrating down here. :lol:

Are you looking for an automatic or a manual?

Ironic to the original post, City Scion is actually one of the fewest dealerships who sell their FR-S at MSRP without mark-up.

There's a black one for MSRP at Putnam which my dad can help you out with, but it's automatic.

One of my friends recently got a BRZ at MSRP from Carlsen. He traded in his RX-8 and got a decent deal I suppose, considering most Subaru dealers in the Bay are still marking up.

I bought my BRZ out-of-state from Colorado... if you want a better deal than what Bay Area dealers are offering, consider buying out of state. See my CO > CA link in my sig below for in-depth discussions of the pros and cons.

awesome I'll check it out thanks!

I'll check out City Scion, I'm looking for a black FRS MT or a white FRS MT. If Toyota dealerships aren't that good.. How about Subaru?

lol...Putnam, they wouldn't even let me test drive the FRS, but they were okay if I test drove the $50k Avalon. Ended up buying a base model in Lodi, in and out in 30mins...

City Toyota had a $4k markup on a black one just cause they added leather...they would not budge on the $4k markup when I tried. anyone can have the seats done for 3/4 less...they did let me test drive it though...

scion has pure price,only way they can markup is adding leather or some other crap. visit me at toyota marin and i wont hassle you. we try to do business honestly for sales and lay everything clearly out.

City Toyota/Scion is your best bet as for FRS at or near msrp price. Just their service center is horrible. otd will probably cost you around 28-29k. They might try to trick you into adding extended warranty which is extra 2k but its up to you. Almost all Subaru dealership has a mark up on the BRZ. DO NOT GO TO SERRAMONTE SUBARU. 10k mark up there when I went to check it out a few months ago. Asking 40k otd. FRS's would be cheaper than BRZ's in most of California. If you want a cheaper FRS/BRZ, I'd follow @PMok's method for CO>CA cars.

Capitol Subaru has a mark up of 1000 :barf: Kinda sucks...i wonder how it is in Socal

That's surprising, last year when I was looking for a FR-S/BRZ, Capitol Subaru was one of the few Nor Cal dealerships selling at MSRP - only thing was they had a 4 month wait-list at the time.

Check out the Colorado Subaru dealerships ... lots of CA people bought their BRZs from CO with great success. I talked to one dealership in CO a lot and was very close to buying the BRZ below MSRP from CO, ended up going with a FRS instead:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20652

Ultramarine FR-S...great choice :). Congrats!

Edit: oops, my bad I thought you meant Capitol Scion, but the lowest markup I've seen at Capitol Subaru was $3k so there's that... I'll leave what I posted below because it's still true.

What? Every time I walked on the lot or called them (they were the closest dealer) they said they COULD NOT sell me one at MSRP and that they were no longer taking deposits or using a formal wait list. Always said "oh those are reserved, let me take your number and we'll call you if we get any in" the very next day "hey that car you saw last night is MAGICALLY available, it also costs $27k to $32k." This was in September.

Oh well, they didn't get my business anyway.

Capitol would not sell me one at MSRP either. One of the reasons I wound up with a FR-S.

Ah I see, maybe if I went through with a deposit at Capitol Subaru they would've switched up the prices for me. Or, I'm thinking maybe it's because I was talking with the internet/fleet manager rather than a sales guy on the floor/phone. I just did a quick search in my gmail, this is a quote from an email:

"The reservation Process:

A) Place deposit of $500 (risk-free) 100% refundable no questions asked
B) Register configuration preferences, ie, Premium or Limited? Color choice(s)
C) Receive updates on demand
D) Best of all, your price will not be marked up, MSRP is guaranteed.

Hope this info helps. Thanks for your interest in our Subaru!

Cheers,

Tommy Quach
Internet Manager"

I never went through with the process though - I wouldn't be surprised if it was just some dealership tactic to switch up the price last minute ($1000 aftermarket tint 'upgrade' anyone?). At the time, I figured I would go the Colorado route if I wanted a BRZ.

When I went to Capitol Subaru, Limited SWP MT was marked up by $5k. I showed them a craigslist ad by them listing it for $29k and they agreed to sell it to me for that price plus fees. Around the same time I was getting my car, another person came in and picked up a Premium WRB AT for $26k. When I asked the salesman why his car was so much cheaper, they said it was because the Limited SWP MT was still a hot option on the market still so they wouldn't sell it MSRP.