Amazing dealer follow-through on CEL issue
 

Well, my dealer has really come through for me. We are on day 10 with the car and their good-faith attempts to fix, and the dealer offered me three options when I pressed them on how long it's been there - stay the course with the current FR-S, unwind the deal and get me my money back, or get me a new car from another dealer. I hadn't ranted and raved or gotten worked up - I simply called the General Manager and explained my situation calmly and respectfully.

I first opted to wait out the repair, but two things changed my mind. The next round of parts replacement didn't work, and then I got a very candid call from my awesome service manager that there was a paint chip on one of the fenders - asking if perhaps I had brought it in that way. I told him that I had only had the car for four days since 8/15, and they said it probably happened as they were doing work. He also indicated that the fender would probably need to be repainted to properly repair the issue, even though there had been no effect on the metal - in fact, it went only as far as the primer.

I spoke to the Sales Manager that night after seeing the admittedly slight damage, and told him that I'd like to go with the new car - this was undoubtedly a sign that this car isn't meant for me. They have a new car coming in from another dealership (they traded one of their FR-S's for it) that they will put me into this evening (Friday).

I know there's a chance that it will have the same issue, but perhaps by the time I bring this one back, Toyota will have a silent or full recall in place, and it will be a painless three day job. I'm told (not by the dealer) that they ARE in fact slowing down production of new FR-Ss to fast-track parts into the US because there just aren't enough parts in the channel. They may even stop production completely for a brief period.

I have to say that Toyota has really impressed me here. When I brought the car in initially, no one tried to suggest it was bad gas. No one reset the error code / CEL and said drive it around some more. No one told me it was nothing to worry about - even though the only real symptom I had was the RPM drop and an occasional rough idle (I couldn't repro it when I arrived).

It was clear to me that the service manager was empowered to do what was right - he put me in a loaner, and hasn't tried to send me home with the car once in the last four attempts they've made (without sometimes defective replacement parts) to fix the car. Instead, they said they felt they need to let the car cool down overnight and then test drive it in the morning to be sure the CEL didn't come on again. Each of the four times it did, they called me before I thought to call them to say they needed to keep the car.

Amazing service - no two ways about it. This is model behavior for what other dealers should be doing.

When Scion Customer Service called me back today, I told them the entire, positive story. I can't help but be South Coast Toyota/Scion's biggest cheerleader right now.

If everything comes through as expected in the next few hours, I'll probably make my first post to Yelp. I'm glad it can be a positive one.

Thanks for posting this. I am in SoCal and have an FR-S with the CEL issue and have been looking for a dealer who has experience with the fix and knows how to treat their customers. Could you PM me the service advisor/manager you've been working with?

Thanks!

Cool...I'd like to buy my FRS from this dealer...please let me know

I had the same situation happen to me, I purchased an FRS, died within 24 hours, got put into an brand new FRS within two weeks. So far my FRS is doing well, but we'll see what happens!

I'm glad that you are treated well. :)

That's amazing service right there, thanks for sharing this with the community. I hope the new car works out for you.

Good luck on FR-S #2! This revives my hope in dealing with a dealership (although not much knowing the ones around here). Glad there are still some honest people out there that don't just look at the bottom line but who actually see the customers as people rather than numbers.

That is just awesome news!
I'll be heading over to the dealers tomorrow over at Power Cerritos just to let them know.
I'd rather not drop off the car until I know that there IS a fix for the errs.
If they are willing to put me in a new FR-S then By golly, Sure!

Everything happened as expected - since I had bought my original FR-S there on 8/15, they simply unwind the deal and moved my down payment over to the other car and completed the paperwork on that one. They gave me a discount (not typical) on the 60 month / 100K mile platinum warranty - something it may make sense for us all to consider.

I should emphasize that I don't know if they would be as quick to arrange for a new car if you didn't purchase the car with them - I can't imagine how the deal would be unwound if it had been made at another dealer.

Good luck - and I'm hoping this is the last time I visit a Scion service department anytime soon, except for my routine oil changes.

Good luck! I ended up calling some of the sister dealerships that are owned by David Wilson Auto Group - and found the car in Riverside. Otherwise, I might have had to wait for the one coming over on the boat from Japan. I was also lucky that one of his four stores had a couple of FR-S's on the lot.

It was great to see that for me as well. But they did need some "coaxing" - and I find that if we treat them like professionals (while asking probing questions) most service people will act professionally in return. I was constantly sharing their concern that all this much be keeping them pretty busy, and it's not easy to be diagnosing the issues on brand new cars. This approach worked particularly well with the general manager, who I at one point called to see if I could get his help.

Just a suggestion to all - I find it works best not to be one of the "shouters", but instead to say things like "I'll be your biggest cheerleader if you're able to make this right for me" and "I know you're struggling with this, trying to figure things out, even as the factory sorts out what's happening" and "I'll give Scion Customer Service a call and tell them the kind of service I've gotten here" (after it was clear they were going to give me options to move things along after the first week and a half.).

That's great to hear - there are good people in the world!

Done!

Oh, and I would approach the general sales manager directly, Brian O'Donnell, and tell him Bob with the blue FR-S sent you because of the fantastic sales and follow through he received. I had told them that I would be their biggest cheerleader on Yelp.

Then, he'll take a personal interest in seeing that your experience is a good one, and you always have recourse to call him or name drop with some of the others - the front line staff and the finance manager in dealerships are the ones who are responsible for the hard sell, and this can help you get past some of that.