Car Dealership Service/Repair Rip-Offs

[Anonymous]

My 2015 Lexus IS350 made jittery noise so I took it to a dealership for an estimate. After 30 minutes at the dealership, I got a quote for $2400, and they said it had to be done immediately or risk damaging the engine. I told them I need to think about it and let them know later in the day. One of my work colleagues's son is a mechanic specialized in Toyota, and he checked the car. Within 15 minutes, he told me that the car needed new transmission oil and only cost me $50, including service. I paid him $50 and $200 in tip. The car is running fine after the transmission oil change. What a ripoff from the car dealer service.

[Anonymous]

I hope that was the correct fix!

[Anonymous]

What was dealer's findings?

[Anonymous]

I would go back to the dealer & let him know you are fully aware that he tried to rip you off and that you not only will be spreading the word in the community but that you will be leaving a very negative review on Yelp.

Signed,
A single woman who has been scammed a multitude of times by several mechanics 😠

[Anonymous]

Mind sharing the Toyota mechanic you used? Good karma to give them business

And if you are up for it, sharing the dealership and the advisors name would be fun too!!

[Anonymous]

It's like this: dealerships don't "fix" things, they replace them. If the transmission is doing weird stuff, they don't diagnose it, they just want to replace it. A real mechanic will actually try to fix it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2015 Lexus IS350 made jittery noise so I took it to a dealership for an estimate. After 30 minutes at the dealership, I got a quote for $2400, and they said it had to be done immediately or risk damaging the engine. I told them I need to think about it and let them know later in the day. One of my work colleagues's son is a mechanic specialized in Toyota, and he checked the car. Within 15 minutes, he told me that the car needed new transmission oil and only cost me $50, including service. I paid him $50 and $200 in tip. The car is running fine after the transmission oil change. What a ripoff from the car dealer service.

Dealer was probably quoting a new transmission & installation.

Let us know if the simple fix works.

Used car dealers used to have quick, cheap fixes for transmission problems tat were only temporary masks of the real issue. (Used to put sawdust in bad transmissions to disguise the problem.)

Hopefully, it was just a simple issue.

[Anonymous]

"transmission oil"

OP, what did the dealer say was wrong with your car?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 2015 Lexus IS350 made jittery noise so I took it to a dealership for an estimate. After 30 minutes at the dealership, I got a quote for $2400, and they said it had to be done immediately or risk damaging the engine. I told them I need to think about it and let them know later in the day. One of my work colleagues's son is a mechanic specialized in Toyota, and he checked the car. Within 15 minutes, he told me that the car needed new transmission oil and only cost me $50, including service. I paid him $50 and $200 in tip. The car is running fine after the transmission oil change. What a ripoff from the car dealer service.

$50 doesn’t pay for a sufficient quantity of Toyota-spec ATF required for that transmission.

Your mechanic friend just put non-spec fluid in your transmission.

[Anonymous]

VW dealer was a rip off. Issue that never got solved. Took it in 5 or 6 times; kept coming up with different fixes and charging.

[Anonymous]

which lexus dealership?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2015 Lexus IS350 made jittery noise so I took it to a dealership for an estimate. After 30 minutes at the dealership, I got a quote for $2400, and they said it had to be done immediately or risk damaging the engine. I told them I need to think about it and let them know later in the day. One of my work colleagues's son is a mechanic specialized in Toyota, and he checked the car. Within 15 minutes, he told me that the car needed new transmission oil and only cost me $50, including service. I paid him $50 and $200 in tip. The car is running fine after the transmission oil change. What a ripoff from the car dealer service.

$50 doesn’t pay for a sufficient quantity of Toyota-spec ATF required for that transmission.

Your mechanic friend just put non-spec fluid in your transmission.

https://www.amazon.com/TOYOTA-Genuine-Automatic-Transmission-Type-4/dp/B00EV5A5NC

$90 bucks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 2015 Lexus IS350 made jittery noise so I took it to a dealership for an estimate. After 30 minutes at the dealership, I got a quote for $2400, and they said it had to be done immediately or risk damaging the engine. I told them I need to think about it and let them know later in the day. One of my work colleagues's son is a mechanic specialized in Toyota, and he checked the car. Within 15 minutes, he told me that the car needed new transmission oil and only cost me $50, including service. I paid him $50 and $200 in tip. The car is running fine after the transmission oil change. What a ripoff from the car dealer service.

$50 doesn’t pay for a sufficient quantity of Toyota-spec ATF required for that transmission.

Your mechanic friend just put non-spec fluid in your transmission.

TOYOTA Genuine Lexus ATF Type T-IV Automatic Transmission Fluid OEM 12 Quart Type-4 ATF
$90.00/case

[Anonymous]

Euro Motors is notorious for this with Mercedes. In the last scam attempt, I went to show the text about the fake issue to my independent mechanic and the scammer had deleted it. Yep. Anyway, I recalled it well enough and my mechanic couldn't believe they tried to get me to pay $1200+ for something that was not a problem. I had brought my car in to the dealer only because of the airbag recall when they tried the "urgent fix" scam. Will never go back for anything other than a recall.

[Anonymous]

How would new transmission oil even fix a jittery noise? This doesn’t make any sense.