Main dealer servicing caution.

First off this is NOT a rant against main dealer servicing.

For those of you who do take your cars to a main Toyota dealer, be aware of the following when you book your services.

Toyota operate a fixed pricing policy for servicing. By this I mean that whe you book up they take your car details and the mileage or type of service that you need and the system spits out a price, inclusive of parts, labour and VAT. For background, this is why periodic items like coolant and brake fluid changes should NOT be charged on top when done as part of the routine servicing.

This may be unique to my local dealer, but I learned today that imported cars do not trigger the service system to spit out the "all-in" price automatically. Instead the person booking the service has to pick the work scope from a drop down list.

Because of this, when I had my last "B" service at 81000miles, I was in fact given a "B" service from the pre-1994 (6000 mile interval) schedule, which is a minor service, instead of the major 9000 mile interval "B" service I needed.

To their credit, my dealer were very open about it and offered to do the remaining work at zero labour charge there and then. However when we compared line by line the proper pricing for the 9000 mile interval "B" service and the 6000 mile "B" service plus the parts cost for the outstanding work, we found that I would still be £60 out of pocket for the additional parts required (an air filter and a fuel filter).

Again, to their credit, my dealer will be doing the remainder of the work totally free of charge.

I would suggest that when booking your servicing you make sure they are 100% clear about the following:

1) The type of service you want: "A" or "B".

2) That the service is from the 9000 mile interval schedule and not the 6000 mile interval one.

3) Check that the price they are quoting includes the "periodical" items - it should do. If you don't have a service book, see the attached spreadsheet for what comes when.

service schedule.zip