I have been a long-time customer of Gateway Toyota (since 2012) and have always brought my Tacoma to Gateway for all my services and repairs. Most of the time it has been great, with only a few issues/incidents that were excusable. I've noticed the quality of mechanics has been in decline in the last couple years and honestly so has my trust in who is working on my truck and what services are being recommended. After the last (3ish) visits, I started to notice extensive and very costly repairs are being pushed more regularly and more aggressively. The last visit had over $5,000 in recommended repairs, and the most recent visit (July 26th) had nearly $9,000 in recommended services! Some of them are justified, but the over-charging on the parts is has become more and more obvious. For example:
- Leaf spring repair: Parts quoted for $1,341.48, I can get these parts for ~$900 from Toyotapartsdirect
- Rear spring removal: Another recommended service which stated: "may have to cut to remove rear springs due to bolts being seized", quoted at $1,233.96. This is part of the same job as the one listed above. Making this look like two separate jobs that are actually the same (on speculation that they *may be seized), bringing that job total to $3,055.84. If I signed and agreed to this repair, regardless if the hardware was seized or not, I would have been undoubtedly charged for it...
- Power steering flush: Quoted at $210.98. Had they actually checked, this they would have realized the fluid is brand new (changed less than a month ago).
- This is the one that REALLY sets me off. When I came in on July 26th, I had mentioned to the service tech that I noticed the tie-rod boot was either torn or the clamp fell off. I asked them to inspect and replace the boot if needed; (you know, while they were conveniently already taking the tires off for a scheduled rotation). Instead, they doubled down and said "no you have to replace the entire steering rack assembly" for $2,171.37 instead of a more cost-effective solution of replacing a $39.22 piece of rubber and a $0.50 hose clamp. The steering on my truck is incredibly smooth, and absolutely does not need to be replaced despite being pressured by the tech that I urgently need to replace the whole assembly. So, instead of reattaching/or replacing the boot like I asked, they just left it hanging which will allow water to get into the joints, likely resulting in rust, which will guarantee it will need to be replaced very soon... There is more to this story: a few years ago (approximately 60,000kms prior to today) my steering rack started leaking so Gateway Toyota recommended it be replaced, which I gave them the permission to do. After I got the truck back, it was profusely leaking oil from the steering rack and was knocking when I turned the wheel, so I brought it back the same day. Gateway Toyota apologized and made arrangements to have it serviced on a Saturday. They blamed it on a "faulty replacement part". Here we are 60,000km later and on my third steering rack, and Gateway is recommending I fork over another $2,200 for a replacement, which would be the 4th steering rack installed in my Tacoma in just over 200,000kms. A general FYI, a steering rack wearing out before 160,000km would be considered premature. So from this, I have concluded that Gateway Toyota is intentionally trying take advantage of customers by pressuring and recommending expensive repairs to maximize their service department profits. It either that, or their service department just simply performs lower quality work these days that requires replacement parts to be replaced even more frequently.
I'm going to end here with this, I have completely lost trust in Gateway Toyota's dealership, and more specifically the service department. With the examples listed above alone, I don't know why anyone would take their vehicle here. I reached out to the service manager directly a few days after service and was assured that this was being investigated, but I haven't heard anything back now for almost a month... Very disappointed. read more