rant What's Toyota's rate?

[Attero]

As some of you may know, recently my crank pulley decided to fall off after the seal went.

 

Before it happened, I bought a crank pulley off mrgee2jz (who I shall be giving feedback for asap - thanks man!).

 

Firstly I called into Toyota and asked how much they would charge for fitting. They replied with a £160 charge. I didn't know what to think of that to be perfectly honest as I've never been a shopper for fitting. Until now...

 

I called up the local island garage who work on performance vehicles mainly (doing what they do best, rebuilds, fitting parts, etc).

 

I ask how much they would charge... "£15".

 

I told them how much Toyota wanted to charge and they said that's a complete and utter rip-off and that this Garage is the place to head to for any job.

 

So I go there and find a few other problems such a coolant leak and whatever. I stood around watching for a while as they attempted to remove this pulley and they got very frustrated and had to cut the bolt out in order to get it out. I was watching their every move at this point and they really did try everything they could.

 

So they said they would need to order some parts such as a new pulley bolt and seals and such.

I said, "yeah whatever you need to fix it... go ahead". I was expecting my bill to be over £100 since it took a lot longer than they expected and they needed to order parts but in the end it ended up being £70.

 

Now Toyota were going to charge me £160 without any new parts or extra labour... so what on earth is there rate? If I had bought the pulley brand new, that would have costed me £400 in total.

[Lbm]

When there was a Toyota dealership in Croxley Green (Hertfordshire) a couple of years ago, I drove there for something (maybe a part?) and some of the salesmen & mechanics came out and stared at my Supe.

 

Wow that's great they said.

 

What is it?

 

Generally speaking - I wouldn't go near Toyota to work on my Toyota.

[Bobbeh]

Their rates are usually around £70-80 an hour depending on the dealer. Independent garages around where I live typically charge around £45-55 so to me there's not a vast difference.

[creative]

When there was a Toyota dealership in Croxley Green (Hertfordshire) a couple of years ago, I drove there for something (maybe a part?) and some of the salesmen & mechanics came out and stared at my Supe.

 

Wow that's great they said.

 

What is it?

 

Generally speaking - I wouldn't go near Toyota to work on my Toyota.

 

Haha thats what happened when I took mine to a new Toyota dealership to get some parts. By the time I parked up, all the sales guys had their noses pushed against the dealership glass!

 

On the plus side, my mate was head Mechanic at a toyota dealer so I never paid for the work done on mine!

[Attero]

The guys who work at Toyota near me are actually quite nice people and have seen a fair number of Supras in their time, so they are no more jaw-dropped over the car than they are a Prius.

[Tyson]

When there was a Toyota dealership in Croxley Green (Hertfordshire) a couple of years ago, I drove there for something (maybe a part?) and some of the salesmen & mechanics came out and stared at my Supe.

 

Wow that's great they said.

 

What is it?

 

Generally speaking - I wouldn't go near Toyota to work on my Toyota.

 

that's got to be a joke right:blink:

[Dnk]

A few dealers had technicians specifically trained on the uk cars when they hit the country, my local dealer i bought my first uk spec from had a trained up techy and he new his stuff and was a very good mechanic.

 

I had to get a part from the main dealer in B'ham a few weeks ago and a member of their staff was outside having a ciggy, he walked up to check my car out and said very nice etc etc and your not having it worked on in here are you

[Lbm]

that's got to be a joke right:blink:

 

It's no joke.

[jazz1]

Did you go with your bannana hat on by any chance :-)

[Tyson]

It's no joke.

 

I really hoped it was, what is the world coming to when the main dealer doesn't know what cars they make:shrug:

[Havard]

That's a very good price for having that work done...!!

 

It cost me over £100 a couple of years but that included the timing belt aswell. New crank pulley from Toyota was well expensive, even with 15% discount.

 

H.

[Lbm]

Did you go with your bannana hat on by any chance :-)

 

Naturally.

 

I really hoped it was, what is the world coming to when the main dealer doesn't know what cars they make:shrug:

 

It's a worry, isn't it?

 

Trying to get back on topic (but I think I'll fail) I'm lucky enough to have a friend who owns his own garage and he's looked after all my cars for the last 20 years or so.

 

There. I knew I'd fail.

[RobSheffield]

Personally, id rather pay Toyota rate to do the job properly rather than have some randoms in a garage learn how to fit it/bodge the job by cutting the crank pulley bolt off. God knows what other damage has been done, but hey as long as its cheap right?

[Attero]

Personally, id rather pay Toyota rate to do the job properly rather than have some randoms in a garage learn how to fit it/bodge the job by cutting the crank pulley bolt off. God knows what other damage has been done, but hey as long as its cheap right?

 

That's not it though, these guys have the best reputation on the island for performance. They refuse to work on small and casual cars and they are the official Isle of Wight car club dealership/garage. They work on biggest projects on the island including high performance jap cars and all other performance vehicles. They've currently got an S14 in and have just done a full rebuild on my brothers Civic - fitted an Ek9 engine in his Ek4.

 

The owner has an Evo and works on all sorts of high performance vehicles. I can say without a doubt, they are the most trusted garage on the island.

[Tyson]

Naturally.

 

 

 

It's a worry, isn't it?

 

Very worrying indeed, if they don't even know its a Toyota how can they know their way around the car or fix it ??

[Tyson]

Personally, id rather pay Toyota rate to do the job properly rather than have some randoms in a garage learn how to fit it/bodge the job by cutting the crank pulley bolt off. God knows what other damage has been done, but hey as long as its cheap right?

 

I wouldn't care where they worked as long as knew what they were doing and I trusted them. Simple as

[Attero]

My judgement of trust came from the unbelievable reputation from the islands most respectable club. I'm not one for trusting anybody. That's why I always went with Toyota. But I've found someone I can trust and know do a brilliant job for a quarter of the price.

 

It's all the same with who you guys recommend. Paul or Keron for instance - I all trust your opinions on these guys therefore if I had the chance, I would pop-in.

[MrDriver]

Here in Belgium it is 60 euro/hour!

But they do a good job

[dude]

How do you cut the bolt off dude, its inside the pulley???? Don't tell me they used a cutting torch. Any garage that quoted £15 to do a job like that does not know what they are doing, the coolant will be more than that. If they have used heat to get it off you woill be in store for more fun and games, I have never ever had a pulley bolt or pulley I could not get off but there again we have the correct tools to do the job because we charge a proper rate that enables us to actually afford to buy tools from Snap on etc, we have just bought natty little tools each which completly lock the bottom pulley enabling the bolt to be undone even when it was so tight the starter trick would not shift it. Still if you have further problems im sure the 'performance' garage will rebuild the engine for £22.50............................if they are still in business in a month or so.

[Attero]

How do you cut the bolt off dude, its inside the pulley???? Don't tell me they used a cutting torch. Any garage that quoted £15 to do a job like that does not know what they are doing, the coolant will be more than that. If they have used heat to get it off you woill be in store for more fun and games, I have never ever had a pulley bolt or pulley I could not get off but there again we have the correct tools to do the job because we charge a proper rate that enables us to actually afford to buy tools from Snap on etc, we have just bought natty little tools each which completly lock the bottom pulley enabling the bolt to be undone even when it was so tight the starter trick would not shift it. Still if you have further problems im sure the 'performance' garage will rebuild the engine for £22.50............................if they are still in business in a month or so.

 

I know it's unbelievable right? But how can I not trust the garage for which every performance car owner on the island goes to for their jobs? They've been in business for much longer than the recession and they seem to be going great! So surely that's a sign of them doing the business?

 

My brothers rebuild+fitting costed quite a fair bit IIRC, so I'm sure they calculated it so they aren't losing out. It's just they work on friends cars mainly, and that's where all their business is coming from. They keep coming back and if they don't have a lot of business coming in at a certain time, they start allowing other cars in to do jobs.

 

I'm telling you, these aren't bodge jobs. People wouldn't keep coming back in with their Evos, Supras, 200sx (they've got an S14 in right now), Caterhams, BMWs, Lamborghinis, etc, had they done a bodge job.

[The Raven]

You would love our dealership.

 

DONT WORK ON IMPORTS!

 

"you should buy a uk car they go faster"

 

"the have bonnet risers"

 

On seeing i had a uk car

 

"someone has removed them"

 

When asking for turbo pipes by postion they got confused and called out a tech, Tech then got confused asked me to point to the bit in the engine bay that failed so he then printed out 100s of bits of paper and asked me to point to it. When i did he looked at me and said.

 

"You should let us do this kind of work"

 

On going outside i see more techs looking at it.

 

"never seen one of these before"

 

I rest my case

 

I expect to pay around £130 for a crank pully change

[dude]

I know it's unbelievable right? But how can I not trust the garage for which every performance car owner on the island goes to for their jobs? They've been in business for much longer than the recession and they seem to be going great! So surely that's a sign of them doing the business?

 

My brothers rebuild+fitting costed quite a fair bit IIRC, so I'm sure they calculated it so they aren't losing out. It's just they work on friends cars mainly, and that's where all their business is coming from. They keep coming back and if they don't have a lot of business coming in at a certain time, they start allowing other cars in to do jobs.

 

I'm telling you, these aren't bodge jobs. People wouldn't keep coming back in with their Evos, Supras, 200sx (they've got an S14 in right now), Caterhams, BMWs, Lamborghinis, etc, had they done a bodge job.

 

Dude im sure they have a very captive audience, they just cut your pulley off FFS, I have removed 100's fo front pulleys now and never had one that I could not undo, how did they get it off????

[Attero]

Dude im sure they have a very captive audience, they just cut your pulley off FFS, I have removed 100's fo front pulleys now and never had one that I could not undo, how did they get it off????

 

I don't know the exact details, but I knew damn well that pulley wasn't coming off. They spent ages air drilling it and tried to loosen it by hammer and all sorts. Not even their biggest air drill could remove it. Apparently over time something or other had binded.

 

I believe what they done may have had to do with heating it up and cutting the bolt, not the pulley (if that's possible). They've had to do it before apparently. Seriously, if you spoke to the guys who did it, you'd probably get more sense out of what they had to do.

 

I thought it would have been a lot easier and it wouldn't be a problem like you said, but I was standing right there watching... and it was.

[RobSheffield]

That's not it though, these guys have the best reputation on the island for performance. They refuse to work on small and casual cars and they are the official Isle of Wight car club dealership/garage. They work on biggest projects on the island including high performance jap cars and all other performance vehicles. They've currently got an S14 in and have just done a full rebuild on my brothers Civic - fitted an Ek9 engine in his Ek4.

 

The owner has an Evo and works on all sorts of high performance vehicles. I can say without a doubt, they are the most trusted garage on the island.

 

Thats all superb, but they cut your crank pulley bolt off didnt they?

[dude]

I don't know the exact details, but I knew damn well that pulley wasn't coming off. They spent ages air drilling it and tried to loosen it by hammer and all sorts. Not even their biggest air drill could remove it. Apparently over time something or other had binded.

 

I believe what they done may have had to do with heating it up and cutting the bolt, not the pulley (if that's possible). They've had to do it before apparently. Seriously, if you spoke to the guys who did it, you'd probably get more sense out of what they had to do.

 

I thought it would have been a lot easier and it wouldn't be a problem like you said, but I was standing right there watching... and it was.

 

It would not have been a problem with the correct tools dude, trust me it would come off in situ no problem at all BUT you need the correct puller and a way of locking the crank pulley, so they have hammered this finely balanced forged crank have they, nice!!!! Oh and heated it up, so I presume they changed the oil seal at the same time!!!! As a matter of interest what is their labour rate??? I as k as any decent garage will have a repair times manual and use this to quote times etc as a guidline, a front pulley is around 2 hours so they charge £7.50 an hour, I may as well just sub my work out to them and sit back and relax.........................................this time next year Rodney!!!!!!! The moment that guy started drilling/hitting or heating my front pulley he would have been wearing the tool in question!!! Anyway good luck with it dude hope it all works out well.