Central City Toyota is not the place to go to get honesty!
I had recently had my Toyota Camry serviced to include new brake pads, a new battery and a full check over. The car was running great, but then the check engine light came on. I didn’t know why and there was nothing wrong with the car apparently, but to be sure and make sure the car was safe to drive I took it in to the service department at Central City Toyota on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.
The service advisor was nice, but then everything went downhill fast. When I took the car into them to have it looked over, I told them that the check engine light was on. I did not tell him that I had had the car recently serviced for just about everything you could imagine. I did that prior to taking a trip to see some family members in Houston Texas.
So when the service advisor took me aside and told me that I needed a new battery, brake pads, and some kind of electronic control module and the price tag was going to be over $1900 I got pretty upset. I asked him how possibly the brake pads could possibly need replacement one I just had them replaced a little over a month ago.
At first, the service advisor looked at me like I was a liar. But then I had all the service records and showed this person that the brakes had just recently been serviced and so had the battery. I had brand-new pads and a battery. They only had maybe a month’s usage on them. Upon seeing my evidence that I had new brake pads and a new battery installed on the vehicle, the service advisor stopped pushing those two issues and stuck with the electronic control module that needed to be replaced or as so they said.
According to the service advisor if I didn’t have the electronic control module replaced the check engine light would stay on, numerous things would go wrong with the car to include it dying, the headlights not working at night, and possibly even airbags not working correctly. My trust factor with this car dealership (Central City Toyota) was about zero at this point.
I just couldn’t trust a service advisor and a car dealership that make their money by completely and blatantly lying to their customers. The fact that he had the balls to tell me that I needed new brake pads and a new battery when they were brand-new to begin with is just ridiculous. So I refused to let them do any services on my car and instead left the car dealership and went to another one where I was treated far better and not lied to.
I took my Toyota Camry to Champion Toyota on Cottman Ave. and they did not try and make me replace my brake pads or battery. Instead, they told me that there was nothing wrong with my car and that the reason why the check engine light came on was because I had had the battery recently replaced and this can cause some coding issues with the vehicle’s computer until it runs a cycle which can be 80 to 100 miles of driving before it clears out these codes.
The techs at Champion Toyota cleared out the check engine code and didn’t even charge me to do that. The service department at Central City Toyota wouldn’t let me leave without charging me for an hour’s labor and yet they didn’t do anything but lie, cheat and try to steal from me.
I will never go back to Central City Toyota and recommend to those of you that live in or nearby Philadelphia that you use Champion Toyota instead. The people I dealt with at Champion Toyota were honest and very professional. That’s where I will be taking my cary from now on.
Hi
I totally agree with her since it happened to me as well..they talk professionally but when the check engine light came they asked me to change the O2 sensors and gave me a bill..but luckily i went through the forums and fixed it myself and surprisingly it never came back..so i serviced at another spot but usually i go in for oil change (a big mistake) since then they have tampered/removed my autolock, my front brakes, bumper grill guard. i would never recommend them to anyone unless they know someone personally to deal with these issues.
thanks.
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What do you mean they removed your front brakes ? I don’t understand why you were not in an accident. If they tampered with the autolock while servicing your car that could have been an oversight and they forgot to turn it back on. You are stating things that sound like willful vandalism and they should be sued. I would like to hear more comments concerning this dealership as AAA recommends them as a car service center and place for state inspections. I think AAA is not doing diligence. I have read other bad reviews and I am concerned they recommend unnecessary repairs at great expense to the customer. If they can get away with it -why not. But they put fear of accidents in your mind if you do not have your car serviced there immediately. They give you a worst case scenario– I believe they are “churning”
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