I bought a 2002 Toyota, Highlander from Hilltop Motors, with a bad engine and they will not compensate me. I took the car to two mechancis including Toyota and they all had the same review. I have 3 children and left without a car and Hilltop Motors have know regard for that. I only had the car for 6 mnths.
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
I purchased an extended exterior maintainance contract costing about $1400 blended into my monthly payments. Last week I took my car in for a scheduled service, which I verified over the phone with the scheduling dept was for this external maintainance. Upon arriving I was told that the person who was responsible for this was not available. I was frustrated but I went ahead and tried to set another appt but at that time I was told that I would have to take my car to a different dealership to get this service. They gave me the phone number to this dealership and when I called to set up the appt I was told that I was "not registered" and could not receive this service. I attempted to get help from the original dealership but was given nothing but the run around.
8/8/02 took my auto in for service. I drive for my Company and noticed my auto experiencing a little sluggishness when highway driving. spoke to service rep who indicated I would probably need a transmission flush to determine if there was some problems in that area. As I mentioned, I use my car on a daily basis including all counties in our East Bay counties. I was under the impression that since this was the Toyota dealership I bought and paid cash for my new auto for my new job, I could trust and believe this to be a better place to have my car serviced. I received a call from the service rep, Carlos, informing me I needed to have some additional work on my brakes, which I approved. My auto had been previously hit and was scheduled for auto body work the next week.
Prior to taking it in for this work, I noticed the noise I had previously reported to Carlos was still present. I phoned him and told him I would bring it back as soon as my body work is completed.
I phoned Carlos to advise him I would drop my auto off the morning of 9/27/02 as the car was still sluggish and the noise was loud.
The mechanic drove me to work and witnessed the noise. He mentioned,it was probably the WHEEL BEARINGS! I immediately inquired, wouldn't that have been present when they completed brake service last time? He indicated they would check my request out and someone would get back to me.
After 3:00 I hadn't received any calls and phoned to speak to Carlos. He informed me he had bad news...! my transmission needed to be replaced! this would cost me @3,934.39! I was shocked! as he indiated he needed to know right now, as he had to order my NEW transmission before 4pm! I discussed this with my boss and other co-workers who felt there was something wrong with this picture, a 2000 Toyota Corolla is still considered a new car, and proceeded to speak to Carlos on my behalf! We arrived at the service department and experienced a defiant Carlos! The manager was not available to speak to us. Carlos was upset and informed us he had read the papers submitted by the mechanics incorrectly and had a second opinion requested as all of a sudden it wasn't the transmission, probably just the wheel bearings... He asked me to leave my auto for additional review...
On Monday morning I brought my auto back for additional service and evaluation.
Later, I phoned to check on my auto, and Carlos informed me it was in fact just a wheel bearing and not the transmission.! I asked him if the wheel bearing is in the transmission? since he thought I was a stupid uninformed female... yes, I want him to know, this female has friends and people who look out for me.
I picked up my car and was charged an additional $207.00! I was so upset, I paid after informing him he had played a bad hand of cards and would hear from me at a later date.
My original bill was $760.30 which included them pulling my wheels off when they noticed my brakes were bad. How dare them charge me again to pull off the same wheels and pack a bearing!
my request to your Department is to review their tactics and request a full refund of a transmission flush, which was not necessary and my second visit for packing my wheel bearing when it should've been done the first time.
Today, my car still has the noise! could it be another wheel bearing? I will search out a second opinion at another service department. I can't believe these type of service departments can get away with guessing.
Thank you for listening.
