Fremont Toyota

User Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

I had similar negative experience at Fremont Toyota myself. Four years ago, I brought my car to the service department for 50k mile service. The salesperson told me they would offer me a 21-point (-?) free inspection. While I was waiting in the lobby, that salesperson paged me and told me my brake pads had extended wear and tear and had "only 1mm lining left". He made it sounded so urgent that I had to replace my brake pads right away. Luckily I worked on brake pads myself before on my other cars and declined that salesperson's offer. Upon going home, I brought the highest-grade brake pads from a Kragen. On the following weekend, I jacked up my Toyota and took out the old pads and quickly learned two things:

(1) The original brake pads had thicker linings than the most expensive after-market brake pads I got at Kragen --even AFTER 50k miles (I believe they both are semi-metallics)!!!

(2) That salesperson was absolutely wrong. Either he didn't check or he didn't know what to check. Interesting enough, I pulled out the work order where he was supposed to write down the condition of the brake pads, and he just simply wrote: brake pad wear, need exchange, those '1mm thin' stuff was not there at all.

Last year I had my tires replaced at another shop across the New Park mall. Guess what, they told me my brake pads were about to wear out, would last less than a year - this was three years after the Fremont Toyota salesperson told me I had '1mm' brake linings on my brake pads. Sure enough, I heard my brakes squeals lately, approximately 4 years later, and I know this is the soft metal indicator built in with all brake pads to tell the owner that you have a very thin brake pad.

Sure enough, that was the last time I ever used Fremont Toyota for my car services. They kept sending me coupons and other stuff, but I believe an honest mechanics worthy more than those coupon discounts.

BTW, this was my experience with just that one salesperson. I don't know if other salespersons in that dealership would do things differently.

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User Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

This Tuesday I took my toyota corolla 2005 to the Fremont Toyota dealer for maintenance and was informed that I needed transmission flush and a new drive belt. I was a little shocked because I just had the transmission done in March. The Toyota service representative sounded really confident and assured me he can show me the cracks on the drive belt and the dark colored transmission fluid if I would like to see.

Needing a second opinion, I took my car to the Firestone Station. The man who helped me took out a flashlight and showed me that there were no cracks on the drive belt and showed me that the transmission fluid was, although a little dark, did not require immediate replacement. basically, the firestone representative told me that my car was fine.

In disbelief, I drove my car back to the dealer right after I left Firestone. I sweetly asked the same guy at Toyota from yesterday to show me the cracks on the drive belt and the dark colored transmission fluid that he mentioned the day before. The guy got out a flashflight, looked and looked, and then admitted that he didn't see the cracks & that they must have made a mistake with the paperwork. Then I asked him to show me the color of the transmission fluid, and he took the dipstick and said that it wasn't as dark as he expected. The guy at Toyota then changed his statement and said that i did not need either services.

I am just so glad I took my car to Firestone for a second opionion and that they were honest with me. I will never take my car to the Toyota dealer at Fremont again for any services.

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User Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The employees at Fremont Toyota come and go like the wind. You never know what kind of service your going to get here.

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