Preferred Dealers for Repairs / Warranty

[TonyWilliams]

I've been working on making a Quick Charge Power LLC "Preferred Toyota Dealer List", with the goal of having one or two preferred dealers in all four major metro areas of California (Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles / Orange County and San Diego), plus locations that have a significant number of RAV4 EVs, like Oslo, Norway and Seattle, Washington.

We will have both recommended locations and those that are strictly not recommended.

As always, caveat emptor.


********


Suggestions to be on the QCP Prefered Toyota Dealer List:

1) Obviously, they must meet the basic requirements (ready, able and willing, with an EV certified tech and the RAV4 EV special tooling)

2) Have mostly favorable reviews for service / repairs from the RAV4 EV community

3) Able to work on the RAV4 EV with modifications specifically named, like JdeMO or others to be named, without hassling our mutual customer

4) Provide pre-negotiated pricing for repairs / warranty work that will require additional labor for modified cars

5) The specific dealership reasonable official will be named with his contact info

6) The responsible official will disseminate this information with their service advisor staff


**********


PRELIMINARY DATA: "Preferred Toyota Dealer List"

If your 2012-2014 Toyota RAV4 EV needs service or repairs and is equipped with JdeMO, these Toyota dealers are recommended (or not) for service and warranty repairs:



Sacramento:






San Francisco:


Magnussen Toyota
Palo Alto, California
(650) 494-2100
Kevin Gaddis


Toyota of Berkeley
Berkeley, California
(888) 446-2906
Ray Prasad
Service Advisor
the "white team" has an EV tech


Los Angeles / Orange County





San Diego:

Toyota of El Cajon
965 Arnele Avenue
El Cajon , CA 92020
(619) 270-3000
Jeff - Asst Service Manager
Carlos - EV tech


NOT RECOMMENDED:
Carlsbad, California
Toyota of Carlsbad


**********************************************


THE 2012-2014 RAV4 EV WAS SOLD NEW AT THESE TOYOTA DEALERS IN CALIFORNIA


SACRAMENTO

Folsom Lake Toyota 12747 Folsom Blvd. Folsom , CA 95630 (916) 355-1500

Hanlees Toyota 4202 Chiles Road Davis , CA 95616 (530) 753-3352

Roseville Toyota 700 Automall Drive Roseville , CA 95661 (916) 782-2163

Magnussen's Auburn Toyota 800 Nevada Street Auburn , CA 95603 (530) 885-8484


SAN FRANCISCO

Toyota Sunnyvale 898 W El Camino Real Sunnyvale , CA 94087 (408) 245-6640

Stevens Creek Toyota 4202 Stevens Creek Blvd. San Jose , CA 95129 (408) 984-1234

Piercey Toyota 950 Thompson Street Milpitas , CA 95035 (408) 240-1400

Magnussen's Toyota of Palo Alto 690 San Antonio Road Palo Alto , CA 94306 (650) 494-2100

Toyota of Berkeley 2400 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley , CA 94704 (510) 845-2530

Hanlees Hilltop Toyota 3255 Auto Plaza Richmond , CA 94806 (510) 243-2020

Toyota of Walnut Creek 2100 North Broadway Walnut Creek , CA 94596 (925) 933-7440

AutoNation Toyota Hayward 24773 Mission Blvd. Hayward , CA 94544 (510) 889-8000

Fremont Toyota 5851 Cushing Parkway Fremont , CA 94538 (510) 252-5100

One Toyota of Oakland 8181 Oakport Street Oakland , CA 94621 (510) 569-1111

San Francisco Toyota 3800 Geary Blvd San Francisco , CA 94118 (415) 750-8300

City Toyota 255 San Pedro Road Daly City , CA 94014 (650) 755-5500

Toyota 101 525 E. Bayshore Road Redwood City , CA 94063 (650) 365-5000

Toyota Marin 445 East Francisco Blvd. San Rafael , CA 94901 (415) 456-7071

Freeman Toyota 2875 Corby Avenue Santa Rosa , CA 95407 (707) 542-1791


CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

Toyota of Santa Maria 700 E. Betteravia Road Santa Maria , CA 93454 (805) 928-3881

Toyota San Luis Obispo 12350 Los Osos Valley Rd. San Luis Obispo , CA 93405 (805) 543-7001

Salinas Toyota 700 Auto Center Circle Salinas , CA 93907 (831) 444-0700


LOS ANGELES

Cabe Toyota 2895 Long Beach Blvd. Long Beach , CA 90806 (562) 595-7411

Penske Toyota 9136 E. Firestone Blvd Downey , CA 90241 (562) 861-3300

AutoNation Toyota Cerritos 18700 Studebaker Road Cerritos , CA 90703 (562) 860-6561

AutoNation Toyota Buena Park 6400 Beach Blvd. Buena Park , CA 90621 (714) 522-6144

DCH Toyota of Torrance 2909 Pacific Coast Hwy Torrance , CA 90505 (310) 325-7500

Toyota of Hollywood 6000 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles , CA 90028 (323) 275-9160

Toyota of Downtown L.A. 1600 S Figueroa Los Angeles , CA 90015 (213) 748-8301

Carson Toyota 1333 E 223rd St Carson , CA 90745 (310) 549-3131

Toyota Santa Monica 801 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica , CA 90401 (866) 324-2046

Marina Del Rey Toyota 4636 Lincoln Boulevard Marina Del Rey , CA 90292 (866) 823-8348

Manhattan Beach Toyota 1500 N. Sepulveda Blvd Manhattan Beach , CA 90266 (310) 546-4848

Culver City Toyota 9077 Washington Blvd. Culver City , CA 90232 (310) 559-3777

Hamer Toyota 11069 Sepulveda Blvd Mission Hills , CA 91345 (818) 365-9621

Keyes Toyota 5855 Van Nuys Blvd Van Nuys , CA 91401 (818) 782-0122

Bob Smith Toyota 3333 Foothill Blvd. La Crescenta , CA 91214 (818) 248-9363

DCH Toyota of Simi Valley 2380 First Street Simi Valley , CA 93065 (805) 526-7500

Toyota of Glendale 1260 South Brand Blvd. Glendale , CA 91204 (323) 461-7228

Claremont Toyota 508 Auto Center Drive Claremont , CA 91711 (909) 625-1500

West Covina Toyota 1800 E Garvey Avenue West Covina , CA 91791 (626) 859-7400

Toyota of Glendora 1949 Auto Centre Drive Glendora , CA 91740 (909) 305-2000

Longo Toyota 3534 North Peck Road El Monte , CA 91731 (626) 580-6000

Wondries Toyota 1543 West Main Street Alhambra , CA 91801 (626) 289-8000

Toyota of The Desert 68105 Kyle Road Cathedral City , CA 92234 (760) 328-0871

John Elway's Crown Toyota 1201 Kettering Drive Ontario , CA 91761 (909) 390-9700

DCH Toyota of Oxnard 1631 Auto Center Drive Oxnard , CA 93030 (805) 988-7900


ORANGE COUNTY

Capistrano Toyota 33395 Camino Capistrano San Juan Capist.. , CA 92675 (949) 493-4100

South Coast Toyota 1966 Harbor Blvd. Costa Mesa , CA 92627 (949) 722-2000

AutoNation Toyota Irvine 9101 Research Drive Irvine , CA 92618 (949) 585-6888

Tustin Toyota 36 Auto Center Drive Tustin , CA 92782 (714) 832-3111


SAN DIEGO

Frank Toyota 2400 National City Blvd National City , CA 91950 (619) 474-5573

Toyota Carlsbad 5424 Paseo Del Norte Carlsbad , CA 92008 (760) 438-2000

Mossy Toyota 4555 Mission Bay Drive San Diego , CA 92109 (858) 581-4000

Toyota of El Cajon 965 Arnele Avenue El Cajon , CA 92020 (619) 270-3000

 

[n3ckf]

on the positive side, Magnussen Toyota of Palo Alto (www.toyotapaloalto.com) has been *great* with the Rav4EV
(I had my motor replaced there and now use them for all my service).

The fact that its the closest Toyota dealer to Google main campus in Mountain View is a win too (they will pick up and drop off with their shuttle service @ Google)

 

[miimura]

I like Magnussen's too but there was some question this week whether they would do a warranty heater replacement on a car with JdeMO. They initially didn't want to "touch the car" until the JdeMO was completely removed. The owner escalated the issue within the dealership and they decided they would charge $320 to move the JdeMO aside to do the heater work and put it back afterwards, following Tony's provided directions. Since he has a noisy motor too, they will wait for the motor to come in and do both the motor and heater at the same time. Overall, a pretty good outcome. I'm glad he paved the way for the rest of us with JdeMO.

 

[dstjohn99]

Tony, I would be interested to hear details about Toyota Carlsbad. Maybe in a PM if not appropriate here. I almost took my car to them for a motor evaluation since Toyota El Cajon (TEC) was not approving my repair. But when I tried to schedule a visit about a year ago. Toyota Carlsbad pretty much demanded that I leave the car overnight for a 2 hour service and up to 4 hours for diagnostics. It would be a major inconvenience for me to get rides to/from across the county so I never took it there.

Ultimately TEC got approval earlier this year, received the DU after about 4 months and completed the swap about 6 weeks ago. They seemed to do a good job except they didn't properly flush / refill the coolant so I had to take it back. I'm pretty sure I was their first motor swap based on this, but you can never get direct or truthful information from the dealer service dept. Also, ever since this visit my Entune remote climate and charge updates do not work. It correctly reports car location and state of charge when charging starts, but will not update charge status or allow remote charge starting.

Carlos is their lead EV tech and they have a 2nd tech but I don't remember his name. Good luck at TEC, overall I think they are a good shop for a dealer.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Well, this was a meeting that I set up in Carlsbad with Cathy. I never met with her, but instead met with the Service Mangager and Shop Foreman.

Based on that meeting, I don't recommend Toyota Carlsbad, and further, they told me that they would NOT work on RAV4 EV, including my car that was in the lineup for service (the two recalls, plus motor milling sound).

The stated reasons were:

1) They don't make any money of the RAV4 EV

2) They don't know our equipment

3) The customer doesn't want to pay for the additional time required to work on JdeMO equipped cars when doing cabin heater and onboard charger warranty repairs

It was pretty obvious that the Service Manager had no clue what I was talking about, but the shop foreman knew the issues.

Anyway, we don't recommend Carlsbad Toyota. I don't make that recommendation lightly, as they actually did a great job for 4 years on three of my RAV4 EVs, all of which have had plenty of warranty repairs.

We are looking for places that we can recommend that customers won't suffer the same fate. It shouldn't be a hassle to get your car repaired.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Had a nice chat with the folks at Carson Toyota today.

 

[smkettner]

Carson was very bad for me. Do you remember my thread on excessive drain on the 12v battery?
Carson would do NO diagnostics until they replaced the brand new Bosch AGM 12v battery with a flimsy Toyota model.
$209.70 later and Carson declares my vehicle fixed. It was not.
New gateway computer installed the next week by Irvine Toyota has worked beautifully.
Sorry I give two thumbs down for Carson until they send me a refund.

Go ahead and ask them to pull up invoice TOCS582040 to verify my story. 08/10/16

All the time trying to upsell me tires, brake flush and other non-sense.

 

[user 340]

I've had good experiences with Toyota 101 in Redwood City for basic scheduled maintenance but have not dealt with them on any warranty or other work (yet). I was able to talk to one of their EV techs when I asked a couple years ago, and he seemed pretty competent as far as I could tell. They haven't said anything about my JdeMO when they have worked on my car.

Has anybody had experiences with them doing warranty work, especially on JdeMO equipped cars?

 

[dstjohn99]

Carson was very bad for me. Do you remember my thread on excessive drain on the 12v battery?
Carson would do NO diagnostics until they replaced the brand new Bosch AGM 12v battery with a flimsy Toyota model.
$209.70 later and Carson declares my vehicle fixed. It was not.
New gateway computer installed the next week by Irvine Toyota has worked beautifully.
Sorry I give two thumbs down for Carson until they send me a refund.

Go ahead and ask them to pull up invoice TOCS582040 to verify my story. 08/10/16

All the time trying to upsell me tires, brake flush and other non-sense.

I would definitely file a claim with the CA Bureau of Automotive Repair. If they find in your favor they will request a refund on your behalf, and side with you in small claims. You don't need to go to small claims but the finding against the dealer affects their service rating with Toyota and the industry.

 

[j.emerson]

I brought my 2013 Rav4EV into DCH Toyota service dept. in Torrance and had a pleasant experience. They have a full reception area that refers you to a service person that sits down with you to hear why you are bringing in the car. He checked with the technician on some of my questions. They gave me a free loaner car as they said the software update would take most of the day (is this true?).
My experience might have been easy because I only came in for the standard three recall items: windshield wiper drain fix; rear seat belt and software update. Any dickering with these items reported as a consumer complaint would have been instant trouble for them.

I will say I was very upset with the sales department across the street. The day before when I set up the appointment to check out the service dept., I plugged in my car to their charger in front of the sales building. Several salesmen were outside and one even asked me how I liked the car. When I came back from the service dept., the plug had been taken out and plugged into another Tesla S that pulled up behind me. Both of my charging covers were just left open in the rain.
I asked the salesmen and they just shrugged their shoulders. In passing the dealership since I have seen those same Teslas charging at the DCH Toyota. For all I know they are owned by a salesman or a friend of a salesman. It is advertised on PlugShare as for Toyota only.

 

[Luckyduckie]

If you have a JdeMo unit, then the place to go is Toyota of Berkeley. At Palo Alto (Magnessen's Toyota, Palo Alto) I've had the experience of being offered initially 2 hours labor ($395) then after Tony Williams emailed them, they dropped the price to $160 (one hour labor), and when I told them that Toyota of Berkeley would do it for FREE, they dropped the price to $80 (half an hour labor. In the end I caved in because the DU was already at Palo Alto, and they (Toyota/Tesla corporate) wouldn't ship it over to Berkeley.)

Rant over ... it's not the $80 ... just the feeling of being fleeced for warranty work that they're getting paid very well for by either Toyota or Tesla.

 

[fromport]

A person with a rav4ev experienced "reboot" of tesla unit while driving, one moment it said 76 miles range, CHECK EV came on. After reboot it was 4 miles (turtle came on) , after stopping and 4 power cycles he continued without problems and range was 70+ again.
I advised him to go to dealer to have the error checked (he has toyota extended platinum warranty)
His nearest dealer is DCH Toyota of Oxnard.
He made an appointment, some robot system called him 3 times to not make him forget his appointment.
He arrives, then is told that the only EV mechanic didn't show up that day, so they can't help him.
They call their other branch (DCH Toyota of Simi Valley) which also is Toyota rav4ev certified.
Their only EV certified mechanic no longer works there!
Then they said they had a rav4ev that wouldn't charge on their premises.
Tesla came in, installed a curtain around the rav4ev couldn't see what they were doing and also wasn't able to get the unit to charge again.
Then came the final message " We don't like anything Tesla related"

I think it is an important warning for someone who expects service from the "DCH Toyota of ...." group.

 

[Syrinx]

If you have a JdeMO, I do not recommend Tustin Toyota in Orange County. I have a check EV message and took it there for diagnosis (flatbed). After getting to the battery, they decided they no longer wanted to troubleshoot it due to the wiring that the JdeMO adds. They forced me to move it another dealer, which has at least agreed to work on it with the JdeMO. This of course was a major pain in the neck to recoordinate, so I will not be going there again.

 

[Syrinx]

If you have a JdeMO, I do not recommend Tustin Toyota in Orange County. I have a check EV message and took it there for diagnosis (flatbed). After getting to the battery, they decided they no longer wanted to troubleshoot it due to the wiring that the JdeMO adds. They forced me to move it another dealer, which has at least agreed to work on it with the JdeMO. This of course was a major pain in the neck to recoordinate, so I will not be going there again.

Follow up - With Tony's assistance, I received confirmation from Carson Toyota that they would service the vehicle with the JDeMO. I had it towed there on 5/22/17. After confirming on arrival what was to be done, they diagnosed the issue after a couple of days to be a traction battery failure. My rep let me know that they were waiting for the battery and that he would update me when it arrived. He let me know after a couple more days that he did not have an update on ETA. I didn't hear anything for about 10 days after that, so I called them on 6/9. It turns out my rep had quit, and no one had picked up the case yet :roll: . Coincidentally, the battery had come in and they had just replaced it the day before. I checked the Entune app, and noticed that the battery had charged successfully. They called me Saturday the 10th to let me know it was tested and ready to go. I had my wife give me a ride up there (48 miles away from my house) and I picked it up. Final price - free. It was completely covered under warranty (Platinum VSA, but the battery is covered anyway to 100,000 miles, and I am at about 75k). Tony's test put the replacement battery at 135, so 92.4% of original capacity. I can live with that.

So a big thank you to Carson Toyota for fixing the RAV and not whining about the JDeMO, and a raised middle finger to Tustin Toyota for doing the opposite.

 

[smkettner]

Carson? You must have had an OEM 12v battery because they would not even talk to me until my Bosch was replaced.
Then they still failed. :roll: Can't even imagine having JDeMO.
Absolute morons IMO.

 

[james]

Hi

I'm moving to the Sacramento / El Dorado Hills area. Is there a good place for repairs / Service anywhere close by?

thanks

 

[TonyWilliams]

Hi

I'm moving to the Sacramento / El Dorado Hills area. Is there a good place for repairs / Service anywhere close by?

thanks

Sadly, no (I've tried). I receommned Berkeley Toyota.

 

[Syrinx]

Carson? You must have had an OEM 12v battery because they would not even talk to me until my Bosch was replaced.
Then they still failed. :roll: Can't even imagine having JDeMO.
Absolute morons IMO.

I did have an OEM battery. The last time I had an issue, Tustin blamed it on that and I let them replace it. It worked fine for 3 weeks until the traction battery failed, which was likely the real original problem.

It may have helped having Tony "grease the skids" with the service manager. When the car came in, he had already given his blessing to his team to work on it. Sorry you had a such a bad experience, and of course, YMMV with Carson. I may have gotten lucky.

 

[n3ckf]

I still take my car to Magnussen Toyota of Palo Alto (which used to be an easy walk from where I worked) even though i live 120 miles away. I did manage to get a large dose of FUD from them this time, but they were doing *two* motor replacements the same day so they get a lot of work on these cars (and have multiple EV-trained techs).

Its a pain in the butt to drive down there just to do this but i still need to go to the bay area occasionally so i try to cluster things around service appointments

 

[snoltor]

Sadly, no (I've tried). I receommned Berkeley Toyota.

Did you contact Hanlees in Davis? They replaced my motor back in April and didn't have a problem with the JdeMO. Service rep just asked me what it was and what it did. Didn't mentioned it again.