Fremont Toyota Service Department

Really don’t know how to put this. I understand big city … Lot of pressure and lot of orders. But … Why are they so disorganized? It’s as if the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. The opinions and advice that I get over the phone from the advisors are ridiculed by the ppl who actually book the car for service on site. And this is not the first time that happened. Are they overloaded with work or is it just plain mis-​communication between teams? Few ppl are really nice and patient. But few. Getting an auto part or a quote for a service is challenging and could be incorrect. May be good for a quick oil change where u don’t really need any expert advice. I give 3 stars for the ppl who did help me here though. But let’s says I had to fight for it and debate and ask questions and compromised for time and money … All because incorrect information was given to me over the phone. If u do need auto part service make sure that you talk to the manager directly before you go in for a quote etc.

This place is a complete jerk! People cheated on you and overcharged you by 200% even after a 15% discount. Don’t ever come here. They are also super slow on a Monday.

Note: I personally do not own Toyota’s but I am responsible for maintaining my work vehicles and the company insists on this crappy service department (regardless of my work company praising my independent mechanic and stating they need to switch to him as well, something about a franchise company thats kept them suckered into coming to this service department). If I could choose to not come here to put up with their crap I would.
1) Helpful when they want your money and provide good customer service, but need to bring the car back because all new brakes they installed are squealing, they could give 2 sh*ts about you and your time. They stated breaks are okay, we drove 12 milesike you said nothing. I hop in the car and before I even pull out of the dealerhsip, the brakes are squealing horribly…
2) they tell you «we’ll call you when your car is ready or to update you on findings». Unless the findings include being able to milk more repair money out of you for other knick knacks don’t expect a call from your service advisor. Unless you call them, you can unknowingly leave your car there over night thinking they’re still working on it because they won’t care to tell you they’ve completed the work. Plan on taking a day off to deal with them, you will NEVER get your car on time and will miss appointments.
3) Young sales advisors will bluntly make lunch plans, text, answer personal cell phone calls right in front of you as you’re waiting for them to complete your paperwork and sign you out. Also, these youngins will hold on to your credit card as they type stuff into their cell phones (texting or stealing my info?, idk, can’t tell, they’re young and amature customer service reps lacking training, I filed a direct complaint to Toyota about this suspicious CC holding and simultaneous cell phone usage).
4) please look at a review for my other independent mechanic. I cant wait til my company finally insists on stop taking their 13 year old and 5 year old Camrys to this dealership’s service department and starts using my honest and reliable mechanic, Kris. Cant wait til the day i leave Toyota’s bs behind!
5) express service lane is only for 2 years or newer vehicle, you’ll have tonwait 3+ hrs like every other person with an older car just for a 10minute oil change.
6) shuttle service is not reliable. Says they’ll take 45mins to an hour and show up in 10 mins without notice as the other appointment canceled, or quite thr opposite say 10 mins and show up an hour later. Keep in mind youre sharing a shuttle, dont expect to make it to any appointments in time if youre relying on a shuttle (learned my lesson while watching/​riding with another customer make this mistake).
So far this is all I got. Will update if I Have more.

Very unprofessional!!! They told me to go there for my wind deflector installation. So I went there early in the morning straight from my work with no sleep. Wait 3hrs and then they just told me that its not yet available!!! Wtf!

I do not like taking my car in this Fremont location for any service at all!!! First of all when you call, those ladies are very rude!!! When I set up my appointment to have my car service, Instead of a confirmation I got an email that my appointment is cancelled. Then when I called to asked why they just gave me a run around & couldn’t give me an explanation and at the end they didn’t reschedule me. REALLY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! Also, even if you have an appointment it takes you the whole day to get your car back for an oil change!!!

So many things wrong with this place. Once, I got my car back with the glove box detatched from the dash (wtf? I asked for an oil change ONLY). Another time I get it back and there’s a gash on my steering wheel they claim was already there. The last straw was when I scheduled service a week ahead of time only to get there, wait 30min, drop my car off, only to get a call saying they forgot to get the parts after I get home. They promised to call me back once they’re in (top priority!). They never did and every time I called in after they claim the incident never happened.
They’re close to the point of stupid convenience and I kept telling myself it was «just a bad day» for service, but it’s gotten to the point that it’s just inexcusable.

Let’s cut to the chase. BEWARE OF MICKY one of the service managers here. I came in for an oil change and he told me it was $ 109 and then proceeded to give me options from there. Basically, he tried to force the $ 109 package on me as if it were the minimum and started being brash when I told him I didn’t want the options. I left without having service done and made an appt for the next day. The next day, I was told an oil change was $ 69 and that the $ 109 was with add-​ons. So yeah, MICKY is stupid enough to think that you can add additional services when your customer is a female because they wouldn’t know any better. Shame on you, MICKY! I’m going to make sure your Director is aware of you!!!

Brought my highlander for routine 25 000 miles service, which really is tire rotation and a checkup. Nothing major is needed at this service.
Service manager promised 1 hr to 1.5 hr. so I decided to wait in their waiting area. After 2.5 — 3 hours, I get an update — tires can not be rotated, buy new tires, we have them in stock, get 4 for the price of 3. — REALLY!!!
It took 3 hours to tell me this. No other work was done at all. Pretty frustrated with the way they handled it and wasted my time. Also, this was an appointment, not a drive-​in either.

Went in for a follow up/​second appointment as one of the parts needed to be ordered. Went smooth as I worked directly with Mike via text. Upping up my review to 5 stars. Thought I needed to have molding replaced on the trunk door handle, but ended up that the entire locking mechanism had to be replaced. I wasn’t charged for this fix/​change!
Also the transmission fluid exchange, and steering pump & fluid work done from a couple weeks back seems to have worked out well. Noticed improvements in regards to fuel consumption. One tank used to last me about a week, now after a week I’m still at a quarter tank. :)
I’ll need brake & brake fluid done in a few months, and will go back to Mike.
TIP: If you are a Costco member, get 15% off through this link:

We bought a service contract here called «ToyotaCare Plus Maintenance Plan». It costs $ 300 and is advertised as having a $ 700 value and includes the 35k, 40k and 45k services.
Right before the 35k check up an indicator light came on in our car warning of low pressure in one of our tires. The timing right before our service appointment was fortuitous and we pointed out the tire problem when we dropped off the car for service. It turns out, all they did was to re-​inflate the tire and completely miss the fact that there was a big nail stuck in its inside wall (visible when you take off the tire, which they should have done since tire rotation was part of the appointment). As a result, the next day my 8 months pregnant wife, having our 2 year old son in the car got stranded on the road when the tire failed.
Now I came in for the 45k service and they told me the car needs new brake fluid and that this is typical after 45k. However this is not covered in this «Plus Maintenance Plan» and we had to pay extra.
Realizing that the service representative was not personally responsible, I asked to speak to the manager, Mathew Rost and I shared both complaints with him. He was arrogant, condescending and self-​contradictory. He stated that the Plus Maintenance Plan only includes the absolute bare minimum and said they take in five thousand cars a month, so it happens that they miss things during the inspection. So what did I pay for then? Are they just pushing cars through? How do you know?
One oil change (since synthetic oil lasts 10k miles) and three tire rotations. No idea where that $ 700 value comes from, not even worth the $ 300 this plan costs. And they are slow too, even with appointment.
Maintenance Contracts are problematic. You pay upfront and then rely on the ethics of the dealership to hold up their part. So if you do a Maintenance Plan go to a place with standards. Here we got sloppy work, attitude from an unprofessional service manager and barely anything of value in return for our upfront payment. Frankly speaking, they don’t do anything that Midas or Jiffy Lube can’t do and at a much better price and faster turn-​around.

This is an update review of my previous review but WORST.
First of all, I did have to pay anything since to really service was done.
Here is the Horror story of trying to pass a smog test.
Attempt 1: Went in for smog test station and was failing because of a «Catalyst Not Ready» issue.
Suggested that I drive it around for about 100 miles or so. Drive around to and from work.
Attempt 2: Still failing with the same issue. This time they said drive on the freeway.
Drove on the freeway to and from Daly City.
Attempt 3: Still failing with the same issue. Recommended that I take it to the dealership.
Attempt 4: Took it to Fremont Toyota. They noticed the issue and rest the engine’s computer. and suggested that I drive it for about 30 miles or so. I drove for 100+ miles mixed city and highway.
Attempt 5: Took it to a different smog test station than attempt 1 – 3. Was still failing. The tech this time told me to Google search for the correct steps to fix my car. Did the search and found the steps. Did it and finally PASSED THE SMOG TEST!
My main concern… Why didn’t the Toyota service tech know how these steps and convey this info to me. Instead I had to do a Google Search to figure out how to fix my car. Not knowing this wasted a week of my time.
Have to think long and hard before I bring the car back to Fremont

The wait time was horrible inspire of taking appointment. They promised me pick up after service but the driver dropped the ball. I had to request my friend to drop me late in day.
Wont visit again.

I always depend on my fellow Unilocalers to help me decide where to go. But despite the bad reviews here, I went anyway. Dennis helped me and he was amazing. Really friendly & patient. One thing that I appreciated a lot about him was that he didn’t pressure me to buy anything additional. I will definitely be coming back here.
Even the lady that made my appointment was really friendly & helpful.
I highly recommend Dennis. If you are willing to give this place another shot or are on the fence like I was… I’m sure he will change your mind.
Thank you!

If I could put 0 stars, I would! I am usually satisfied with getting my 2010 Toyota RAV4 serviced at Fremont Toyota. They do have a nice shuttle service and complimentary coffee and pastries. But that ends there.
I don’t think I will ever come back. I had brought in my car late Friday night to determine what’s going on with my starter. My car still starts and is working fine, it’s not just as snappy as usual. And I have just had the car in for maintenance quite recently. (Some issues came about after that service, but I won’t go there)
My Service Advisor at the time was Sergio, he asked me up front that I will have to pay $ 157 to diagnose the car. He called me back the following day to tell me I would have to pay close to $ 1000 dollars to get a new starter motor and replace the battery. And he will waive the $ 157 fee. (Lucky me!) My car is only 5 years old, I always bring it to Fremont Toyota to get serviced and now he tells me that I need to replace the starter and battery. Battery, I would understand, but a starter?!
I had to request Sergio to give me a print out of the lousy $ 157 diagnostic report. The report said «Engine cranks slower than normal and made a grinding noise once. Battery and charging system was found charging 14.3V and battery failed performance test. Checked cables and found no problem.»
The most curious thing about it was that it didn’t even detail what needed to be done about the starter.
«Recommend starter motor due to noise.»
That’s the only thing you could say about my starter? It’s noisy?! Do you think I don’t already know that?
Guess what? I replaced my own battery and I am not having any starter issues anymore. If my car was making some weird noise, I bet that darn report would say, recommend new car!
I say, I recommend a new auto repair and maintenance shop.

20k Service:
I have a 1:45 appointment, I came 10 minutes early. It has been 15 minutes and no one has even shown up to my vehicle. I called the service department while waiting at 5 102 525 400 few minutes ago asked why no one is assisting. Service department said to hang on a minute on hold while they have someone assist me, was on hold for 2 minutes then they disconnected the call.
Walked into SERVICE DRIVE MANAGER MATT ROST OFFICE, without even giving eye contact he told me to wait by my car we are busy.
1:51pm service opened my door did not even know I was in my car, asked me to wait in my car for another 5 minutes.
1:56 I am now seated and to have the paperwork done for my 20k service and Ian did a good job with the paperwork. Ian should be manager.

What can I say other than to confirm the EXTREMELY SLOW service here, I mean do they run a union shop or something?
So today I come in with my 8:15 appointment (I seriously don’t think they even track this) for a SIMPLE OIL CHANGE. Already the service adviser warms me up that its going to take a couple hours even with appointment (all day if not). Today they said they didn’t have many cars to service (~60 and some days they have 300) but apparently that doesn’t matter. So anyways I walk around Pacific commons and do some shopping come back 2.5hrs later and guess what, car is still not ready! (well really not that hard to guess). Anyways, I didn’t end up rolling out of there until 11:15, a full 3 hours later.
They did let me use a competitor coupon for the oil change, but there was NO multi-​point inspection (when asked I was brushed off and told it was a newer car so of course its fine) and no car wash (since they didn’t have enough time lol).
So it really pains me to give 2 stars but a couple of the employees there are friendly (even though they seem to have no control of shop times). To add insult to injury they continue to advertise «express service» and «express lube» signs on the property. I’m not sure in what world an incomplete 3 hour oil change with an appointment on a slow day is considered express…

Horrible Service! Probably the worst experience with the service department.
1. I arrived on time. After being called probably twice to make sure that I arrived ontime, they let me sit in the line for 15 mintues. And took someone who got their after me before they came to talk to me. Even a service advisor commented to the other guy that I had been there before. So i think I was sitting there for no less than 15 minutes before ANYONE came to talk to me.
2. They took almost 2 hours to check my car, (9:30 am) after I had told them what my other mechanic had mentioned to me about my struts. They called me, even though I was sitting there to tell me what the issue was. That they had ordered the part to drop ship and they would have my car done by 4:30.
3. They’ve had my car ALL day… they call me at 1:45 to tell me that another dealership «stole» the part, and that they can’t get it in for a week. So essentially they’ve had my car all day for nothing.
Thanks Fremont Toyota… Have a nice life.

Trust all the negative reviews here!!! It doesn’t matter that you had an appointment made or not, they will take 2 hours or more even if it’s just a simple oil change. AVOID AT ALL COST!!!
I waited more than 2 hours just for an oil change with an appointment. I even told them not to even bother with rotating my tires YET they still take what seem like years. I saw other people walked in after me and still got their car before me while I’m waiting in the lounging area patiently. I wanted to speak to the general manager here about my experience but he wasn’t there. This has to stop so I am going to forward this to the regional manager if I have to. Definitely disappointed. Keep your crap together, Fremont Toyota!

I definitely agreed with the rating that most Unilocalers gave for Fremont service department. Most of the time when I brought my car here for services I have to wait at least 2.5 hours for only minor services (oil change and tire rotation). One time they could not return my car in a time frame they promised. So I had to cancel my service and went to different toyota. Just wasted my whole morning that day. In the waiting area, they have a free wifi with a password provided but you can not even browse the internet with their free wifi (what a joke!). Bathroom does not have soap and paper towels.
Overall not really happy with their services. They don’t even care or concern with customers complaints.

I am not a happy customer… went to fremont toyota on Saturday morning at 7:40am for a quick look at my headlamp issue.
Headlamp on Prius 2007 driver’s side was out, decided to replaced myself and it worked for a few days then I assumed bulb exploded because i saw glass debris inside the headlamp assembly.
Got helped by Steve, a nice fellow and he gave me a diagnosis for $ 150. That is expensive! but this is Saturday morning and i just want to get things done. Figured the diagnose will go over to the the cost of repair, which is hopefully cheaper.
Not really. ended up paying $ 100 for labor to clean the glass debris out of the headlamp assy and $ 40 for a new bulb. I know part and labor price in dealer is ridiculous, but okay at least they said my car is okay now and they said the light is working well now.
Went back home after 3.5 hours and found out that there are still glass debris inside the headlamp assy. I trust them when they said things are working fine now.
There are reasons why people dont like to go to dealers, the amount of time we waste and the amount of money we spend. If the labor description said CLEANED GLASS OUT OF HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY for $ 100 then you better do it right.
Steve kindly said that he will put this issue in a note that next i come in for service, they will remove the rest of the glass debris. I like the guy, but not the ones who performed the labor.
Now that I will have to waste few more hours in my next visit to fix the same issue that supposedly been solved, i just hope that «i wont have to pay» another dollar for the incompetent labor.