DARCARS Toyota Baltimore, Service

Absolute rip off. Charged me for document retention ($ 1.99), shop supplies ($ 10.59), and an environmental fee ($ 4)? $ 16 for stuff that has nothing to do with my vehicle. I only came to a dealership because I just bought a (new) used vehicle and wanted Toyota experts to give it the first check up. I guess that’s the price you pay.
And it took over an hour for an oil change!
Never coming back here. DO NOT come here if you’re looking for a simple service like oil change. You’re better off going to a local mechanic and keeping your money local.

I brought my car here 5 months ago for an oil change. My valve caps were tight and I asked them to check if they could be loosened. After checking the caps, they came back and told me that the first one was really tight and that they would not attempt the second one unless I approved replacement of the entire tire sensor (~$ 450). I had asked if the first valve was fine because they had mentioned a piece of the valve chip/​broke on removal. They said that it was fine, and I declined removing the other. 5 months later I was checking my tires myself as a standard check. On the tire that they had removed the cap there was almost nothing left of the valve stem; maybe a couple threads left. Upon now returning to this dealership, they denied they had damaged the valve and quoted a ~$ 450 fix.
I did not ask them to break my valve to remove the cap. They should have determined it was too tight before breaking it. Since they broke it while checking it, they should have offered to replaced it.
The most upsetting part is that they let me leave knowing I was unaware of the amount of damage to the valve stem and that this amount of damage could lead to a blowout. This seems negligent in the very least.
Is this who you would want to entrust the safety of your friends and family?

WORKMANSHIP/​SERVICE QUALITY: POOR, had to bring it back twice because I knew something was wrong — really! Promised service times were not met, everyday they’d say another day. Plus YOU have to pay for the rental car all those days.
HOURS: They do have convenient hours.
COMMUNICATION: POOR — they never, ever call you back other than to be okay with more charges. I would leave message upon message with no communication. It was exhausting.
COST: LITERALLY double what you would pay elsewhere. Everyday the cost went up by $ 200 and I could not even get my car back since it was already disassembled. I almost want to sneak back in the middle of the night and drive off the lot but you can’t do that if the shell has no wheels!
OVERALL: WHAT A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. GO TO YOUR LOCAL MECHANIC, save yourself the stress and cost. I mean you literally cannot lose going elsewhere worse than you’d lose going here.

It’s an average dealership service center. Not great but nor terrible. The service manager was not personable and seemed rather non-​attentive but can’t expect the same service as at my mercedes service center. Right? Yet, I came to fix my sister’s recall issue without an appt and they got me in right away. The waiting room is clean and has 60″ TV for you to waste your time away painlessly.

I have been using this dealership for service since it was owned by Schaefer and Strominger. Always high prices for repairs but usually the repairs are done well. In the past 2 years I have had to rethink this. I brought the car in for an alignment which they did but told me that the bolt holes in the substructure were enlarged and this would have to be replaced at $ 2500 or the car would not hold alignment. I declined and instead got a lifetime alignment contract with Firestone. Now I bring it in every six months and the alignment has always been good. Recently, the engine light came on and I paid $ 125 to do a computer scan. They told me the catalytic converter was low and needed to be replaced at $ 2500. Since I had just passed the emissions test a few weeks earlier, I was skeptical, so I decided to research the situation and found that this could be just an electrical glitch or a $ 50 oxygen sensor. They would not reset the engine light for me, so I reset it myself by disconnecting the battery. The light has not come on again and the car runs fine. So… the lesson is that if they say something is working it probably is. If they tell you that you need repairs, think twice and hold on to your wallet.

I had taken my car into the service shop to find out a noise coming from the engine. I was charged $ 125 to do a diagnoses twice in 6 months and said they found nothing wrong with it but the car makes loud annoying engine noises. Instead insisted me to change other parts on the car. Avoid this place if you can!

Can’t beat a free oil change!