Miller Toyota Culver City

READ THIS BEFORE YOU VISIT CULVER CITY TOYOTA... I saw a used 2014 Prius 3 with low mileage listed at $18,999 online, and that is the end of the positive things I have to say about this dealership. K'Lee (sales), Ronnie (supervisor), and whoever the assistant GM is, all went well beyond a stereotypical car salesperson level of dishonesty.

The biggest lie that they gave me had to do with the "mandatory" addition of TheftPatrol to my car purchase. They said that this is standard Covid era practice at dealerships (lie) and that they can't remove it regardless of the fact that I REPEATEDLY told them I don't want that extra product and service (also a lie). TheftPatrol is a $40 GPS that they slap on your car like LoJack. If your car is stolen within 5 years, TheftPatrol will give you $3000 and your dealership $2000 as though that is some how an acceptable reimbursement. Culver City Toyota charged me $1000 for this service. Again, I expressed repeatedly that I do not want this extra feature, and the told me repeatedly that this is a non-negotiable feature that every dealership has. I just called a bunch of other Toyota dealers in the LA area, and none of them force customers to take an overpriced gps service. Hollywood, Downtown, Hamer, Keyes, Carson, and Glendale all confirmed that theft prevention is OPTIONAL. After those six Toyota salespeople all told me that they don't force a theft prevention service on their customers, I stopped calling other dealers because I accepted that I waisted $1000 by making the mistake of choosing Culver City Toyota. The assistant GM finally admitted (after the sale) that this is something they do at Culver City to make up for low recent sales.

Bonus lies:

1. I was told before I signed anything that I would be allowed to have the car inspected by an independent mechanic. I was not told until I had already paid for the car that I would have to give the dealership $250 just to have someone else look at it. The independent inspection was only $50 2. When said independent mechanic looked at the car I bought, he said the tires needed to be rotated and there was only 15% of tread remaining of the back break pads. Culver City Toyota said they don't sell used cars with less than 50% of the tread, which is a very dangerous lie. 3. When purchasing, I asked if I could come back the next day to pick up the car that I was about to purchase so I had time to go home and make sure I have everything removed from the car I'd be trading in. K'Lee and Ronnie both gave me a bunch of BS about how fast they sell used cars and did not give me the option to take my previous car home and leave the new car at the dealer overnight. By the time I finally got done with a very pushy and long winded finance guy, it was completely dark out. Maybe I got everything from my old car? Maybe not? They don't care. 4. THEY posted the price of $18,999 online. Then they apparently forgot they did that, because they tried to add an extra $1,500 to price of the car before taxes and fees. They acted like they were giving me a deal when they bumped it back down to the price they posted online. When I reminded them that they were the ones who posted that price, they told me that they purposely mark up the price on the lot in case someone happened to not see it online. Seems like a weird strategy to brag about taking advantage of people, but I'm not in sales so I wouldn't know.

I'm genuinely a fan of Toyotas, but I'm not especially into lying salespeople. I believed them when they said I needed a $1000 theft prevention that doesn't even cover 1/4 of the price of the car, and that was my fault because I didn't assume they were lying and I didn't check with other dealerships about that very dumb policy.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk, and enjoy your Toyota buying experience literally anywhere that isn't Culver City Toyota.

My mother has been driving her 2010 Corolla for 4 years now. No issues, very reliable and she’s still happy with it. I made a great purchase!

Terrible service. They make you wait for every single thing.
You wait to drop off your car, 15 mins
You wait for repairs or in my case just an oil change, 3 hours
You wait for paperwork, 30 mins
You wait for a valet to bring your car 50 ft, 10 mins
Overall, very disappointed in what appears to be good service is not.

Becareful having your car service here. I have a 2006 4runner. I’m very up to date with my maintenance with my truck. I had my truck service here. After it was done. They told me I needed a new water pump. They said it was leaking. Funny thing was there was no trace of leaks in my drive way. I ask them how much. They said; about $ 650.00. I figure I would get a second opinion else where.
Went to Yuki’s and Toyota of Santa Monica. They found nothing was wrong with my water pump. They both said it the leak was from the AC condensation. I would think twice to get your Toyota vehicle service here. RIPP OFF!!!

I really do not write reviews, nor do I like to write a negative review. And I must, I have not been to Miller toyota in months. The last time I was at Miller Toyota, they did get my car in and out in under an hour, as I asked for.
Yet, I then traveled from California to Sedona AZ, now my car is only 2 years old, when I got to Sedona, I had to go to Flagstaff and have the battery replaced. I am wondering why Miller toyota did not catch this when they did the overall inspection, which is why I had brought it in to them for in the first place.
Also, I now just had to hang up for the second time with their service dept, the first call I was talking to a representative to make an appt for my scheduled oil change. The woman who I was talking to, just started talking to someone else, taking her face away from the phone, and then put me on hold for over five minutes, I hung up. I call back to be told that this representative is not sure if ANYONE is in the SERVICE DEPT, HELLO!!! REALLY!!! And could she take the make and model of my car and have someone call me back.
I hesitated, she said hold on, let me see if I can get someone on the phone there and then I will connect you, well the phone rings and rings, and waaaa — laaaah I go to someone’s voicemail.
I think I am going to take my car over here to the toyota dealership near me to have my oil change done.
I am very disappointed, I doubt if I will take or buy my car from them again, not unless they get their acts together.

I went in for service, I even got the higher grade of service needed. When I went to pick my Camry hybrid up my service rep told me that I need a new water pump, 12v battery and some belt and gave me some quotes. Fine. However, I had to remind him that the water pump is covered under warranty. OK, fine he was human no foul. I got a quote on the 12v battery and told him that I am going to look around but if there isnt much of a price difference I would come back, he quoted me $ 125. Went back today and found the same guy and let him know that I was going to get the battery replaced also.
He then tells me that he forgot it was a hybrid and the quote of $ 125 is actually $ 350 with another $ 125 in labor! I am pissed, I wasted pretty much the last two days dealing with this and will never give them another dime. I have had some bad experiences with Culver City Honda as well. They are not to be trusted. I have had much better experience at Santa Monica Toyota. Where they wash your car for you for free. Culver City Toyota tries to sell you a $ 60 detailing as soon as you pull into the service department!

It was that time again; time for the ol’ 5,000 mile service on the Silver Slug. I take my car here for oil changes and tire rotations for a few reasons:
1. They have recalls in their system and can perform them while they have my car if needed.
2. The oil change/​tire rotation price isn’t TOO expensive.
3. Dealerships typically overdo it on service recommendations, which gives me a good idea of what’s coming up that I need to get serviced.
The reason I don’t have my car repaired are:
1. The prices are too dang high.
Long story short, they recommended over $ 1000 worth of repairs, of which $ 800 were not needed.
It’s worth bringing your car here for the recall information and over-​eager recommendations, but please, unless your engine explodes, take it somewhere else for repairs. You’ll save so much money.

Beware.
The battery in my Prius went out and I got it towed here.
Pat, the Toyota representative I worked with, was really nice and helpful. He worked hard with my insurance agency to assure that I getting the right parts and service. At the same time, in addition to replacing the battery, he also suggested that I get my brake fluid flushed and a 60K tune-​up to a cost of $ 700. No thanks.
I took it around the block to a local repair shop. The gentleman there said I only needed an oil change and an air filter replacement. Total cost: $ 100.
I definitely won’t return to this place, for this reason.
When I picked up the car, I asked Pat about the discrepancy. He said that he was going by what was written in the Toyota recommended service schedule. That’s what the book said, so that’s what he recommended.
Still, his «recommendation» would have cost me an additional $ 600. Thanks, but no thanks.

This review is for the parts department.
I recently bought a 1997 Toyota 4Runner 4WD, and was in need of several basic parts for maintenance. Collin helped me order a fuel filter and several miscellaneous bushings, while he already had the oil and fuel filter in stock. Great service and very quick in locating parts! Parts ordered through them that weren’t in stock arrived early the next day.
One star off for not having some very common parts for a very common vehicle available on hand. I’m not driving a Toyota Supra! But otherwise great and fast service at the parts department!

Review for the Service Dept:
Short version: Find ANY other dealership. These guys will do anything to gouge your wallet.
Long version:
I brought my car in for a recall repair and to get a seatbelt fixed. Robert, one of the service managers, tried to upsell me on completely BS repairs (e.g. $ 300+ for «carbon buildup in the throttle body», $ 35 replacement of a light bulb). I of course declined the extra repairs.
I came back the next day when the seatbelt part came in, and found out Robert was «at a club in Hollywood til 4 am, so he won’t be in this morning». Dale helped me instead. Dale tried to double the labor quote I got from Robert ($ 240 instead of $ 120). When he acquiesced and gave me the $ 120 price, he told me I was getting a great deal. Not really, Dale. Not really.
Ugh, avoiding this place at all costs.

I came for the oil change, no problem.
The problem is how they tried to upsell me on un-​necessary services.
After the oil change, they said that my rear brake pads had less than 1 mm of material left and that they needed to change it right away. I knew it was due, but it wasn’t making any noise.
I was able to change them myself this past weekend and long behold, there was a good amount of material left on the rear brake pads! Definitely more than the 1 mm or less estimate they told me.
Not to mention the coolant exchange that they tried to upsell me on as well. My coolant was still good, I found out afterwards.
Thankful I dodged a bullet with this one. Will not be coming back here.

I stopped by Miller Toyota at 7pm this past Saturday to test drive a RAV4. Ultimately the car ended up being a little too sporty for me, but Francisco was completely charming and didn’t pressure me the entire time I was there, from the moment I stepped in, test drove, and went over pricing options. If he didn’t know an answer to my question he didn’t BS me, but looked it up right then with me. If you’re intimidated by the typical car salesmen who talk down to you like you’re a nim-​wit, I strongly suggest stopping by and asking for Francisco. The manager Angela was also very friendly and, while typically aggressive, not as in your face as most managers I’ve dealt with.
I’d give it five stars but since I didn’t actually go through with a purchase that might be a little misleading.

It’s a bit of a story but hard to condense further:
I went to Miller Toyota today with the intention of just familiarizing myself with the models. A man came out to greet me. I made it very clear that I’m probably not going to buy for a year. At first he was helpful, but eventually he said they were short-​staffed today, could I come back on the weekend? I offered to come back on any different weekday (I live far away but work nearby), and then he shifted to offering me a test-​drive today. I would just need to go upstairs with him and he’d need to copy my driver’s license, so I gave him that. He asked for my phone number, I said I wasn’t ready to give him my phone number yet. He immediately handed back my license and said «ok, thank you,» and walked away as though that was the end of us doing business.
About ten minutes later his manager came out asking me (by name) when I was looking to buy. I said «I told [the other guy] about a year.» He promptly wished me a nice day. At no point was any of the staff directly unfriendly, but I think we can read between the lines here…
Hey jackals, you’re in a customer service business and you’re absolutely failing. I get that you only want to help people who are dumb enough to appear like they are hemorrhaging money, but there’s more than one type of customer. I can now guarantee I will never buy a car from you. And I work across the street from you, it would be super-​convenient to buy from Miller. The truth is, I’d prefer to drive to San Jose to buy than to give you any money. Luckily I have other options in LA.
The end.
P. S. — Miller Honda was a bit better, I thought Aldean was very professional and friendly.

If you have an 8am appt and want to be done quickly, I would suggest coming at least 15 – 20 minutes earlier.
I love coming to this place because the customer service is awesome. There was however one instance where i waited ALL DAY for my car to be looked at SIGH. Seriously just rent me out a car. But other then that, they gave me a free oil change and free spark blub replacement.

Terrible… it’s a joke making an appointment here when it takes just as long to get someone to help you versus if you just showed up. I had a feeling that the issue with my car was a dying battery, which can be simply fixed by getting a new battery. The attendant wasn’t sure what was wrong with my car so asked that I leave it for the day. I came back at the end of the day and they hadn’t either looked at or diagnosed a problem with my car. They had the car for almost 8 hours and couldn’t figure out it was the battery! I took my car home and when I tried to start it the next morning for work, the battery was completely dead. Thankfully, AAA was able to come and give me a jump start, just enough to get me to a local mechanic where they diagnosed and replaced my battery within 20 minutes of my arrival.
This last visit was the final visit in a string of disappointing service visits to this dealership. Fortunately, the only real harm done was my being late to work that day but if this had occured that weekend when I was taking a trip to the snowy mountains… I shudder to think how bad that could have been. I have no idea who manages this place but it is report to the Better Business Bureau bad.

I’ve had 2 experiences with Miller Toyota. The first time we went there looking for a new 4Runner. They showed us a few cars and then took us inside and before we’d even found a car we liked (color and options) from their very limited selection, they’d already pulled our credit reports and were telling us how high of an APR we’d have because of one ding on our credit and telling us how much the car was going to cost (WAY more than what we knew we should pay for a 4Runner with the features we wanted). He told us at that price they were only making a couple hundred dollars profit.
They were out of 4Runner brochures so he takes us to a computer and pulls up Cars Direct so we can see colors/​options. Instantly, the Cars Direct price pops up — it’s THOUSANDS below what they were quoting us. «We can match that price!» he quickly says. Which makes me wonder — if they were only making a few hundred dollars profit at 4−5k higher price, how can he suddenly beat Cars Direct price without even talking to his boss?
We promptly walked out and went to
where we were hooked up with a different local dealership who gave us no troubles.
My second experience was a few years later. We were thinking of getting another 4Runner. I went straight to Cars Direct again, filled out a request and look who contacts me – Miller Toyota.
They gave us a quote which had all the options we wanted, plus a few more, for about $ 100 more than the cardirect quote.- this made us happy.
That is, until I realized that the listed options did not include side curtain airbags. These are simply a requirement for any new car we get. The until-​then-​was-​a-​decent-​guy told me that side airbags are «incredibly rare» and that it would be impossible to get a 4Runner with them, unless, of course, we want to get a 4Runner Limited, which, oh, by the way, bumps the price thousands of dollars, as it’s the highest end on the 4Runner line.
He emailed back again a few days later and asked if we were still in the market for the 4Runner. I want to write back, «Of course we’re in the market. Apparently you can’t sell us the vehicle we want, though». We were able to find what we were looking for, again, at another dealership.
AVOID!

This review is for Service (or lack thereof)
Wow! What a monumental waste of time. Got here at 11am. 2 HOURS LATER, my car is still waiting to be serviced. Actually, there are two cars still ahead of me!
My husband says they do a better job when you make an appointment, which I didn’t, but I think TWO hours is reasonable for any small gas station service to perform an oil change, let alone a giant one like they have here. I feel like they didn’t value my time and they didn’t even give me a head’s up that it would be an extra long wait.
I have tried to be loyal because I have had good service here before and I like my services done by a dealership. Should have read the recent Unilocal reviews!
I finally got my oil change right around the corner from our place, a 76 station on Olympic and Wilton. I told them I had 45 minutes. Guess what? It was done and waiting for me before I even got back!

Vince. Is. The. Man.
Understandable why there are so many one-​star reviews overall — car ownership is a big deal, and the feast-​and-​famine ratings are probably more endemic to the car dealerships than this specific Toyota branch — but I had an Exceeds Expectations kind of day when I came in for an oil change.
You’ll see, scattered in these reviews, mentions of this guy named Vince. And with due reason. He’s everything a novice could really want as your point person for mechanics. Here’s the 5 point list of what went right:
1. Immediately helpful — pleasant, engaging, friendly.
2. Gave me specific time-​frame for service time
3. I TOOK THE KEY WITH ME when I left my car — so they couldn’t move it from the bay, and Vince actually cut a new key to get my car to the maintenance dock. I showed up embarrassed after I realized, but he had worked around my absent-​mindedness anyway. Amazing.
4. He gave me his contact information just in case anything was wrong.
5. The service side closed at 6pm, but because I was coming back late, he stayed until 7pm just to wait for me to come back, so he could personally deliver me to my car. Let’s re-​iterate: HE WAITED AN ENTIRE HOUR LONGER THAN HE NEEDED TO JUST TO FIT MY SCHEDULE. Who does that these days? Would you? It’s that kind of selflessness that I’m still astounded by.
Vince is the man. Someone please give him a raise.

I’m concerned about the high number of low ratings for the service center here, but this review is for the sales process only.
I bought my car here in February, using the Costco membership pricing, and it couldn’t have been easier.
I logged onto costco’s website, picked out which car i was looking for and the closest dealership to my house was a participating dealership. A few emails and a test drive later, I bought it. The finance dude even got me a lower APR through a bank I never would have thought to try.
As far as the service center goes, i’ve only had to bring it in once for an oil change and the guys seemed nice enough and got the car done within the agreed timeframe. i’m sorry so many other folks had issues here with their experiences though.

Worst. Service. Ever. I brought my car in for an oil change, and this ensued:
First, the service guy calls me about 11:45, leaving me a message saying that they have some recommendations for. I call back. No answer. Voicemail doesn’t work. I try multiple times. Nothing. Finally, I call the main service number (not his direct line) and I talk to someone. They say he’s with a customer, and they wrote down my info and gave him the message. He never called me back, so I went in there a little over an hour later.
When I get in, he has gone to lunch. I asked the service manager when, and she told me he went at 1. He went to lunch after he was given the message, not bothering to call me back. She confirmed this, having overheard the conversation about the message. She tells me I need to have some stuff fixed that is under warranty. I say okay and agree to come back later.
At some point during the day, someone stole my iPod from my car. I always keep it in one of the compartments and forgot to take it out. Gone, gone, gone. I called, and left a message with a person for the same original service guy. He left and never called me back.
I’m filing a police report.

My wife and I have bought two 2011 Scion XB’s (for my Wife’s business) back in late November from one of the internet sales people, Goran Zodzic of Miller Toyota of Culver City. We knew exactly which cars we wanted and what options we wanted before we even got into touch with Goran. We reached out to Goran via email, and he made the process unbelievably painless and got it done QUICKLY. Within a day or two after emailing Goran the specifics, he found the two Scions we wanted, and forwarded us the paperwork via email. The next day, the paperwork was signed and executed, and Goran delivered the Scions directly to my Wife’s salon. We didn’t even have to go to the dealership. To our door service, and gave us a better price than any other dealer we called. I couldn’t believe how incredibly easy it was.
In fact, it was so painless, and we were so impressed with Miller Toyota, and Goran specifically, we decided to buy another Toyota when our Mini Cooper lease was up (which we turned in to the BMW dealership yesterday). PS — Don’t buy a Mini, they have tons of problems, but I digress. A few weeks ago we called Goran again to find us an all Black/​fully loaded/​limited edition V6 Rav4 to replace our pile of crap Mini. Goran didn’t have any on his lot, but it only took him a day to find one for us, again at the lowest price we were able to find. He emailed us the paperwork and we got it back to him a day later.
Yesterday when we turned in out Mini at BMW, Goran was waiting outside with our new car! We showed up in the Mini, left in the Toyota. It could not have been any easier (fact, not opinion).
Amazing customer service. Thanks Goran.