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270 Posts
Well the morning started out pretty normal. Get up, shower, walk to the garage start the Lotus, head back in and make my lunch. This particular morning I had to drive to work the long way and it ended up being a good thing. Simi to TO is about 18 miles for me. Being 6:30 in the morning, I really didn't realize that the car wasn't at temperature when I got on the freeway or when I was driving for 15 minutes (I don't hammer on it cause if it's too early for me to sprint down the street, it's to early to subject the car to that, mutual respect kinda thing 
). As I'm pulling off the freeway I take notice and think "yeah, that's not right". I drop my daughter off and turn the car off. I'm thinking maybe the sensor is too tired to be bothered at 6:30. Start the car right back up and still the same. I drive a couple of more miles and the temp finally shows up but when I jump on the freeway it drops low enough for it not to register. I've seen this in my other cars and have a 99.9% idea what it is. Stupid $35 part. I think to myself, hmmm, go to the auto part store, pick up the thermostat and throw it in. Then I remember that little thing about having to purge the air out of the system once you refill the coolant. I'm a glutton for punishment and will do most maintenance myself (and enjoy it) but I didn't want to deal with this today (or this weekend). In the past, I've never bought an extended warranty. When I sat down last year to buy the car it was offered up. I negotiated the price down a little bit but still was thought I was throwing money out the window. After all, we're talking about a Toyota drive train, what can go wrong with that Any way, the fact that it would only cost me $100 to get it fixed and being 2 or 3 miles from the dealership that just opened for the day, I turned around and headed in.
Now I've never been satisfied with service or part departments at dealerships. The people that work there seem really annoyed that you would have the nerve to bother them. Silver Star isn't your typical place. I walk in and I'm guessing the manager walks over to me and asks me how he can help. Mind you, I'm 36 and look like I'm going on 21. I'm in torn jeans, Vans and ridiculous t-shirt. Yet, I was treated just like the other customers that walked through the door at the same time (that were much better dressed ).
Monique took great care of me. She was writing up the work order and I asked if I could talk to the tech that was going to work on my car. A minute later Richie walks through the door and introduces himself. I tell him what was going on and he confirms what I thought the problem was. Richie is the tech that so many people here recommend and I will add my name to the list. They got the car fixed today (same day), took care of working with the extended warranty company to work out the billing and even fixed my window that wouldn't roll up all the way and didn't charge me.
I couldn't have asked for a better first time experience. And to top it all off, I run into my cousin who works there as well. I know who I'll be hitting up for a family discount when its time to upgrade to an Evora
). As I'm pulling off the freeway I take notice and think "yeah, that's not right". I drop my daughter off and turn the car off. I'm thinking maybe the sensor is too tired to be bothered at 6:30. Start the car right back up and still the same. I drive a couple of more miles and the temp finally shows up but when I jump on the freeway it drops low enough for it not to register. I've seen this in my other cars and have a 99.9% idea what it is. Stupid $35 part. I think to myself, hmmm, go to the auto part store, pick up the thermostat and throw it in. Then I remember that little thing about having to purge the air out of the system once you refill the coolant. I'm a glutton for punishment and will do most maintenance myself (and enjoy it) but I didn't want to deal with this today (or this weekend). In the past, I've never bought an extended warranty. When I sat down last year to buy the car it was offered up. I negotiated the price down a little bit but still was thought I was throwing money out the window. After all, we're talking about a Toyota drive train, what can go wrong with that Any way, the fact that it would only cost me $100 to get it fixed and being 2 or 3 miles from the dealership that just opened for the day, I turned around and headed in. Now I've never been satisfied with service or part departments at dealerships. The people that work there seem really annoyed that you would have the nerve to bother them. Silver Star isn't your typical place. I walk in and I'm guessing the manager walks over to me and asks me how he can help. Mind you, I'm 36 and look like I'm going on 21. I'm in torn jeans, Vans and ridiculous t-shirt. Yet, I was treated just like the other customers that walked through the door at the same time (that were much better dressed
).Monique took great care of me. She was writing up the work order and I asked if I could talk to the tech that was going to work on my car. A minute later Richie walks through the door and introduces himself. I tell him what was going on and he confirms what I thought the problem was. Richie is the tech that so many people here recommend and I will add my name to the list. They got the car fixed today (same day), took care of working with the extended warranty company to work out the billing and even fixed my window that wouldn't roll up all the way and didn't charge me.
I couldn't have asked for a better first time experience. And to top it all off, I run into my cousin who works there as well. I know who I'll be hitting up for a family discount when its time to upgrade to an Evora
