I'm curious as to recommendations for routine Prius maintenance in Portland: I typically take my 2005 to Beaverton Toyota as it's the closest to home but it's still a bit of a drive. Are there any mobile Prius technicians around here? We had mobile Honda techs in Santa Barbara and they were very good and you didn't have to drive your car to be serviced .

Thanks for your ideas.

Jim

I have a 2007 prius which i bought at Ron Tonkin which is on Se 122nd in Portland. They semm very good

I think you need to make a distinction between routine maintenance stuff, like oil and filter changes which is most of the work needed on a Prius, and the more sophisticated HSD related work done by hybrid-specialist techs. The routne work can be done by just about anybody who is competent, just make sure the work is actually done and the oil isn't overfilled. I haven't had a real problem requiring an HSD tech, so I can't make any recommendations.

A negative point of reference: I had the steering shaft recall on my 2005 done at Vancouver Toyota. The did not follow Toyota's recommended procedure. The tech told me, "We don't have to secure the steering wheel [according to Toyots's instructions], we just mark the shaft." Needless to say, the steering wheel was misaligned when they gave me back the car. I don't go to Vancouver Toyota any more since they don't follow Toyota's procedures.

Sorry to hear about that bad experience with the steering wheel. Has it since been corrected?

I like to watch a program called Air Distaters, and one of the airlines mechanics thought they had come up with a clever maintenance shortcut that saved 12 hours in changing the jet engine motor mounts on one of the planes. Instead of completely removing the engines according to the procedures, the ballanced the engine on a forklift and changed the mounts without disconnecting all the other attachments and connections and such. Unfortunately, the engine rocked back and forth slightly on the forklift and created some latent damage to the feul lines or something, and the engine burst into flames of fell off or some such nonsense, killing 100s.

Sorry to hear about that bad experience with the steering wheel. Has it since been corrected?

Yes, I didn't leave the dealer, I wouldn't leave the dealer, until I had an alignment and the steering wheel centered. And I complained to the service manager about not following Toyota's instructions on a recall. He was concerned that I was concerned, not that they were doing the job wrong. So, bye-bye.

I had a $950 job on my son's Corolla done there.
First his car was hit in the front wheel by a hit and run driver while it was parked and had $2500 in body damage.

About six months later, the wheel bearings went out on that wheel and I asked both the body shop and Vancouver Toyota who both claimed there would be no connection. I never bought that, and now I am regretting I didn't go to the Insurance Co with the extra $950.

I took my 2007 Prius to Gladstone Toyota for the first (free) oil change. I asked them to make sure not to overfill the oil. They did anyway. When I got home I checked and the oil was about a half-inch above the full mark. I took it back the next day, they apologized, and took some oil out. I should have checked there, but I drove home again, only to find it was now only 1/4 inch above the full mark. I pulled out abut 8 ounces myself to get it down to the full mark. Their price for a "routine" oil change was abut $78, so I decided to find another place.

For oil changes (just went over 10K miles, so this is the second) I'm now going to Tom Dwyer Automotive Services Inc., one of the "greenest" repair shops around. They even sell green tags to offset the carbon footprint of cars. And the oil change with regular oil per Toyota's recommendation was $38.

Bill

Wow!!! And I thought our price was high for an oil change (currently at $35)
http://www.beavertont...

Guess we're not so bad after all

For what it's worth, we frequently offer online/direct mail coupons to save even more, not sure if the other establishments do the same:
http://www.beavertont...

BTW, for those that know me, they know I usually don't blatently promote our business, but if it can save our members some money, maybe the above links can help.

I bought my Toyota from Beaverton Toyota - have been very happy with their service - I live in Wilsonville - but I got their service pan - free oil changes and discount on major services when I bought the car -

Angelica,
I think almost any dealer will give you a good deal on oil changes that involve handing you the "service pan". He He, sorry, I couldn't help myself. Well OK, I could have but didn't want to?