Stapp Interstate Toyota — Local services in Frederick

Mid 2024 update-

I brought a new 2023 Prius Prime, took it in for 10K service and when I got it back, the "Maintenance Required' screen, that takes up half of the instrument panel. Plus, the glove compartment was broken when I got the car back (didn't see it until the weekend).

I was unable to get through to this dealers service department after 3 attempts. 1st attempt during business hours I was dumped into voicemail. I left a message and never got a call back (still haven't). I left another message on Sunday to call me back and have yet to get a call (monday). On the third attempt (Monday) I was redirected, after being on hold for 15 minutes, to a call center in India where someone who did not speak English well enough to understand, answered.

They were unable to find my car or account with my phone number so had to collect all my personal information (car, make model, name, email, phone, etc.) and, I'm assuming, made a new account from scratch. 10-1 that's going to haunt me for years unless I just dump this dealership.

I was able to get an appointment for later this week. In the interim I live with a broken glove compartment and a display flashing at me constantly MAINTENANCE REQUIRED, even though I just DID the maintenance last week.

3 stars to 2 stars. If they don't get this fixed quickly on Wednesday, I'll take it down to 1 star.

Stapp, you can do better. My family has been buying cars from you for decades. We are no longer happy with your service and if it's not fixed by you soon, we'll all be shopping elsewhere.

Mid 2023 update: These guys don't gouge you on price by adding 'market adjustments' like many dealers did during the last couple of years. For that, they go from a 1 to a 3. I bought at a different dealer (that had a 2023 Prius Prime no one could get, and also didn't add a gouging 'market adjustment fee' of thousands of $), but I'll service it at Stapp. Hopefully, they've gotten their service department into better shape since I last visited.

Service department leaves much to be desired.

TL:DR: They gave the car a thumbs up on everything being ok fduring an oil change a few of months ago and then today, claimed it needed thousands of dollars of repairs.

The story: June 4th, 2020, I brought my 1999 Toyota Landcruiser in for an oil change and overall checkup for anything that might be wrong.

They told me everything was in pretty good shape. A few things were 'yellow (they rate things green yellow, red), but nothing needing attention until maybe next year and fine for now'.

In late July, the check engine light came on and the engine started running rough. A couple of days later I injured my leg and went into surgery and the car sat until Sept. 2nd. It got about 30 days of use (I have 2 cars) and couple of hundred miles put on it during that time. When I had it taken back to Stapp to have a new key made and programmed and to have the check engine light and rough running engine checked out.

They found the issue (a $250 repair), but also found 4 other escalating in cost issues (one that was $1300 alone) that were not found 60 days prior adding up to almost $4000 in repairs.

a month of actual use and a couple of hundred miles does not cause $4000 in repairs.

None of these were essential, but the upsell was evident.

When I asked Josh, the service rep, why it checked out fine only a few months previous, he, basically, went silent. Then asked, 'so, what do you want to do?".

I told him fix the one thing I brought it in for and make the key.

My dad has bought cars from this dealer since for my entire life. He's been a Toyota guy his entire life. I thought Stapp was different than the other rip you off garages and car dealer service depts.

I think I'm going to be taking this to another garage and have them check to see if they find the same problems.

Its not looking very good though. I'll update this with a better rating if they find the same problems and give me similar...

Please read my experience with Stapp Toyota before proceeding to bring your car to the Stapp’s service center.

First, I want to clarify I have no experience with the sales department, this review has nothing to do with them. I don’t want to bring up names as none of these is personal. At least I don’t want to make it that way.

SOME CONTEXTS: My 2016 Scion TC had the airbag warning light. I researched around and think it could have been a connection issues, since sometime the airbag warning light would go off for a few hours. I decided to use Stapp because my parents live close and can give us a ride.

Where it all started: Took a day off and brought the car in for diagnosis. This was in April 2024. The fix is to replace the airbag module with the diagnosis was about $1160. I asked to speak with the technician to give us more details as the RO didn’t provide much information on what the problem was. I had my suspicion on the diagnosis as the vehicle had less than 60k miles and it’s only 8 years old. I was told the code indicates the airbag igniter had low resistance/impedance, which could mean the airbag was faulty. He was very confident that was the issue and told me he had replaced a lot of them. I bit the bullets and agreed with replacement. When it was done the airbag warning light stopped staying on, however, I did notice that every time I start the car it will flash for a few seconds. This has never been an issue when the car was normal.

Fast forward to July 2024: The light comes on and off for a few days, and I waited a few more days for it to stay constantly on because I worried if it doesn’t stay on, the dealership investigates the matter seriously. (Funny this was later being used by the customer care manager to blame me for not bringing back the car to the dealership sooner). I called and made an appointment to re-diagnose with a different technician, since that’s the quickest turnaround. Brought the car in and was told that it was a connection issue and that maybe the first technician didn’t plug the pin in correctly. We decided to go back to the dealership to ask for clarification and felt something was off. As this could have been the issue all along and the airbag module may NOT have been the issue all along. We talked with the service advisor to express our concerns and was told that she would ask the technician if they even checked the wire connection in the first place. NO phone calls. Again, the airbag warning light will flash for a few seconds before going off.

September 2024: The light comes on again and stays on. Tried to reach the service manager to elevate the issue, left a voicemail, and never heard back. Fine, brought it back again. They did their thing, but this time, I received an estimate of $$1783 related to wire issues including another $187 diagnose fee. Meaning a wiring issue just decided to fail 3 months after the airbag module failure, while never been on the initial diagnosis. Oh yeah, like he is going to admit that he screwed up. Anyway, we talked to the service care manager in person, and she insisted that she repeated that she needed to talk with the technician to figure out if the 2 diagnoses are for different parts before giving us a resolution. This is the best part, the service care manager stormed out of her office after we were trying to drive off with my car and repeated the same exact thing, and word to words, that these diagnoses are for 2 different parts, and she will need to talk with the technician to give us an answer. She said that with the aggression that I have never seen from any rational customer care person. Sure, for something he attempted to fixed 6 months ago. She then asked when the problem came back, I said July. She goes we should have brought the car back in earlier, then started talking to some non-sense and successfully riled us up.

Wednesday, 9/25/2024. I received a call from THE customer care manager simply repeats that these are for different parts, so I told her OKAY thank you and hung...

I am very disappointed that Stapp asked for my feedback and did not respond, so now I am sharing my experience to maybe help others think twice about coming here.

I brought my vehicle in because it was exhibiting a shudder at certain speeds. After the technicians reviewed the vehicle I was told that they could not replicate the issue but it “could be” several different issues, however a complete diagnosis was not made. Trusting that this was a Toyota dealership and believing they were the best experienced in the vehicles, I agreed to have most of the items completed - except getting new tires (glad I didn’t pour that extra 2k into the car). After picking up my vehicle and $2800 later it was still shuddering - I asked myself - did they even drive the vehicle? If the shudder was occurring after driving a mile away from the dealership they should have been able to experience it as well. I contacted the dealership for them to look at it again. Then they told me they diagnosed it being a drive shaft and it needed to be tightened. I agreed to have that completed. They then told me after that was done it was still shuddering and that after having a few of their most seasoned technicians look at the vehicle it “could be” the torque converter but they wanted to replace the whole transmission JUST INCASE it wasn’t the torque converter. That work was estimated at 4 - 6k depending on what transmission they put in the vehicle. I was shocked by how uncertain these TOYOTA technicians were in diagnosing my vehicle and had no concern over how much money I was being asked to dump into the vehicle with blind faith that maybe, just maybe, they would get it right this time. I chose not to agree to the work and pulled the vehicle from Stapp. I brought the vehicle to a non dealership mechanic and they were able to confidently diagnose the transmission the first time and gave me a comprehensive diagnosis of what gears were affected by the transmission failing. I was even able to google the shuddering for the Toyota and found the shudder issue related to 2009 4Runners with transmission issues, maybe the Toyota technicians could have used google. I am extremely put off that TOYOTA could not diagnose one of their own vehicles after 3 - THREE attempts, and I am the one paying for it. I would have made some different decisions about the work being done had I known from the beginning that it was a transmission issue. I have lost all trust with Stapp and am appalled that they were ok with having me stuck with a large note after misdiagnosing my vehicle and asking me to pour more money into the vehicle with uncertainty in their diagnosis. I regret buying the oil change package with Stapp as I am hesitant to give a company I do not...