‘We Didn’t Take It Out’: Toyota Driver Goes To Dealership For Free Oil Change, And The Service Report Raises One Major Red Flag

An Ohio man went to a Toyota dealership for a free oil change and ended up dealing with a frustrating situation. He shared what happened on TikTok, and his story has gotten people talking about how dealership service centers treat their customers.

TikTok user JC bought a Toyota and got three free oil change coupons as part of the deal. When he showed up to use one of the coupons, the service department gave him some bad news. They told him there was a nail in his tire and said he needed to buy a new tire for $200.

The dealership said the nail was too close to the sidewall to fix. “We didn’t take it out,” the technicians told him, saying they couldn’t tell if the nail actually went through the tire until they pulled it out. JC wasn’t buying it and decided not to spend the money there.

This Driver Thought Something Seemed Off About The Whole Thing

JC had seen this kind of thing before with other cars he owned. So he drove over to Zaino’s Tires, a small local shop in Columbus. The guy there said he could fix the tire for $35, which was way cheaper than what the dealership wanted.

But here’s where it gets interesting. When the technician pulled the nail out, he found out it was so tiny that it never even made a hole in the tire. There was nothing wrong with it at all. The technician didn’t even charge JC anything. This made JC pretty angry with the dealership. He said in his video that big corporate service shops only care about getting money from customers. He told people to go to honest local mechanics instead of dealerships when they can.

A lot of people who watched the video had their own stories to share. One person explained how the system works, writing, “It’s called they get commission Toyota ford ect u take it 2 them they get commission plus the hourly wage plus laber ect part of y I do stuff myself or I’ll go through ppl that don’t work at a shop.”

Another viewer pointed out a frustrating pattern, saying, “The part that actually chaps me though is that they will see an opportunity like that, my wife for instance. She’ll call me and almost immediately can tell she’s getting played and I’ll be the one to catch grief for ‘being contrarian’ because she’d rather throw the $ at them & just go with the flow than just go have it repair elsewhere for a fraction of the price.”

Some viewers were pretty harsh about how dealerships work. One wrote, “The dealership pays mechanics PENNIES and literally forces them to steal from people like that to be able to afford their tool bill next week. only people with no conscience end up staying, and they usually make most of the money.” 

Another person said some shops will try to sell you extra stuff whenever they get the chance. People are getting more worried about this kind of thing at auto shops, and some drivers have even started taking extra steps to protect themselves at gas stations after seeing sketchy stuff happen.

Sure, dealerships have people who know what they’re doing and fancy equipment. But customers often wonder if the repairs they’re told to get are actually needed. JC’s story proves it can really pay off to get a second opinion before spending a lot of money on a repair. People want to know they can trust the places that work on their cars, just like how some drivers have questions about weird alerts they get from their car’s sensors.