Toyota 101 Parts Department

Great service from Chris Terlaje. I had an appointment for 7AM and was checked in by 7.19AM (the delay was due to the line of cars waiting to be serviced). The minor service was completed in an hour — excellent service!
I highly recommend working with Chris — he was upfront about the time it would take, advised me on the best time to come in to avoid waits and was extremely polite. Note that the shuttle service starts at 7.30AM and I didn’t notice wifi or coffee in the little lobby area that they had, though they did place a giant jar of cookies on the coffee table.
Prices were fair, only slightly higher than Jiffy Lube and other mechanics.
One star off for the unprofessional older gentleman (Denny? Danny?) in the lobby who could learn how to talk to customers. Another Unilocaler complained about him too and I can see why.

Recently purchased a ten year old Camry with dealer service records.
Toyota 101 is our «Go TO» dealer and repair center for 7 years now.
Since we are on the mailing list, they offered a free «101inspection coupon».
Curt P. received our car & reported back within a few hours.
We were honestly advised that our brakes were at 50% and not needing immediate replacement.
Their oil changes are also competitively priced.
So happy to have the peace of mind that the qualified service technicians provided to us.

I purchased a used car from Toyota in Palo Alto and had to keep going back because nothing was fixed that they said they would. I finally just gave up. So I decided to try Toyota of Redwood City (Toyota 101) and they were outstanding. I’ve been there 3 times and each time they took the time to help me figure things out with my car PLUS fix a couple of major issues and didn’t charge s dime. If it had been really expensive, they said they’d bill the dealership in Palo but it wasn’t so they just took care of it on their own… not only that but were very, very friendly and so sorry I had been treated the way I had been treated by the Palo Alto Toyota.
They definitely have my business from here on out.

Messy bill. Maybe misleading on purpose? Bad experience overall, even though I tried to make the best of it. Having made a 7am appointment to take my car in for a free recall service (on the phone, they said the earlier the better!), I met Chris. He said it shouldn’t take long and they’d call me. Well he called rather quickly (within an hour), but they hadn’t done any work. Instead, they found 4 suggested additional services; sure, I decided to go ahead and accept 3 of the 4 additional service suggestions made. The one I declined was the cheapest: the $ 50 air filter replacements (too over-​priced since I have changed these myself from $ 10 Amazon purchases). He said the car would be ready by 1pm, and they’d call me. Around 1pm, I called them. Things were taking longer than expected, and my car might not be ready until 5 or 6pm. What??? I stopped in at 3pm to get a rental to complete some required tasks. At 6:30pm, Chris calls and asks if I knew my car was ready. Right. Happily I headed back to pick my car up. Before seeing my car, I was given the bill to look at. Well, the bill is printed backwards (literally: they staple it in reverse order) so even with 2 Master’s degrees I had to study it to make any sense of it. And then there are part numbers with abbreviated names that make things a bit unreachable to comprehend completely. The total was within $ 200 of my expected $ 2000 bill (they found 3 leaking areas, and I am hoping to get 5 – 10 more years out of my 2005 Prius), so I figured it must be okay. Looking over some details, I noticed one service was double the price quote. What??? When asking about it, I was told they reduced the price to the quoted price through a miscellaneous service discount. That seemed okay, but the numbers didn’t quite look right still. I asked, and he offered to fix the $ 30 error. Great! Well, he fixed $ 25 of it. Fine. Then he told me that they replaced my air filters even though I asked them not to, so they did it for free. Great! So I went outside, expecting for my car to be ready. It wasn’t! Someone saw me trying to get into to drive away, and stopped me to finish some things. Anyway, I finally went home, had a late dinner. Then I peaked again at the long invoice. I noticed two «elements» (that’s what they’re described as) with part numbers and prices (totallying $ 57.90) on the bill under the free tire inspection service region (seriously). I jumped on Google and typed in these numbers. They’re the air filters that I declined to have, yes the ones they told me were done for free. Well I paid $ 57.90 + tax for them. I should expect to spend a bit extra at a Toyota dealership servicing center, but I seriously just feel like they were being dishonest. I am posting because I guess they routinely take advantage of none-​the-​wiser customers. Sigh. Good luck with your car adventure.

Chris T. In the service dept is fantastic! Clearly explains what needs to be done. Oil changes are priced fairly here. One of the best Toyota service departments I’ve been to.

Very bad experience with shuttle service that they offer. I get twice denied by the driver to send me to my destination even though I waited earlier than other customers. They just get hand pick choose by driver without considering others who were there first and waiting for so long. When I asked the white old Caucasian man behind the counter he treated me unprofessionally in front of other customers. If you thinking of using their shuttle service forget about it. There are no system set up how to treat customers. I had to call my friend to pick me up finally waisted time there almost 40 minutes.

This is for the service department– And was inadvertently posted on the car sales division for the past three years, so I’m moving it. This is a review from 7÷4÷2011.
This review should be entitled: The Mystery of the Two Bent Axles
Long story short, for quite a while, I was hearing a low-​level, easy to miss sound while driving my car. It was misdiagnosed by two different mechanics in Colorado, including the Toyota service department in Boulder. But Boulder Toyota does about $ 1500 dollars of unrelated work that doesn’t solve the problem.
The day before I’m set to drive out to Cali to move for my job, Toyota reports back to me… oh oops, I don’t know how we missed it, but actually you have two bent axles!
So, basically I’m f-​ed. Either I do indeed have two mysteriously bent axles (no I don’t ride off-​road, have never been in an accident or have gone «airborne» as the mechanic asked me), or mechanics in general have absolutely no idea what their doing and replace parts randomly. Or both.
So, I take to the road on a wing and a prayer, and take it to Toyota 101 once I get here, because the car is running worse and worse. Alex, one of their master mechanics, immediately offers to jump in the car with me to take it on a test drive… not a single mechanic has ever offered to do that with me before. He listens carefully, does a few different maneuvers, and earnestly promises that he’ll personally work on my car and get the problem solved for me.
Sadly, Alex comes to the conclusion that it is indeed two mysteriously bent axles (an enormously expensive repair), and that they’ll have to redo a good amount of the work the Boulder Toyota did the month prior because they replaced parts related to the axles without realizing the axles were bent.
Enter Saif, service advisor at Toyota, who stands up for me with Toyota in Boulder to help me get them to honor their warranty (it took a week of phone calls to and from everyone but the kitchen sink), and gruffly took me under his wing helping me explore the option of buying a used car instead of putting the hefty sum of money into repairing the car, and overall was just an honest, upstanding helpful guy at an exceedingly stressful and vulnerable time for me.
I cannot recommend Alex and Saif at Toyota 101 enough.
Thank you thank you thank you.
I finally repaired the car, and now it drives like a dream.
Apparently there does exist a few mechanics that take pride in their work, and this team at Toyota 101 is one them.

I had a great experience with the service department. I realized at 7:40pm that I needed to be picked up at my house to get my car. Despite being 20 minuets till closing time, Robert sent a driver to pick me up anyway. At least 4 or 5 folks in the service department stayed late just so I could pick up my car the same night I dropped it off and everyone was super cool about it.
The driver was also a cool dude.

loved the customer service I received from Joe bermudes. only came in to get a quote for some accessories to my fj cruiser, and he provided me with that and a detailed description of what was needed and what extra parts he reccommended.
great to know that there’s a cool place to go to for my new fj cruiser needs!

Seriously the worst place ever. Dropped off car for basic service at appointment time at 930am, gave them a huge window of time to be flexible so I said I would pick up at 230p, and when I got there around 245p they had not even started on it. Are you kidding me?! Whomever runs the organization and logistics of this place should fire themselves and salvage this place assuming that the rest of the place isn’t equally as incompetent.

I’d give less than 1 star if I could… I’ve never had a pleasant experience with their employees. Last week we purchased parts for pick up and the customer service rep at the desk refused to help us — even though we had a receipt and the parts were paid for!!! Two trips to pick up our brake pads is ridiculous… I will NEVER deal with them again. I’d rather drive the extra distance to the dealer in San Bruno where the people are nicer.

Being a former parts manager I know a well run place. This is it. Carter and Frenchy will fill your order, and with everything’s you need. Waiting room sucks a bit but the do everything right here. Much better than the other place right across the bridge.

Agree with one of the reviewers: it’s a hit or miss with the service advisors. Some are great and helpful but others don’t seem to care about customer service in general.
I went to Toyota 101 to get an oil change for my parents. My mom was at work with the car, but couldn’t drive because she got sick. I picked her up from work, swapped cars and went straight to Toyota 101 from San Mateo since it was on the way. After waiting in line for 20 – 25 minutes, I asked how long it would take for an oil change. They said it would take 2 hours long. As a son, you don’t want your mom to be waiting in the lobby of a car dealership while she could be resting at home. I explain the situation to the service advisor and tried asking for shuttle service for my mom, but I guess I was in the wrong:
«Can you provide shuttle service? My mom needs to be taken home in Redwood City.»
SERVICE ADVISOR: «Why don’t YOU take her. Then come back for the oil change. Don’t worry I’ll make sure you get in front of the line right when you get back (keep in mind I already waited 20+min).
A little frustrated, I agreed and arrived back 15min later only to wait in line again with roughly 5 or 6 cars in front of me. I made eye contact with the same advisor and waved, but I was ignored. Not cool.
Two stars because although I think the front desk and a few service advisors are awesome and very courteous, I’ve had more negative experiences than positive.

Amazing customer service here, especially with Luis V. He made sure I was getting the correct part rather than just selling me whatever. They didn’t have the parts I needed in stock but guaranteed a next day delivery first thing in the morning. I’m definitely coming back here if I need parts in the future.

Ive been going to the parts department at totota 101 in redwood city for the past 25 years. My hobby is restoring old Toyotas, Im no genius mechanic but I know a heck of a lot about these cars. I always buy my parts here.
All of the parts people are really fantastic and they know their craft. What surprises me, is as how baddly people treat these folks sometimes. The true test of a good parts person, is their ability to get you the right part for your car. Toyota carries every nut and bolt and gasket for each model car for 20 years. Its not an easy task for a person to be able to find the exact part for you with all these models and model years.
But I would say the parts folks here do a remarkable job. They are always fun group to deal with, very helpful and knowledgable. Cynthia, Louis, Frank, are all terrific folks and really helpful. Even the parts manager is a great guy and very helpful too!
On one visit to buy some parts sometime ago, a guy was in front of me in line to buy parts. He was talking to someone else on his cell phone who was describing to him the parts he wanted this fellow to buy. The guy in line in front of me would then relay the information to Frank, The conversation goes on and on, for about 10 minutew while all of us wait in line… Finally the guy hangs up and asks Frank, ‘well what part do I need?”.
Politely, Frank says, Im sorry I just cannt tell you, you will have to tell me. The guy gets in a huff and says.‘well, I just wanted to get the price…”. He storms out of there…
How do these people stand this kind of crap, day in and day out??? Its not a job I would want to do.
these people are first rate. Dont kid yourself, Ive been to lots of other dealerships parts department and many of the people who work there wouldnt know a fuel injector from microwave oven.

I’ve purchased two of my four Toyota’s from this dealership, and in the 15+ years I’ve done business there, had not felt compelled to write a review about one specific department. That was until I needed a new rear wiper unit and my mechanic didn’t have it in stock during my battery debacle a couple of weeks ago.
I went in to Toyota 101’s parts department and was greeted by Cynthia. After telling her that I needed the new blade she asked if I needed the whole unit. No, I figured just the blade; but as we began walking out to my car, I mentioned that I’d had a non-​Toyota mechanic replace the old one. Cynthia came to a halt and said that was all she needed to know and that I would need the full assembly. (My bad for fraternizing with a non-​Toyota establishment. It was only a one-​time thing, I swear!)
Cynthia then ordered the part and said it would be there the next day, and, «(insert my name), that will be $ 24.25.» All I heard was the «twenty» part… twenty bucks for that thingy on the rear hatch??? I guess Toyota punishes extra-​mechanical affairs.
The next day I went back and picked up the gold –plated wiper thingy and took it to my awesome mechanic to install it for me.
Cynthia was so sweet and super professional; I enjoyed chatting with her while I was there. She’s an asset to that dealership. Oh, and the next day, the man who handed me the wiper was super friendly, too. :)
I will never have a non-​Toyota mechanic touch my wiper thingy…
I will never have a non-​Toyota mechanic touch my wiper thingy…
I will never have a non-​Toyota mechanic touch my wiper thingy…
I will never have a non-​Toyota mechanic touch my wiper thingy…
I will never have a non-​Toyota mechanic touch my wiper thingy…