I agree with @BunsenBurner that dealers vary. I bought my first Toyota from a dealer whose service department ripped me off on an unneeded repair and I vowed never to bring my car back to them again. I use my current service depart which is not that close to my house, but on the way to and from work. They’ve been great, and even though I didn’t buy my Toyotas from them, they treat me great as a service customer.
We had an awful service department with our first Subaru. Would NEVER buy from them again. They were terrible.
I’ll agree with finding a good dealer to do warranty work-I drive past at least 3 Ford dealerships to go to “my” dealership at least 30 minutes from the house. They are consistently good and never give me crap about fixing a TSB (technical service bulletin) issue, which is sort of a gray area with regards to extended warranties.
Once I had a nail in my tire and pulled into the closest place to get it fixed, which happened to be a Ford stealership. The guy in the service department said “did you buy your car here” and I said “no, but I’ve got a nail in the tire.” He said “can’t help you”.
Luckily the Pep Boys around the corner did. For free. I actively send people to my good dealership and discourage them from the other one. What a bunch of jerks.
MIL takes her Lexus to the Toyota place because she’s uncomfortable with how “fancy” the Lexus place is. What’s silly is that she has pre-paid maintenance, so whether it’s at the Toyota place or the Lexus place, it’s still zero out of pocket!
Over the years we (including our kids) have owned 8 Hondas and Toyotas: two civics, a Pilot, an Oddessy, a Toyota pickup (can’t remember the model) , two Corollas a and a Rav-4. Every one has been terrific: long lasting and reliable. We also owned a Chevy Luv in the late 70’s, which lasted until the red paint turned pink, and still own a Ford Explorer which is now 17 years old and still chugging along, though it no longer leaves the county. We owned one dog of an auto: a Ford Windstar mini-van.
Honda Accord
Honda Odyssey
Lexus RX350
Audi Q
All great cars. Had a few bummers too, usually American made.
@MotherOfDragons – re: your MIL taking her Lexus to Toyota for service. Our Toyota dealer does not provide a loaner for the scheduled service but the luxury dealers all do. I hesitate to say that Lexus does, as I do not know for certain, but Audi and BMW do. That is my one issue with Toyota. The service dept is not at all customer-friendly. I never serviced my old Land Cruiser at the dealer but have been taking the new one in b/c of all the electronics.
Cannot believe the story about the nail in the tire. That is terrible and you should spread that word around.
That guy saying they would not fix the nail in the tire is a major ass!!!
Re: loaners. When Mr. periodically takes his van to the “good” Lexus dealer, if they are backlogged, they give him a free loaner for a day - even when the service is a routine oil etc. change and check. Guess they are afraid that he would drink all if their fancy teas and use their entire Internet bandwidth if he sits in the lounge for too long. 
Or they want him to consider a new Lexus by giving him a shiny one to drive for a day.
Lexus always has a loaner ready, and they offer so many models to try out. Last one had the back up feature.
My MIL does not like loaners, and will roost like an angry hen until HER car is done, lol. She says it gives them an excuse to rifle through her car and be nosy, and to be lazy about getting it fixed. It’s one of my more favorite irrational rants from her :D. That car is gross on the inside, nobody is being nosy, lol.
I don’t love loaners, either. My Ford place will give me one if there is something that requires a lot of long work on the car (IIRC a pvc valve needed fixing a few years ago under warranty), but it’s usually a fairly old Ford Escape that smells like cabbage.
The MB place gave us a sweet ride for the girls’ car when it had the brakes, tires, rotors, and Service B done on it (took 4 days), but there was no way the girls were getting anywhere NEAR that car, omg. It was more expensive than all of our cars put together! They were bummed that the “loaner” was not for them. Luckily it is a hardy old tank and it rarely needs service (knock wood!)
Loaners of fabulous brand new cars make me nervous. I really would hate for it to get dinged in the parking lot or elsewhere when it was in our custody. I believe they hope you fall in love with the loaner and get a new(er) car–maybe even the loaner sooner.
I like our cars and find it confusing to drive too many different vehicles in a short time, especially if some are rentals or loaners. It takes a bit of adjusting to figure out controls and gas tank, etc.
@HImom I agree; that kind of love is too expensive for me :)) It sat in the driveway for all four days and I just drove the girls to and from school in my car.
Re Bad Toyotas: We have a Toyota that isn’t wonderful and ends up in the shop more often than I think it should. It’s a 2009 Land Cruiser.
My last loaner was a Volvo small SUV with 200 miles on it. I was having routine maintenance…but needed a car for the day. I was going to rent from Enterprise but someone suggested calling the dealer. Poof…they handed me the keys when I got there!
Our D’s mechanic lets you rent an Enterprise car @ $10/day, if you need one or they will drive you nearby and I believe pick you up.
@Bromfield2 – oh no! You are destroying my faith in Land Cruisers. My 2000 has given me no trouble ($2000 to $2500 of unscheduled/ non-wear & tear). It has been such an inexpensive car to own, once I got past paying for it.
I have not yet had an issue with the 2013 LC but it only has 20K miles on it, so wouldn’t expect problems yet.
Aaaaaaannnndddd!!! It is a hatchback!!! :x
Yay!!! I was so rooting for it to NOT be a sedan. We are #1,087,543 to get our hands on one of these beauties.
One note on reliability and how good cars are, always keep in mind that what one person experiences may or may not mean much about the make. with cars generally considered poor, I always hear the “but I had a Chevy Vega and it was a wonderful car, never had a moment of trouble, and got 100k miles out of it” (which given that was probably one of the worst cars ever made reminds me of “why do people go on about the danger of smoking? My grandpa smoked 2 packs a day until the day he died at 95, never had any problems”). Statistically when you are talking millions of cars, good cars can produce some lemons, and some lemons can produce sweet fruit. All makes have their ebbs and flows, too, a couple of years ago you saw issues with Toyotas, it wasn’t just the recalls, they got sloppy in their drive to try and replace Ford as the #1 in car sales, since then they have improved things. At times Honda got sloppy, and you would see much worse cars for a stretch, then improve again. Threads like this are great, because you can sense when someone is an outlier and when things are good (or bad). One of the things that makes it a bit more difficult is because cars last so much longer, the churn on cars is a lot smaller, so it may be harder for people reporting on their car (let’s say a 2010) to know what later model cars are like:)
Hyundai Elantra. 2013. I love it.
The only problem I’ve had in three years that wasn’t my own fault was a glitch in the wiring of a taillight (fixed for free by the dealer).
I had a 1995 4runner V6 4WD for a while. Loved that car… consumed gas like no ones business but man was it fun to drive, and great off-road. Also very dependable.