Dealership technicians caught mistreating customer’s Toyota GR Corolla by running cold engine

The Toyota GR Corolla is a unique car that should only be criticized by its owner. Perhaps doubly so, given how Toyota handles its engine issues under warranty. The worst thing a GR Corolla owner can imagine is a dealer technician revving the engine hard during a cold start. Unfortunately, this appears to have happened at a Toyota dealership in Boston.

The incident was filmed by LouisL44, who uploaded the footage to his YouTube channel, and comes to us via Engine1. In the video description, the owner says he took his newly purchased car to the dealership for its first service, where his dashcam captured a technician who didn’t know how to operate a manual transmission mistreating his car. The technician can be seen repeatedly stalling the car violently and revving the engine while it was cold. Meanwhile, a notification on the dashboard warns against hard acceleration and, by extension, any extreme engine treatment.

On a subsequent start by another technician, they accelerated hard in first gear, reaching over 5,000 rpm on a cold start. They then accelerated before quickly cutting the ignition, which, at least on some older cars, was very bad for the turbo.

The video, which was posted online only two days ago, does not indicate whether the owner of the GR Corolla sought redress from the Toyota dealership over the treatment of his vehicle. The reader I contacted the dealer but have not received a response at the time of publication.

On a grand scale, it seems unlikely that these technicians would lose their jobs over these shenanigans. If they had been going over 100 mph (closer to 85 in the case of the GRolla), it would be a different story. But good mechanics are hard to replace, so a slap on the wrist and a warranty extension might be all that would happen here. If any discipline is imposed, that is.

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