Comments: 1-15, 16-20
Paint job has not held up, had paint chips right away. Headlight lenses are pitted and scratched from sand on the road. Front bumper is completely shot, needs a new paint job already. High pitched whistle when driving through windy areas. Really bad blind spots. Cheap stock cd player.
This car is fun to drive, peppy, lots of options for the price, and a reliable engine. If it weren't for the paint job problem, I would give this car a 10.
You have a one year old car that needs a paint job already and you LIKE it. Weird.
Any car that has such a poor paint job that it needs painting after a year most likely will have many more problems too. No wonder they can sell it so cheap.
A friend recommended this website and it is great. I've been looking at cars, and the comments on here have really helped a lot. I wanted a Hyundai Tiburon, but there were too many complaints about the dealers not honoring the warranty, so I wrote it off. Then I was looking at Tc's and (fortunately) saw this review about the very poor paint quality. Now I've ruled out the Tc. I'll stick with American made cars. I've never had any problems with any of them.
This website has been a big help to me in researching new cars. I was very interested in the Tc until I read the reports about the horrible paint problems. I looked at a year-old Tc a few days ago, and yes, there WERE places where the paint was coming off. I'm really glad I found this site, and after reading comments on a lot of the cars I decided to buy an American made car. I've never had any problems with any of them that I've owned, or with the paint falling off after a year.
You know, (usually) in buying a new car you get delayed payments (especially towards the end of the year).. The money you save on the first payment you could have a body shop apply a better clear coat to protect your paint.
Yes I know you shouldn't have to be bothered about something like this for a new car, but when you're buying a car with all these options for such a low price, you have to buy it knowing that some corners have been cut. If you buy this car and throw in a few "pre-repairs" (like clear coating) you can save yourself a headache and some money later on when you're having to pay a car payment and for any repairs not covered by warranty, you could have a great car.
Clear coating a bad paint job doesn't help. It actually lessens the value of the car. Clear coats that are applied to factory paint dull quickly, leaving you with a flat looking paint job. Also, if the factory paint is bad (like on the Scion and other Toyotas) it will just flake off and take the clear coat with it. If a car company is too cheap to do a decent paint job, you need to look at other brands. Huge flaws in paint quality are sure indicators of problems in other areas. Toyota once built some reasonably good cars, but in recent years they have totally dropped the ball on quality control.
Clear coating a poor paint is the WORST option available. A clear coat applied to a factory paint job only dulls the existing factory paint and lessens the value of the car drastically. NOT a good idea. Better to buy a car that doesn't "cut corners" on something. What good is a car with a reasonably decent engine if it looks like a junker?
OK... first off, after a year it should still be under a warranty theyll fix it for free... think smart plus its just your car that does that...
I agree with the blind spots. We test drove two and were close to buying one until we took a second look around. This was especially a problem for shorter people. Tall people can look around to compensate once they are used to it, but sight lines were just not good enough overall relative to what we were used to.
Does anyone think the 05 Tc got kind of noisy fast?
I wrote the first comment on the TC. We have over 65,000 miles on the car now with no problems except the paint job. I live in the desert, and it is hard on all paint, but the TC seems to be worse than average. A friend that also owns TC tried to get the car dealership to do something about the paint, but was told it was normal wear and gave him a bottle of touch-up. Our insurance will repaint the car, but we have a $500 deductible. We will probably wait until we can't stand it anymore, and get a new paint job.
The car is fun to drive, and handles curves nicely. Several people have told me the TC has a Camry engine, but I don't know if that's true or not.
First it really depends on where your car's mostly driven, if you live in the desert and you have a red or black car, plus if you drive on roads with lots of sand and dust, then it's much harder on the paint. No one I know, or TCs I see on the street had that problem.
Ruling out this car purely based on its paint job seem unreasonable to me.
My friend's 02 mustang went back to the dealer 15 times for repair during first year of ownership.
My friend's 04 Focus had a clicking CV joint and a completely failed clutch at 4k (not worn out, the clutch diaphragm springs simply snapped) He was on the side of a highway off ramp for about 5 hours, waiting for ford road side assistant to arrive (only 2 blocks from a ford dealer, by the way).
Both had very nice paint at the time of failure though, if that's really what you want. Maybe when you get stock in the middle of no-where, you can at least admire the great paint job (which in my opinion, those focus pain job looks very cheap from factory)
I bought a '07 TC and am having problems with the paint peeling on the front bumper. After taking it to the dealer, their response was that it was caused by a nick and therefore not covered under warranty. I went home to touch up the peeling and realized that there are many nicks on the front. After looking at this site it seems to me that Toyota should be responcibile in some way.
Not sure if there is any thing in common, but my roomates 03 corolla has lost most of the paint from the front bumper in less than 6 months after being replaced. I've seen others with the same issue. My 03 Impala has been bumped/nicked/doored and dinged on every corner, but never lost any paint. (cheap shot; I know)
Okay. I don't think I've panicked this much before in my life. I just bought a brand new 08 Tc, 8 miles on the thing when I drove it off the lot, washed it for the first time last night (only have had it for a week and 1/2). THERE ARE SPOTS WITH NO PAINT!!! They did a good job of covering it up with their special little fun wax, but the minute I washed it off... NO PAINT!!! I tried to take it down this morning and the response I got was..."oh, we'll try and buff it out". WTH?!?!? How are you going to buff no paint?!?!?! I'm so furious here at work I'm ready to explode!! I don't know what to do now.