2001 Toyota Camry LE from North America - Comments

I am very angry and disappointed with Toyota, and I am submitting this same review on all internet sites for consumer protection.

I am a 24 year old widower of two boys and going through college. I received $25,000 when my wife was killed in our 1994 Toyota Corolla. She was bumped in the driver’s door by an old lady that ran a stop light. I bought this 2001 Camry with what was left over from the check after paying for her burial.

We had owned 3-Toyotas in all, and all of them have never had any problems at all with the cars or the dealers. All car engines are complicated machines and some will go bad no matter what. My issue is not that the engine failed at only 66,000-miles, but what happened next.

The University has provided me a free lawyer and we are suing.

These are the facts.

I bought a used 100% certified pre owned 2001 Toyota Camry from a dealership in my home town in Florida. The lawyer told me not to disclose the name of the dealership at this point.

Bought car February 2002 with 23,000-miles and a 7-year 100,000 mile limited power train warranty, the remainder of the factory warranty, and the remainder of the factory power train warranty. I thought I was covered.

I had the car serviced like clock work and only serviced by Toyota.

The car ran flawlessly until 09-02-05, when the engine blew at 66,000-high way miles.

This car was never abused, wrecked, or worked on at all.

The engine blew on a trip from south Florida to Arkansas. The car blew up in Tennessee.

The car was towed to the nearest Toyota dealership in Memphis, because I planned to utilize the no-deductible 100,000- mile power train certified warranty.

Toyota tried to start the car and said the same thing as the tow truck driver, the engine will have to be replaced.

09-03-05. They offered no loaner and stated that they would have to get authorization from Toyota before they could start the repair. I said a few hours or so, that is OK.

Days passed and on 09-16-05 the dealer in Tennessee said that Toyota was requesting that they review the service records before the repair could be authorized. The dealer in Memphis ask that I mail her all the records, I told her that they are all in the car and she ask if I had Toyota service the car? I said yes and she called back a few hours later and said that most of the records are in their nationwide system, but that she needs from 0-miles to 28,000-miles. I told her that I bought the car at 23,000-miles and not 28,000-miles. She said that she would keep looking, but that it didn’t matter.

By this time I was needing my car. The dealer said that I could pay for the repair and later get reimbursed for the repair by Toyota USA. She quoted the job as being up to $9,000. I don’t have that kind of money.

I contacted my original selling dealer, who also sold the car new, and to me. He said that being that the car was certified, the service records would not be needed from my point of purchase backwards. He was very upset and said he would make some calls on my behalf. He said he could not believe this.

09-30-05- no results from anyone.

10-07-05, I worked with the DMV and got the name and address of the first owner of the car, Toyota would not release this information to me. I called the lady who bought the car new and she was shocked that the car broke down. She even traded the 2001, that I bought, for a new body style Camry. She said that she had the car serviced all over the south as she traveled a lot, but she almost always used Toyota dealerships. She said that she was meticulous about servicing the car and that when she traded the car in, she left all the records in the glove box. My lawyer ask me to call her back and ask her how she paid for the servicing. I did and she said that she uses her credit cars for everything and then I ask her if it would be too much trouble for her to have her card companies do research and fax the charges to Toyota. She wasn’t too happy to do this, but said that she would look into it for me.

I called Toyota USA and pleaded for help, but they offered no support and said that all dealers are instructed how to work warranty claims and procedures, and that the only thing that Toyota USA can do, is take action if a dealer is not following procedures.

10-26-05 the lady who bought the car new will not answer my phone calls and I need the car really bad. The dealership in Memphis says that they can do the repair for $4,500 dollars right now and the rest can be paid later on. I talked to my father and he let me use his credit card to apply the charge of $4500 to it, so that they can put the new engine in.

The new engine was order and the old engine was being pulled.

10-31-05, I get a call from the dealership, fully expecting that I would be able to pick up the car, but instead it is bad news. They said that once they removed the engine, they discovered that the oil filter was an incorrect size. They said that this has no affect on the engine failing, but that the warranty claims investigation unit will be on this repair anyway, and that they would not reimburse the dealer due to this incorrect sized oil filter.

He said that Toyota has gotten so picky in the past few years. They will not pay transmission claims if the owner is even only 1,000-miles over the servicing interval. They will not pay for an engine that blows due to a radiator reservoir breakage and loss of coolant resulting in a blown engine, but they will pay for the tank. He said he has 3-Toyota cars out back right now for claims like this.

10-31-05, the dealer in Memphis said that they would have to receive full payment from me at this time in order to go forward with the repair. We do not have the money. He told me that my choices are to:

#1 Pay for the full repair, or I could have the car towed back to the Toyota dealer in Florida, who last changed the oil, and he would be responsible for the repair. The dealer in Memphis says that each dealer is responsible for their own labor warranty and this would be a labor issue, even though the filter had nothing to do with the engine failure. He said that he was very sorry, but that was my only choices.

11-02-05, we decided to go and pull the car back to Florida and bring it to the dealer who last changed the oil. That way the repair would be most likely paid for regardless of if it was a labor issue or not. We rented a full size truck and a car dolly and told the dealer in Memphis to have the car ready for us to pick up. They said that they would not need to put the engine back in to the car due to the fact that the engine would be sent back to Toyota any way, but we would be responsible for paying the labor required to remove the engine along with shop fees. They did refund us some of the $4,500 back onto the credit card, except for $1,500 for labor and fees. My dad almost killed them, but we left. They were going to call the authorities.

11-21-05 My dealer in Florida called me and said that he sent out an investigator to the dealership in Memphis and that the filter was indeed the wrong size, but the filter did not contain much oil when they removed it. He said that the oil in the filter was much cleaner than the oil in the engine. He says that the filter was put on the engine by someone other than them. The Florida dealer says that the filter would not matter anyway, but they would not put that size filter on anyway. I asked my dealer what did this mean for me, he said nothing. I ask if he had received the authorization yet and he said not really. He said if everyone in the world wasn’t all over this one, he would have just done the repair if I brought it to them first.

12-09-05 we have my car towed from the dealership and taken to a private shop. My father found a used engine for $1,400 with only 15,000-miles, and paid an additional $800 to have the engine put in.

12-20-05 I get my car back and it runs fine. Toyota will not refund us any of the rental money, towing fees, labor fees, lost wages, room rentals, etc. and to top it all off, now my dealer says that I have effectively voided my warranty by having this outside repair done on my car and that the warranty would be canceled immediately.

12-28-05, we are sure that Toyota will settle out of court, my lawyer says. He says that they better give me a new Avalon so I don’t ask for punitive damages and I told him I will never own another Toyota that has warranty again, ever.

I will keep you all informed.

No one knows why the engine failed, but because of the filter issue, no one will pay.

Drives great and runs good until the engine blows.

Headlights are dim.

Lots of foot room, but very little rear seat leg room.

Good trunk.

Sorry that this happened to you. We had a similar issue back in 1998 with a repair on a transmission on a new BMW. We never got our money back, even after we paid a lawyer.

Sorry. You just lost out. Any Judge would say that the best thing for you to of done is to of left the car with Toyota and given them a fair chance to do the right thing. I know that you did, but most will side with big business.

All you can really do is get the word out on Toyota and that may help them to clean up their act.

Good Luck fighting the mighty giant.

I'm not sure why your expecting to get a Avalon because of what happend to your Camry. There a whole different car. I could understand if they gave you another 2001 Camry with similar mileage, but no way an Avalon. I own a Lexus, which I bought because of how everyone raved about how reliable there cars are. I bought a 1998 ES300 with 45,000 miles in 2000 and it was certified. At 50,000 miles I was on business about 500 miles from my home when I noticed black smoke coming from the car when it was started. I decided to risk it and drive home and take it to the dealer I purchased it from. When I took it in they said I needed a whole new motor becuase the car was burning oil. I said OK and they gave me an RX300 to drive while my car was getting fixed. I drove the RX for over a month before I got my car back. I am glad I made the choice to spend a little more money on a Lexus rather than Toyota, for the service is way way better.

I had the same thing happened to me 3 times where the warranty was not honoured. It turned out to be a Power Train warranty. From my experience, Power Train warranties are a scam. I only trust bumper to bumper warranty, if it still exists.

I hope the Toyota fanatics read this post. I switched to all new GMs and love mine.

"I hope the Toyota fanatics read this post. I switched to all new GMs and love mine."

I did. And all I have to do now is read some Chevrolet reviews to make me come running back to Toyota.

What Toyota are you running to, or did you mean the warranty runs out on you twice as fast as GM?