12th Oct 2010, 00:07
"If there is a manufacturer defect, it's covered.."
That is the way it is supposed to work.
My neighbor used to own the Lexus dealership in our city. He had problems getting Toyota to pay for warranty repairs. They would tell him he was doing unnecessary work and the claims would be denied. He says Toyota only had three responses: Blame the customer, deny the problem, or that Toyota would "take the issue under advisement", which meant that they did nothing.
If you followed the news stories about Toyota, you will find the same thing being said by US Toyota corporate officials about their dealings with Toyota Japan. Issues were reported and Japan ignored the reports. Toyota Japan did not respond until the US government sent top officials to Japan to meet the CEO, and after the US government levied huge fines against them.
If you read the comments and reports on this website and others on engine sludge problems on Toyota engines, you will find the same thing. Many customers bringing in defective sludged engines and being told it was their fault, even though they had followed all the recommended services. Even customers that had all the services done at the same dealerships.
If you read through the first 15 or 20 entries on this thread, you read the same thing. Customer had a problem. When it finally got fixed "under warranty" (read carefully) the customer had to pay $1500. Most likely, the dealer charged the customer because they knew they could not get reimbursed by corporate Toyota for the repair. That was the same problem my neighbor with the Lexus dealership reported. Corporate Toyota would not reimburse for the repairs.
If you do some web searches on customer satisfaction for different car brands, you will find Toyota ranks near the bottom. A lot of it has to do with the "blame the customer" approach when things do go wrong.
11th Oct 2010, 17:29
I still think this is more of an isolated incident. And what is to stop a dealer from sticking it to an unsuspecting customer and then running the claim through the factory? Please... I sold cars, and one of the dealers I worked for would definitely jump on any chance to make a few bucks, as long as they felt they wouldn't get caught. They are not all honest.
I had a really bad experience with a Nissan dealer, as they told me my failure was an unadvertised recall, and then denied saying that when they had to fix the same problem for the third time due to their incompetence. They also told me I had a bad sensor in the fill tube for the gas tank that was not covered under warranty, and it was $425. I was fed up and dumped the car for a better brand, and then found out that the part had been recalled. Luckily, they didn't take me for that money... but honesty was definitely NOT their policy.