Two-tone Tacoma, No Help from Factory

Hi all. I'm new to this forum and hope you may be of help. I bought my 08 Tacoma new and took delivery that January. When spring hit I noticed that the base coat on the passenger rear door was not adequately covering the primer at the lower concave portion. In addition, the Tacoma emblem on the driver's side was crooked. I took it back to the dealer who insisted that the truck had not been damaged and repaired. They replaced the emblem but recommeded that the door be left alone, as a repaint may create a worse color match. Later in November of the same year, the windshield started leaking in the top center. The dealer replaced the windshield and it leaked again, requiring removal and resealing. Several days after this repair, the driver's side roof molding flew of the vehicle. Disgusted, I took it to another dealer who warranteed the molding. Suspecting hidden damage, I complained to Toyota and formally opened a file. I requested that Toyota either send a factory rep or find an independent dealership to inspect my vehicle for evidence that it had been damaged and repaired prior to my taking delivery. Toyota communicated with the seller dealership then refused my request, indicating that the only remedy I had was to return to the original dealership. I do not understand why Toyota is refusing to even inspect this vehicle. Short of retaining an attorney I was in a stalemate and dropped the issue but saved all the paperwork regarding this ordeal. Has anyone had, or heard of, these types of cosmetic/assembly problems with the newer generation models? I have had no mechanical problems and it should be noted that all body panels do have the VIN stickers on them. Thanks for your input.

 

toyota has gone in the shitter, ive been complaining about my rusted frame for ever now.the dealer tells me it is acceptable and pretty much told me to fuck off. they said they were going to have a toyota rep contact me but never did.dealer doesnt return my calls.

 

i never heard of something like that....must have been overlooked at the factory or something....maybe they had a bad day at work that day :/

 

Here's a link to a guy that bought a NEW truck... come to find out, the truck had been damaged at a dealer lot in Texas and was repaired, shipped to the east coast, and then sold to this guy. Maybe this happened to you...

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/58707-need-advice-new-truck-painted-prior-sale.html

 

In reference to the OP's suspicions of damage, it is possible that prior to the truck being delivered (for example, at the factory/customs sufferance yard) it was damaged and repaired. I believe (not 100%) that because the damage happened before delivery to the dealer, there are no requirements to report the damage, provided the yard at which the damage happened repaired it prior to moving the vehicle off the yard. If you have seen the way the guys at these yards handle vehicles, its easy to see that this is a fairly regular occurrence... It may be that because of this, the dealer (Possibly Toyota, too) may legitimately not know of any damage to the truck existing, since they would not have been notified.

The one case I have heard of where the purchaser discovered that damage occurred while the vehicle was being offloaded from the ship, it took him about 2 years to finally track down where the damage occurred and force the car company to replace his vehicle.

Hopefully this hasn't occurred in your case, but if it has, you should be able to swing a new vehicle on the grounds that you paid for an undamaged and brand new vehicle yet were delivered a wrecked POS. I doubt it'll be easy, though.

 

If your pursuit of remedy through the Toyota Corp chain fails, you might try filing a Consumer Complaint with your states secretary of state. They should have complaint forms on your website. They will send the offending party/stealership a letter with the States seal and sig of the sec of state on there.

Another avenue is to pursue a claim under a "lemon law."

 

when did u read this.cause alot of the problems people r having on the 09/10s i dont/didnt have on my 05.

 

Welcome to TW from TX.

 

The problem is you're talking to a dealer. You need to focus all your efforts at Toyota directly. This may require a letter from an attorney.

 

i thought about that.my wife is a lawyer too.do i really have that much time to deal with this shit too?there isnt enough hours in the day as it is.im going to go buy a 700 year old fiat and call it a day

 

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Over the years, I have had many Toyotas and I always ask the dealer ... "If there has been any body repairs or port damage" ... and I get that in writing too (before signing any sales papers too).

I had ... what they called "repaired port damage" on a new Z and noticed it when the paint on there hood started to bubble and learned this lesson from Nissan.

The maximum "port damage" now (without notification) is maybe $500.00 now ???
Be careful of a $2,000 repair bill marked down to $500.00 too.

Port Damage does not include dealership damage either ...

Port Damage is named from from when they used to be shipped in via sea port and now mainly refers to any area (mainly regional) before dealership receives it. Back then, many cars were nicked by tie down chains on the ship or in the port and needed very minor paint repair.

.

 

Yikes, sounds like you got a lemon! Issues with the windshield have been quite common in the 2nd generation Tacos. As for your other problems, I've never heard of such issues. I can understand why you're upset. I hope it gets straightened out.

 

My '08 PreRunner had some paint problems, they tried to blame them on me, but fixed it anyway. Sucks to have a 2 month old truck have the hood and other spots repainted. Hope my new '10 is much better.
Jay

 

A buddy of mine at work has is wife send a letter to the CEO's office, and then hand delievers a copy of the same letter to the store manager to give them a chance to correct issues first. So far they've got a free security door installed amongst other things.

Note the letters are completely civil with documented stuff such as the date/time people were talked to, what they said, exactly what happened, ect. No anger, nothing like that, just a fact by fact basis.

Could try something similar....

 

Thanks for your input. I already went a couple of rounds with Toyota and they want nothing to do with it. They will not get involved and say that all I can do is go back to the dealer that sold the vehicle. I do know that the selling dealership was the original dealership as stated on the window sticker. I had two body men look at it and they cannot find any evidence of a repair. They feel that there may have been air in the line and the paint went on light in that spot. One guy works for a Ford dealership and he said that a few years back Ford had a similar problem with a run of black cars, but dealers were instructed to fix the problem without question upon customer complaint. I spoke with an attorney and he said that basically I'm screwed. The most I can get if there is no evidence of a repaint is a repainted door, whick considering the color (blue pearl) could look worse unless we paint the whole side of the truck. Since all panels have the VIN stickers there was no major collision unless something happened at the factory, and Toyota is not 'fessing up if that was the case. This may simply be the case of deteriorating quality control on the assembly line.

 

I used to own a 2000 Tundra. I traded it in on a 09 Tacoma. It was a dumb move and my next truck probably won't be a Toyota. Too many quality issues.

 

Ive heard otherwise. I have been told that any damage that happens in transport must be disclosed at delivery

 

I have an 09 in Magnetic Gray- I bought it new and I'm pretty sure it has never been painted since the factory. It has tiger striping down low on at least the front LH door where they did not put enough base coat on it to fully cover the primer- I can't remember if it's in other places as well. They are simply trying to save $5 in paint per vehicle and only applying the BARE minimum of paint and they are especially cheating down low since it is not as noticable. In my case it's only noticable if the light is right and you really look at it so it doesn't really bother me and no one else has ever mentioned it to me.

Edit- I used to know a auto body shop painter and he said it is very common for new vehicles to have minor touch ups done after they arrive at the dealer- minor transport damage is fairly common and he said he did it almost weekly. I highly doubt the dealer says anything about it to the purchaser of that car. Why would they? Yeah, it's the honest thing to do and they're honest about everything else, right?