Texas Edition Tacoma

I wonder if this is the reight place to discuss these Texas Edition Tacomas? I'm having serious tire cupping problems and the dealer isn't backing me up because 'the tires are aftermarket and not their respopnsibility'. There's other serious problems with the service from teh dealership, too. Is this where to discuss it or do I find another place on this forum?

 

I've got an X-SP which is a Southeast Tacoma. Everything that is put on there is installed at the port. I'm sure it would be the same for you. That's crap, I'd call another Dealer.

 

I plan to but if the 800 customer service line isn't supporting me either- and they aren't- then I have little recourse.
I first reported this issue to the 800 lilne on July 7, and have yet to hear from teh dealer rep. I called today, to find out why,m and the told me that there is a record of someone at teh dealership talking to me yesterday and telling me they weren;t going to do anything about it. They blatantly lied to the hotline! I never heard from anyone!
And that makes me even more determined to make them get this right.

 

Bug the hell out of the 800 number until they get you someone to talk too. Or try another dealer. Toyota dealers do not like unhappy customers. It must effect dealer money from the factory or something. Every time I get service they are being nice saying "if you get a survey from Toyota please give us a good rep." If the tires were on it when you bought it from the dealer, then Toyota should warranty it or the tire manufacturer.

 

The original tires were teh Toyos, but they coudl never get them to align properly, so they took them off and put the Michelin Tour HR's on. THEY did it, not me, and now they are saying they're 'aftermarket'. I'm really at my wit's end. The 800 line has told me that the dealer is the only one who would do anythign about it and if they aren;t going to dfo anything about it, then there's nothing they can do. This, from the Customer Service line! That's servicing a customer alright- in the bend-over-and-take-it-with-sandpaper way.

 

Listen, the dealers hate loud customers. If they aren't gonna deal with you. Start raising your voice a bit. Get louder and louder. After other customers start to notice, I'll bet the dealer does something!!

 

Contact Michelin. They warranty there tires. They should cover this.

 

Oh, and post some pictures of your Texas Edition. I'd sure like to see one.

 

... and tell us who the dealer is. We will take our business else where (at least I will).

 

Can you produce the Service invoice that shows "they" swapped out your tires? That should take care of the "aftermarket" comments. Do as others have already stated, get LOUD. I don't kike doing that either but sometimes you just got to let it go and GET LOUD when they are really busy in the place.

Stay on the 800 number, send copies of that Service Invoice where "they" swapped out the tires to Toyota Corporate, certified, with a history of your service problems. Send a copy to the Dealership too, certified again, to get their attention that you are serious about this matter. Let them know the same packet was sent to Corporate, Certified.

They are independently owned, try to get in to see the owner. Even though they are independently owned, they are NOT independent of Toyota Corporate. Mention something about a news station truck, they don't like those at all.

Hope all ends up well for ya. Let us know what it took to get their attention. And which Dealership is it so we ALL can avoid that one.

 

Toyota of Lewisville.

Not the first time I got boned by them either.My older truck got hit by an idjit kid while it was parked out front of the house last summer, a 2000 Prerunner, the kid hit it pretty hard on the left front. Had it towed to Toyota of Lewisville, and told my insurance company I wanted only Toyota parts and only Toyota servicing. Toyota of Lewisville FARMED THE JOB OUT to a shop in Lewisville- and they took from April 30 to July 7- yes, 9 weeks- to get it fixed. They kept ordering the wrong part! Finally it gets back to me, and the oil light won't turn off. So I tell them this oil light wasn't coming on before the wreck, and there was no reason to think it should after, and that it was reasonable to think that the oil light was coming on due to the accident . Toyota of Lewisville said it was because I didn't change my oil every 3000 miles. I had receipts to show that not only did I do that, I rotated the tires at the same time- AND I DID IT AT THAT VERY SAME TOYOTA DEALERSHIP. Didn't matter, they told my insurance company that the oil light was coming on due to a blocked pickup screen, and the insurance company wouldn't cover the cost of that repair. So I had to pay $2500 to have them drop the pan and clear the screen of the heavy oil that had dropped out of the block and into the pan while the truck was sitting there waiting for the right parts for 8 weeks. I'm STILL paying for that on a credit card. Texas Board of Insurance has copies of my service record. I have yet to hear anything on it and that was a year ago.


Here's some pics of the current truck, it's just a standard Texas Edition Tacoma in silver with leather interior:

http://web2.airmail.net/rafalko/truckpics/DSCF0111.JPG
http://web2.airmail.net/rafalko/truckpics/DSCF0112.JPG
http://web2.airmail.net/rafalko/truckpics/DSCF0113.JPG
http://web2.airmail.net/rafalko/truckpics/DSCF0114.JPG

Sorry for the links and large-sized photos.

So today I called the General Manager of the dealership, Corey Byrd. He told me he'd check with the service manager and see what he had to say.
The Service manager, not the General Manager, called me back and told me that I was basically SOL. He knew what the problem was, that there really was no fix, and that most of these trucks with the big rims and low profile tires had this problem and that he didn't feel it was his service department's problem, that it was generally accepted by the public that big tires don't last as long as smaller ones do, especially on trucks. Almost a verbatim quote, there.

I'm not at all happy with this. I need to know if any of you others out there with port or distributor-installed 20 inch rims on Tacoma PreRunners are experiencing anything like cupping of the tires after 6k miles. If you are, how many miles do you get out of a set of tires?


This is my second PreRunner, I had a 2000 for almost 8 years until it was totalled out from under me in December. I had a similar experience with the tires on THAT one- I had to rotate every time I changed the oil , and this was on the factory OEM tires! I put some really nice Michelin XLT or whatever it was on last summer, I got about 6K miles before the truck was totalled.

I think that the idea that I am going to have to spend 1200-1500 bucks on tires every two years at the most is not at all acceptable. I also think that the distributor should have known about any potential problems like this before they created the package for the different areas of the country. If the distributor KNEW about the premature tire wear, and still did it, they they were remiss in not notifying me to not expect full tire tread life. I don't mind rotating tires every 5K miles. I'll even go 3K if I have to, that's 4 times a year or so. But to not be told about it is BS.

I'm not happy,. Both the CS line and the dealership have told me there's nothing anyone can do. The service manager is looking for some 'takeoffs' to put on my truck- he wants to sell me used tires and rims that were taken off new trucks. I'm not at all sure I want to do that either, because in my experience, those will need to be rotated a hell of a lot too.

So, what's the next step? I have no real options at this point but to GIVE MORE CASH TO A DEALER I DON'T WANT TO SUPPORT ANY MORE, or give cash to the tire stores. I'm miffed.

 

Update: Uploaded the pics to the gallery here.

 

You might want to check the BBB and see if there are any complaints, let them use the muscle they have.

 

That's a nice looking Tacoma. Thanks for posting those pictures in your gallery!

 

Tell the service manager you want to see the toyota parts and service manger. You might also get a second opinion from a michline dealer. I would also persue the engine problem you had with your other truck. What did they do for $2500.00 dollars?.

 

I've spoken with the Service Manager ( Rich ) , the Parts and Service Manager ( Tom), and the General Manager of the Dealership ( Corey ). Ain't no managers left to talk to.

Got all sorts of second opinions from tire dealers already, they're telling me the same thing you are- those tires should last 50-60K.

For $2500 they dropped the pan, cleaned the pickup screen, popped the head covers and cleaned inside there too. They didn't do much- they told me just to drop the oil pan on that truck ( 3.4 V6 in a 2000 Prerunner Extended Cab ) would cost me almost $1800.
Board of Insurance inquiries are notoriously slow.

 

The contact you need to be speaking with is GST (Gulf States Toyota) who is one of 2 independent distributors of Toyota's in the US; as they are the one who purchased the Toyota truck from Toyota. Toyota sent the truck to the dealer where you purchased it; and along the way from factory to port to dealer GST added a pkg that contains non Toyota parts and accessories. About all Toyota USA can do is coax the dealer to do something to try to help out, but it is not binding. The dealer it's self should not pay for additional parts since GST is the one who will warrant any of the GST added parts. Michelin might handle the tire problem, if it is a legitimate problem, as the tires may have a soft performance tread formulation that doesn't last long, but grips well. If the dealer offers you some take-offs; take them, you are no more likely to have problems with those than any other Tacoma owner that has stock tires. A lot of aftermarket 20" wheels are not the correct offset and stick out of the fenders quite a bit, and a tweaking of the alignment specs might help somewhat with wear; but don't expect Toyota, or even it's dealer body to know the specs since they probably have no idea what kind of wheels you have; as they only know what they installed at the factory.

As for the truck that sludged up, neither the 3.4, or the 4.0 have any cronic problems with the crankcase ventilation system, and the time sitting at the body shop would not have caused sludge to any noticeable degree. As for the outsourcing of the body work, you may or may not have gotten original Toyota parts, but if you did, there is no reason to worry that it was not repaired under the same roof/street address as the dealer, it matters that the person who does the repairs knows what he/she is doing, and does it correctly. Most all body shops either have there own paint mixing set-up or buy from a jobber, even the dealers don't usually buy the paint from Toyota, and furthermore, since the Tacoma's are N American built, I am reasonably sure one of the major US paint suppliers supplies the paint. My only problem with subs doing the body work would be the likelihood of an accident driving or towing the truck from one place to the other, and if there is a problem, the Toyota dealer is your go-to, they will deal with the sub should any problems arise.

 

Michelin is even worse than Toyota when it comes to handling Complaints.
MAST (Michelin Americas Small Tires) thinks their Sh*t dont stink.
I should know.....I have been in the Tire business for 22 years.

 

I've heard bad things about Toyota of Lewisville. Call Barbie at Metroplex Toyota (It's in Duncanville off of I-20). If you pm me, I will give you some info on that dealership. It was reccomended to me by some other people, and it has been a great experience (sales and service).

 

I don't like Toyota of Lewisville. The service dept. are a bunch of crooks in my opinion. Take it to Toyota of Richardson, it's a little further but I trust them.