TFL just broke their new Tacoma

Until Toyota finds the root cause and a recall is issued it's a random failure to me. I expect Toyota to back up their product. They have for me when i needed them to support my needs near the past 25 years of ownership and because of my excellent customer care I will trust their products over others. One truck doesn't define the entire product line in my opinion. If it helps find a part flaw that's all the better for every 4th gen owner.

 

Don't buy a 4th gen then. Pretty simple conclusion.

 

Yes I'd expect a blown front diff or axle shaft to be covered under warranty. That's the extent of Toyota backing up their product. Being new, parts availability is a concern. TFL hasn't gotten their truck repaired yet?

 

Warrantying a broken diff on a brand-new truck is what people would expect any manufacture to do. Toyota hasn't gone above and beyond here. If anything, they are taking too long to fix the truck in my opinion.

I agree one failure shouldn't define a whole product line but when the video of the failure happening has over 500k views, it sure will make people feel that way.

 

They're really going to freakout when they find out the bed is plastic...

Unless you got the TRD skidplate the 3rd gen came with a shitty piece of sheet metal anyways

 

I’ll take my seat now in row #1 and check this out :0)

 

Would you elaborate please? Esp the manual hubs part.

 

There's a few write-ups on TW for that I believe, if not here they're out there.

 

Simple solution. When I was sporting manual hubs on my ‘87 Chev V10 and the weather looked snotty, I’d just lock my hubs before starting out. Adds drag on the front diff but does absolutely no harm to drive train with hubs locked and Xfer case in 2WD.

 

That was back in the day when they recommended locking the hubs once a month to keep things lubricated

 

And the TH gets a real steel skid plate. Something for everyone. Why add an expensive skid plate to a truck when most people don't need it/use it. There are now factory options for whatever flavor you want and no shortage of aftermarket options.

 

Who has time to deal with that nonsense? The last thing I want to waste my time on is going to the dealership. I’d prefer to have nothing break in the first place.

 

That would be fine if the pricing reflected such cost savings to us.

 

I wish youtube would self immolate.

 

"they are taking too long to fix the truck in my opinion...."

Assuming Toyota pulled the drivetrain and shipped it off for the failure analysis, and at the same time authorized the shipment of a replacement drivetrain -- assuming from Texas or Alabama -- transit times being what they can be for a large item like this, you might expect an update this week. "Hey we received the replacement drivetrain and are installing it this week. Your truck should be ready on Wed or Thursday." (Best case?).

That is not to say, and I am also familiar with this scenario in the realm of equipment failures.... "send the part back and when we have completed our analysis we will authorize repairs". That alternative is not good customer service, but it can be observed in many situations. Deserving lots of customer push-back!

 

It’s possible they didn’t send a replacement because it could have the same defect.

 

You know what's even worse than that "nonsense"? Truck sitting in dealership lot waiting on parts, while you're making payments at 9% interest on a truck you can't drive.

 

I don’t think they paid for the truck.

 

TFL the company paid for the truck, possibly above sticker in order to have it early to generate videos. There's a video showing them flying to the dealership to pick it up. It's a business capital cost. In a year or two they'll sell it and recoup much of the money back.

 

That is certainly a third possibility. If Toyota wanted to verify there was not a more widespread issue prior to replacement that makes good business sense. No sense in dropping another potentially defective drivetrain in a vehicle that will certainly see more video exposure once repaired. I would hope on the customer service end that Toyota, whether directly from Sheldon (!) or the local dealership, that they have kept TFL in the loop regarding the timeline for repair or replacement.