Arbitration didn't go well..........

Op, I apologize if you or someone else has already addressed this here but have you tried driving your truck with just the front DS connected?

Edit: Oops! My bad. I see one of your posts suggests you have a 2WD.

FWIW, I have a '14 AC TRD Off Road 6-speed that was mfg. in early March at the Texas plant. It has no vibration issues at any speed and I even changed out the rear springs. It is really strange that some trucks have this problem and others do not.

 

It's very rare for a dealership to have a full return policy. Most of the dealers I've ask have had a modified return policy that usually involves applying the value of the new vehicle against another vehicle on lot. Just like a house, boat, or plane these things usually require financing and research to buy so the onus, unfortunately, is put on the buyer to get the decision right.

Lemon laws are there to take care of the times when a vehicle does not meet manufactures specifications through no fault of your own. I wish you the best of luck and as a Taco fan I'm disappointed you had this experience. I'd recommend on your next truck/SUV you really drive the piss out of the thing till the dealer says no more before you buy. Nissan has there own issues too and some of them are better/worse than those of the Tacoma.

I'm in no way surprised the competing dealer is refusing to give you new price. Once a vehicle changes title it's used as far as I'm concerned because it was out of the dealerships hands.

If I have any advice, it would be to avoid writing the famous Tacoma world goodbye speech. Usually it ends up being a negative experience due to hyped up fanboys and bitter people having a war over your thread .

 

I agree with you and appreciate the input.. yeah, I've seen the goodbye threads..

I really had hoped that somebody here had found a fix or had some success working it out with the big T. I didn't intended to start pissing on Toyota, they pissed on me first. My mother bought a new Toyota truck years ago, basic 4cyl auto 2wd. She loved it, but the brakes started squeaking within a month after the purchase. The dealer told her all truck have squeaky brakes. She call Toyota on Friday to complain, Monday morning the dealer called her to set an appointment to fix the brakes. They replaced the rotor, calipers and pads. No more squeak.
I know people that love their Toyota products, that's why I finally decided to buy one. It hasn't gone well.. and I'm not going to suck it up and take another $5K hit in order to move on.

 

I might not have stated that correctly. The selling dealer, the actual owner Andy Obeissy is the one who informed that our truck is a used vehicle. What I said, "We are not looking for anything extra or free stuff/options, just like for like. Fix our truck, replace it with one that doesn't vibrate or take the truck back". He kind of grinned and said "I'm not replacing your truck or taking it back, it's a used vehicle." That was a few days after the sale. And we took it the shorts on our upside down trade, my fault but the $$ vacuum keeps running.

When talking with the other dealer, the sales manager was straight with me and stated the invoice was $26,500 aprx and he would only be able to give us $23k on a trade, if we decided to go that route.

 

Ken,

Sorry you've had to go to these great lengths to try and resolve what is obviously a Toyota manufacturing problem. Much like the crap frames that a lot of us are dealing with.

FWIW, when my truck sits for more than two days, I get vibrations and shakes from the front end at highway speeds but I know it's because the tires have gotten 'flat' in one spot from sitting on the concrete.

Good luck in your quest to receive compensation from toyota. BTW, your dealer and the one I bought my truck from must've gone to the same school of F the Customer.

 

Thanks JoeDirt. It's been a big pain, and an education. Our company/industry would never get away with this type of behavior. One of the manufacturers we buy products from (Invacare) made some big mistakes in the past, not resolving customer complaints, continuing to sell defective products after numerous complaints and refusing to repair/replace defective equipment.. sound familiar?
Well, they are governed by the FDA and have been in deep poo for a couple years. The FDA has restricted equipment sales to std. products, no custom manual or power wheelchairs to be sold.. there are couple exceptions, but the red tape is enormous. Needless to say, the impact on that company has been huge! They've had to sell off divisions of the company, close factories, lay off thousands... all because the bottom line was more important than the customer. They are a global company, and that's probably the main reason they are still

 

Not sure.. just a 2wd access cab sr5 prerunner. 75% of the 2500 mi is from driving to and from the dealer and other repair related facilities.

 

Hey man I know some of the toyo goodbye threads get harsh but that's usually from people with like 10 or less posts and seriously you have done a lot in your power to try and fix your truck and you didn't know about the problem before you bought so I think it's a raw deal for you to deal with all this crap. Honestly I think I would want to punch that dealer in the face as he smiled at me and said it was a used truck.

 

Thanks man, I do appreciate that. It really was difficult to keep my hands in pockets and my big mouth shut... I felt more Irish at that moment than I have in a long time!

 

I know the consensus here was to say cut your losses by trading it in, but now you've just saddled the next guy with the same problem and it cost you several thousand dollars to do it. I would have parked that thing out front with a big plastic lemon on it before I'd trade it in.

 

This is a lot harder to do than you think it is. My dad had a buddy who did this 20 years ago with a buick. Between moving it every morning + night so it wouldn't get towed or ticketed and washing it every 4-5 days so people could read what he put on the car it's no small undertaking and, in the end, will cost you just as much in time and effort as the trade in would in monetary terms. Plus that dealer will never sell a car to you or someone with your surname if it's in a local community. Who knows, the trade in dealer may have the guys screw around with it for a few hours on a slow day and get it back in "drivable" shape.

 

I don't think it's any great loss to not be able to buy from that dealer again and driving business away from him is the whole point. I was in this situation once and I got a lawyer, it didn't save me any money over trading it into an unsuspecting dealer, but I felt better about it and I got the same truck again out of them which is all I wanted in the first place. Unfortunately it was a Chevy so it was worth about $5 by the time it was paid off.

 

My point is the plastic lemon idea = tons of time to do it correctly. That time is time you could spend making money or doing something else and has value. That value, in the case my father witnessed, FAR outweighed the value his buddy would of lost by trading in. I think you missed my point . If you did the plastic lemon and thought it made you money, points to you.

The part about the dealer is that if you only have a chevy and ford dealer in town, and you piss them both off, you aren't going to have a good time when you need your spouses car fixed.

 

I was being a little sarcastic, if I could even find a big plastic lemon, I might park it there on the weekend but I'd be doing something to actually hurt them like putting it in the auto trader and on ebay and anywhere else they buy advertising. You can also sue them for the repair in small claims and it'll cost you virtually nothing, but force them to send a high priced lawyer.

As far as pissing dealers off, I already won't set foot in either the Toyota or Chevy dealerships in my town. I'll drive an hour to the next one for Toyota and I wouldn't buy another Chevy again on a bet. I don't let anyone in my family get rooked by them either.

 

If the dealer is on eBay I wouldn't deal with him. That's a good sign they have a problem selling there used stock locally face to face.

It's all perspective. I was trying to relate to OP that a giant lemon on his truck, though it would be hilarious, is not going to endear him to his wife for a multitude of reasons.

Small claims only goes to 5 K in Canada. Unless you can prove the amount you're trying to sue for in a quote by a certified mechanic under that amount with an itemized, Toyota certified, and third party certified list of parts and labour that will fix the truck without a reasonable doubt, the judge will dismiss your case before it gets to court.

No offense, but you seem like an angry kid who had his lemon squeeze by a bully one too many times and gives wisdom with no knowledge.

OP's best option is what he's already doing which is to Lemon Law the truck. I wouldn't of put a cent into trying to fix the truck, but it sounds like Tennessee might require you to try.

 

Man I really wish I could come down there and look at your truck. You're not too far from me. I had the shimmy and shakes AFTER I installed my 6" lift. I fixed mine with a drive shaft spacer. (the front end shake was a whole different beast) But you have eliminated that with the one piece. It has to be either rear end issues or transmission issues. Is there any humming while all this is going on or a whistle?

Have you tried this. Get the truck up to put speed that the vibrations start. Cruise for a few with the vibs happening. Then put the truck into neutral.

Or this.. Same thing get it up to speed, when the vibs start then slight tap the breaks quick.

If the first stops the shakes then it HAS to be in the transmission. I just can't see anything else causing this. It has to be a rotating mass that is causing the issue.

Where do you feel it first? seat or is it all over? It have they inspected the weight on the exterior of your drums? I'm reaching for something here but damn it this can't be that hard.

 

You don't seem be getting the part where I've done all this. I've had many cars in my 40 years and there are a lot of slimy dealers out there. He already lost the case on the Lemon law arbitration, that bridge had sailed, you will never get any satisfaction out of them on that route once you have lost in arbitration. If he had documented the problem with video evidence and signed affidavits, he could have gotten the problem diagnosed somewhere more competent, sued for the cost of diagnosis AND forced TOYOTA to fix it under warranty, which the truck clearly still was. Toyota is going to end up fixing this truck for someone one way or another, the dealer he sold it to is not going to just scrap it.

 

One of the reasons, besides our major loss of $$ (well over $6K at this point), would be burning the next customer. I do believe in karma, or at the very least "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". My wife wanted to construct a big sign and place it the bed of the truck and park outside the stealership all weekend.. I just couldn't bring myself to do that. Besides, the dealer is so damn successful hes building a brand new $12M location right off highway 24!

 

Not sure I understand, actually.. I do not understand where you are coming from..why would the SR5 package make any difference in this case?

 

Did you trade that truck back into the dealer that you bought it from or did you trade it to another dealer that didn't know the story on it?

Edit: Sorry, disregard that comment, I thought you has already made the trade for $23,000.