1 month old and the driver's side access (cab) door no longer opens.

They said that since they can open it, even if the door handle doesn't work reliably there's nothing to fix because the door can be opened.

What? Really?

 

You need to push it right up the chain to Toyota themselves, they should have their USA number in the book in the glovebox.

Keep all paperwork, have it out, be polite, but just ask to move it up the chain more if the first person is a schmuck. At some point you will almost always get someone willing to ''break some dealership legs'' as long as you are polite and calm about it. And ALWAYS go on line and if the dealer has a star rating on sales or shop work, give them a 0 or 1 and explain why in a calm and polite manner. I can tell you that both toyota and the dealers do read those and do not like legit complaints being dismissed. Act like a frothing at the mouth loon and no one cares, act like someone educated, with possible money and friends who buy vehicles and who is willing to tell them why NOT to buy the brand or use the dealer, yeah, they really don't like that.

 

Yep. Toyota isn't what they used to be. The fact that the "escalation path" for all of my issues is to call their generic 800 number is insanely lazy.

I just called the dealer I purchased the truck from (great dealer but unfortunately 2 states away). VERY helpful. They're going to reach out to a master tech (or whatever it was called). In the meantime I'm going to call the local dealer I went to today to see if they created a dealer product report. I'm betting no since they dismissed everything so easily.

 

So over Christmas break I was only one state away from where I bought my truck and drive the extra couple of hours out of my way to take my truck in for a warranty visit. My closest dealer, the one that is about 10 miles from my house, REFUSED to look at it unless I agreed to pay for the labor before they touched it because according to them, it was working perfectly fine (despite not opening 100% of the time).

When I brought it into the good dealer's service department the guy right away noticed the issue. After they tore the door open they found a bent connecting rod that was that way from the factory. He bent it straight and it's MUCH better now but they are going to replace the parts. So I have to drive 5 hours round trip to get it fixed because the local dealer are lazy idiots only interested in doing oil changes.

If you have the issue and it worked normally at one time and doesn't work correctly now, he said shutting the door on something or having something bump that area of the door really hard could do that. When they do the repair I'll get a parts list of what was replaced so you'll know specifically what part we're talking about.

-Mc

 

You should email this thread to the first dealer. And name them here if you haven’t already.

 

I opened a case with Toyota when I left the dealer a couple months ago (after them making me wait for 3 hours and in that total time were unable to confirm ANY of the issues I brought it in for). The dealer in Michigan confirmed all 3 right away. When the Toyota Customer Care rep called me I explained everything, he looked up the service ticket and said "According to the dealer there was no issue. What do you want me to do?." So now that it's documented I'm going to call Toyota back, open another case, reference the first one and see if I can get that original Toyota guy back so I can file a complaint that my local dealer purposely lied to avoid doing the work. I want that shitty dealer to contact me after I create so much crap for them. Every time I call to follow up on something they always promise to get back to me, they never do. If I could close them down I would. Nobody in the area would miss them.

So yah, I'm DEFINITELY following up with Toyota on this one. What sucks about the dealership is one guy owns EVERY new car dealership (except one) in town so if you are pissed at Toyota and want a Honda, same owner. GM? Ford? Same owner. The only dealership he doesn't own is Mopar.

 

Wow. I really hope everything gets fixed up for you. It sounds like it will. Congratulations and good for you for being persistent. I would appreciate a specific part list once you have it. Thanks and good luck.

 

What about a Ram midsize truck?

https://jalopnik.com/ram-build-midsize-truck-rival-toyota-tacoma-ford-ranger-1850977723

 

I used to belong to two car clubs for Mopar a number of years ago and purchased Mopar exclusively, despite how shitty they were in retrospect. I wouldn't buy anything Mopar related as long as there is ANY other brand available. Besides, they are the MOST unreliable truck on the market, the most expensive trucks to purchase, as well as the most expensive to maintain, usually costing 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the truck in the first 10 years (or sooner).

 

I use my drivers side access door twice a day 5 days a week to load my work cooler in and out. 1.5 years it’s just as solid as the day I bought it. Your issue isn’t normal.

 

My home dealer disagrees. The dealer that's a few hours away agrees with you completely.

Sad.

 

Jesus christ - name the dealer!

 

I had the same issue with the access door, my dealer had it fixed with in an hour. They adjusted the cable slack out of the cables, it opens like it was new.

 

The access cab doors have a lever on the side that gets pressed when the front door is closed. That locks out (disconnects?) the rear door handle when the front door is closed. For people having problems, it may be related to that mechanism which adds some complexity over a regular door handle. You could try jiggling the lever in case anything connected to it is loose.