2024 Tacoma Trailhunter BSM Reprogram failure

I took my 2024 Tacoma Trailhunter for attending to the open campaign, and it did not go well.

If I understand correctly, the truck is not accepting the new program and they are going to bring someone in from Corporate Toyota to it attend it.

The Toyota customer care informed me that they currently don't have an ETA on the field technician, so there is no way for me to know how soon or late the truck would be returned to me.

What worries me is that the dealership said that it is not legal for them to return the truck without reprogramming as it is a safety issue. I appreciate the concern, but if that is the case, why was I and everyone else not told to take the trucks off the road until they get reprogrammed ?

TOYOTA however said the dealership Lia Toyota of Colonie is practicing abundant caution and want me to be safe. There is no question of it being illegal. This is confusing and bothersome.

I am told to wait till the ticket raised by dealership reaches TOYOTA officials and they can find someone to dispatch from Plano,Tx (?!) to Albany, NY !

Wow.

I must note that Toyota corporate told me that everything dealership has done is by the books and I would have experienced the same issue no matter which dealership I took the truck to.

The dealership provided a rental tundra (they first offered a Nissan sedan, which i refused to accept), so I am good for now with that at least. Sadly, the camping plans for weekend have gone the drain.

Hope TOYOTA does the right thing and gets the truck on road sooner than later.

 

You took your truck in for a recall....it did not go as planned for your truck. They don't know why, but they are going to fly in a SME to take a look and figure it out. Out of an abundance of caution they did not want you to drive your truck since the blind spot monitoring is not working correctly. The dealer put you in a rental that is equivalent or better than your truck. You hope that Toyota does the right thing, yet so far everything they have done seems like they have done the right thing......Did I get all that right?


There may have been some confusion about what is legal and not legal in accordance with any laws. However legally speaking...would you be willing to sign a release to not hold Toyota or the dealership liable in the event that you died, killed someone, caused an accident etc for your BSM no longer working or working correctly? Also the recall has nothing to do with the trucks driving on the road other than the BSM not being able to pick up the extended area for the trailer.

 

You have a courtesy truck, there's not much you can do mate. Stuff happens.

There's likely something a bit off going on, we'd release the truck, BSM isn't standard on those trucks and the warning light would be on. But if Toyota corporate says to hold it, they must hold it.

It's part of owning a new vehicle, there's updates and recalls, it doesnt always go smoothly.

 

Agree.

Stuff happens. I am just putting it out there so people know that this is a possibility out there.

the legal not legal thing is super sketchy and it does bother me.

 

Yup, it does. I would not worry too much about the legal part. They could have turned the truck back over to you, but you would have a lawyer on speed dial if something happened. Look at it this way....being that a SME is coming then there is less likely of a chance that they will leave your fans disconnected and you overheat a few miles down the road like several people have had so far from this update.

 

Thank you for the sound advice and thoughts.

 

Take the Tundra camping

 

Agree. I wish they would just be honest instead of making shit up. The best way to test this being "illegal" is to use your second key and drive it home after they close for the night. If it's illegal, the police will come to your house. If you get a phone call in the morning from the dealership asking where the truck is, you know it's not illegal.

 

It might be illegal as far as the NHTSA is concerned.

 

legality aside, the dealership is doing this to cover their own ass for liability reasons. God for bid if you were to take your truck back and get into an accident due to a malfunction with the BSM, you could sue the dealership. They don’t want to explore that happening. At least that’s my guess.

 

No doubt this is Toyota's policy, but I don't think it would be illegal for the dealership to return your vehicle to you before the BSM has been reprogrammed. There are plenty of vehicles on the road that have no safety features whatsoever. Toyota would probably require you to sign a legal document absolving them of liability.

 

My update didn’t work either, or so they thought. They told me that they would be elevating the trailer BSM issue to Toyota and gave the truck back to me. I went straight to the storage lot where my trailer is and hooked it up. That fixed it. I’ve been towing happily ever since.