Did I Buy a Lemon?

I appreciate it. I am hoping this is just a weird break-in period, but everyone has been helpful so far.

 

Well, good luck.

 

Your choices are limited. You may wrench yourself if you have tools and other crap. But I would take it asap to the evil dealer of yours

 

I'm not going to be wrenching on the drivetrain, and I don't think the dealer is evil, but they are a business looking to make money. Warranty work doesn't make them any money.

I'll be taking it in, but it might be a week or so. I appreciate you taking the time to respond!

 

They make plenty of money on warranty work actually. Toyota dealers are not toyota. They are authorized service centers for toyota. So toyota pays the dealer to repair things under warranty.

 

the thing in the front make noise when I push the pedal, I want new car

 

if that stuff makes your truck a "lemon", then we all drive lemons.

 

8/10: -2 for lack of random capitalized letters

 

This is what I've come to learn haha

 

Yes, but I believe Toyota pays at a much lower rate than what the dealer charges consumers

 

You should try. Helps to fend those morons with low atf comments.

 

Its not so much a lower rate, but there is a difference between factory time and book time. I worked at a dealer for 6 years dealing with this stuff. Some things pay more for warranty than CP and sometimes CP is more than warranty.

Generally speaking on a common issue that has a TSB, the hours paid will be less when it is warranty. But if there is no TSB diagnosis can pay a pretty high amount.

Also keep in mind that customer pay times are BS designed to pad the wallet of the tech. They will charge a blanket of .85 TU for diagnosis even if it takes them 30 seconds. And most repair times that are listed are enough for the tech to do the job and make money. If the tech is slow, or doesnt know what they are doing then warranty will not keep paying them like customer pay will.

 

Thank you for the detailed break down. I was not aware of all of that. I had seen other comments about having to go to a 3rd party mechanic to confirm an issue because the dealer kept dodging it. I guess I am trying to avoid going through all of that

 

That’s what a warranty is for. Something verifiable happens or breaks, you take it to the dealer and let them deal with it. My ‘17 F-550 has been back to my local Ford dealer once for a warranty repair. It took a couple of days but I had a Loaner and didn’t loose sleep that someone other than me might be driving it or did I start thinking about using the Lemon Law because (in my case) a sensor failed.

As far as buying a 20 year old truck and fixing It yourself, I wouldn’t recommend that. As I mentioned previously I own a ‘93 T100 (along with a couple of air-cooled VW’s). Based on the way you’ve reacted to this supposed failure, which you haven’t been able to reproduce on command or even record, I do not think you’d enjoy an older vehicle.

 

Dodging the issues for lack of pay is not generally what the techs are doing. But they only get a certain amount paid in diagnosis time. If they think there is a problem, and spend 4 hours diagnosing it, but come up with "no problem found" then they wasted 4 hours. If its a union shop, then the dealer has to pay the tech a minimum amount of usually half an hour. If they spent 4 hours diag on it, and find a issue, then they will get paid for it.

Engine and transmission issues can pay more in diagnosis time than other issues due to the complexity of the issue. But a good tech will knock out the quick things first when checking. They will do a fluid check, transmission re-learn, cap discharge, and system scan (not in that order). If they dont find anything there, then they open a case with toyota engineers or their shop foreman. The foreman is a master tech who doesnt work on cars anymore, they are just a walking tech manual for everything. toyota engineers are the center for all tech issues and have record of everything, so they can do a quick search of their database of the issue to give the tech guidance on where to look. The factory engineer can also do telediagnosis and link to the truck over the internet, they will watch the system while they tell the tech to do things.


But in the age of computer systems, the art of diagnosis has often been lost for "parts replacers" Bad techs will throw parts at the issue until it goes away, they lose money. Good techs figure out the issue and fix it right the first time. When looking for a tech, try to find the oldest person in the shop, or the nerdiest one. The old guy will figure out the issue through experience, the nerdy one will take a little longer, but will figure it out so they can work their way up to shop foreman.

 

Thank you for all the info! I don't think anyone is necessarily trying to dodge things, it just seems like there aren't many incentives to diagnose something that hasn't caused a break down or a dash light to come on.

I will see if I can take it in for a quick check, but I really am not able to be without a truck for more than a day. There are no loaners or even rental cars in my area, so It would be a rough situation needing another vehicle.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/200k-club.721719/

Yup. 3rd Gen is shit and quality is basically just enough to skirt the lemon laws.

All this moaning and whining (and finally acceptance?) sounds like buyers remorse.

 

You are wrong about them not diagnosing or wanting to help you. I have had a pretty good experience with the dealership I go to. Why would they not want you to be happy? If they are able to make you happy (have to give them a chance first) then just maybe you become a customer and they make money off you in the future by using their shop or purchasing another vehicle. I guess what Im saying is it does them no good to piss you off and lose you as a customer for good. Also, they WILL give you a loaner or a rental from a local enterprise free of charge when performing warranty work, I have personally had 4 loaners/rentals while hashing out my issues. Sure, I wish my truck didnt have any issues when I bought it, but it did. Just had to work through them and now my truck should be good to go for years to come. Again, my truck drives much better now with 15k on it than it did new

 

A guy on another forum posted about his son's experience with a Lemon Law claim. It was for an unfixable transmission issue with a Chevy Colorado pickup. Even after they admitted that the problem was not repairable, they dicked him around for over a year before they finally paid. He had no use of the truck during that time. They finally had to get a lawyer involved to get the issue resolved.

The auto manufacturers spend a lot of money on lawyers for just this purpose.

 

Dealers make far more money from most customers over the life of the vehicle from service and parts than they do from the sale. Maybe I just got the one good dealer in the US, but I've never had a problem they couldn't figure out and fix. They always manage to get me a loaner, even if it's from Enterprise and not their own vehicles. That included more non warranty work than warranty work.