I bought a fully loaded TCH 08 in March. After putting up with an unacceptable number of squeaks, rattles and bumps I finally decided to take the car back to the dealer for repairs. Believe me, these were really loud and an obvious manufacturing defect.

Dropped the car off last night. The dealer called in the morning to say that the repairs (including a couple of TSBs - one for the headliner/sunroof and one for the dash) would take at least 2 days most probably more than 3. I asked for a loaner car, but they said that as this was not a drivability issue, they would not supply one.

I called Toyota and they said a case officer would get back to me tomorrow. I pointed out that I needed a car tomorrow - but they would not move any faster. I would have thought that Toyota would be a bit more sympathetic than this - brand new top of the line Camry, dealer found the issues that I complained about, TSBs open etc. My Honda dealer (I also have a Pilot) always supplied a loaner.

Is it unreasonable to expect this?

 

Most warranties do NOT cover providing a replacement vehicle. If a dealer is doing it for you, it's at their own expense in an effort to please customers. Also, dealer service departments are owned and controlled by the individual dealership, not by Toyota. As long as the dealer is doing the repairs the way they're supposed to, Toyota is unlikely to force them to provide a loaner.

Will the repairs take a couple days to complete or is that just how long it will take the dealer to get to them? If they're not driveability issues you might take the car back for now (when you need it) and schedule the repairs for a more convenient time. Perhaps with the advance notice the dealer might be a little more able to provide the loaner, or they might be able to do the repairs quick enough (i.e. a few hours vs. a few days) to where you don't need one.

 

Actually the Toyota dealer was given a lot of advance notice, I discussed my issues when I took the car in for its 5,000 mile service. At no time was I told how long the repairs would take and as of writing I still do not know. Today (my second day without a car) I was told by the dealer that the car had been taken apart and that they did not know when the repair would be completed. My point is that this IS a drivability issue in that I should not be expected to drive a defective car.

In any event Toyota have arranged for to get a loaner from tomorrow. They called the dealer and set it up. While dealers are not compelled by law to provide a loaner, common sense says that when someone buys an expensive product from you and has years of expensive servicing ahead, you may want to make an effort to keep that customer happy or they could do all those expensive services at another dealer. This is something that my Honda dealer understands. I had hoped that my Toyota dealer would have been as savvy. I had also obviously expected that my TCH would have been built without all of these rattles. Which, given the TSBs seem to be common.

 

Quite honestly, I don't think I have EVER been treated well by a Toyota Service Department. I find them to be quite disrespectful and deceitful.

The last time I was in a Toyota Dealer for service was about 3 years ago with my Wife's RAV4. I took it in for a 10k mile service. I had my 6 month old daughter with me. I was promised that the car would be finished in 45 minutes, as I had to take my little one to a doctors appointment. I had also requested a specific tech to work on it, if he was available. (A friend of a friend... said to be the best)

60 minutes later, I asked where my car was. They said the tech was having a problem with it and was still working on. Well, being the ******* that I am, I waked back to the tech bays. No RAV4. It was STILL SITTING IN THE BACK waiting to be started.

At that time I demanded my car back. I got into a heated argument with the service manager and left. About 20 minutes later the tech that I had requested called my Cell phone and threatened me. Stating that he was yelled at because of me and that if I ever brought my cars into that dealer again, he would make sure they caught fire within days of getting them back.

After several calls to Toyota Corporate that ended with the same outcome - The dealers are independently owned and there is nothing they could do about it, I stopped having my Toyotas serviced by a Toyota dealer, unless it was a warranty issue.

 

There is absolutely no reason for anyone to use the dealer for routine maintenance.
Warranty work or repairs are a specialty, but maintenace is different...anyone can do it.
The biggest money maker for the dealers is the gouge they perform for the routine checkups. Some are afraid to take it to a non-dealer (mistakenly believing that it will void their warranty...it wont), others think that the dealer knows the car better than others.
I'll bet that the average garage can figure out how to rotate tires, change oil and 'top off fluids'...and they will charge a whole lot less.

 

 

I have always found my Toyota dealer to be honest,
helpful and very reasonable priced. Service dept A1

 

Greg,

Did you realize this thread was 5 years old? Either way, a LOT of here service our own vehicles and I know that my work is up to par......

 

I would never have anyone top off fluids, especially on a new car! Dropping coolant or brake fluid levels should be a warning that something is wrong and either the brakes or cooling system needs to be checked out. A good example of this is the problem with my '09 water pump. Thanks to this forum I kept an eye on the coolant overflow tank and saw it going down very slowly. This was an indicator that the water pump was slowly going out. So I had the dealer replace it within the 5 year 60,000 mile warranty. Toping off the coolant level would have covered this problem up and put me out of warranty.