Help! What do I do now....

Anonymous · February 23, 2005, 20:12

This all started a few weeks ago when I took my car into the dealership to have some warranty work done. I had the following faults....
1.   The rear light clusters misted up.
2.   I had a vibrating noise from the rear when pulling off or when under load at low revs.
3.   From new the bumper extensions were not fitted correctly and one of them was chipped on the corner.
4.   The twin exhaust pipes were not lined up correctly.
5.   The speakers vibrated
Item 3 and 4 had been looked at twice before, nothing had been done with the bumper extensions and the pipes had been at various times misaligned either horizontally so one was higher than the other or vertically so one was sticking out further than the other

The rattle was diagnosed as a loose baffle in the exhaust, "and when we change the exhaust we will sort out the alignment". They ordered new bumper extensions and said they would change the speakers and sort out the condensation in the lights. They asked for it to be booked in for a day later in the month.

In it went.

Here is the transcript of the letter I sent to the Managing Director of the Dealership after the car was returned to me.

"To recap what problems were found after picking up the car from yourselves,

1.   On opening the driver's door after driving home the whole of the plastic sill trim fell off onto the road. The "MR2" scuff plate separated from the sill and both items were wet as it was raining. Presumably the adhesive strips on the scuff plate are now not sticky enough to reliably hold it in place.
2.   The following morning, in daylight, I found white marks (scuffs?) on the inside of the driver's door underneath the door handle and on the side pocket.
3.   On inspecting the outside of the car I found that the joint between the left hand rear quarter and the main part of the body had been pulled open. (Compare the left hand side to the right hand side).
4.   One of the original problems was that there is a vibration from the exhaust when pulling off or under load. This was diagnosed as a vibrating baffle in the exhaust; I was informed that a new exhaust box had been ordered. Either this was not fitted or the diagnosis was incorrect as the fault is still apparent. The twin pipes are still not level in both the horizontal and vertical plane.
5.   The fitting of the bumper extensions although better is still not what I would call "showroom standard". There appears to be some glue or filler at the top of the joint with the bodywork in some places but not others giving the overall impression of an amateurish job.

The above issues need resolving to my satisfaction.

With regard to the bumper extensions and exhaust pipes positioning issues if these are not resolvable please remove them, return the car to original condition and refund the cost of these additional options.

Overall the car should be returned to "near showroom" condition as it was prior to the last visit.

I would be pleased if you would contact me on ******** or ***********, once the problems have been looked at, to let me know what course of action you intend to take."

So back it went, I put a few miles on their Yaris while my car was with them for 3 weeks (Yes 3 weeks) (That's 3 whole weeks)

It came back today.

Lights still misted up.
Mark on the inside of the door still there.
Tailpipes still out of alignment
Nothing done with the bumper extensions
Still got that vibration when I pull off.

It was nearly dark and snowing when I got home but I had a look under the lid to see what had been done to the exhaust. Well it smelled like it had been changed ***and the tin plate over the heat shield had been bent ***so they must have done something.........

Never had any contact from anyone in authority at the dealership........
I am totally at a loss as to what course of action to take now and totally totally pissed off.

I have completely lost faith in this particular dealership, yet there isn't another for miles around and something inside me keeps saying that they are wrecking the bloody car, so they should put it right

Arggghhhhh.......................

So, what do i do now?

Anonymous · February 23, 2005, 20:39

Take the car back, speak to the service manager and the tech who worked on the car (if he'll let you), and physically point out every little thing that's wrong and needs to be fixed.

Take a camera with you, and photograph all the visual problems so when you pick the car up, before driving off you can show the service manager the photos and see if there is any difference.

If you still have trouble, don't take the car away, leave it there and give them one last try saying that if they can't do it, you're prepared to take the car to another dealership and write a formal complaints letter to both the dealer MD and Toyota GB. Which dealer are we talking about here btw?

Good luck!

Anonymous · February 23, 2005, 20:51

Which Dealership? Am I allowed to name and shame? I was under the impression that was frowned upon............

markiii · February 23, 2005, 21:00

not frowned on at all

roger · February 23, 2005, 21:01

There's a difference between sharing information....and slagging off.

This definitely fits the first. Mods might rap my knuckles, but this is the sort of thing we should know.

Roger

Anonymous · February 23, 2005, 22:21

Farmer and Carlisle of Leicester and Loughborough........

I shall make an appointment with the Service Manager as suggested once I've calmed down a bit! I'll also post a few photos at the weekend.

I'm still boiling!!

Anonymous · February 23, 2005, 22:44

I'm sorry to hear of your problems. I can understand your frustrations.
The poor alignment of the TTE exhaust has been experienced by a good few peple here. In the end I did mine myself. MrT just said "thats how they are".
FWIW I would keep everything in writing and take some good quality pictures (before and after) as I feel sure you will not get satisfaction and may need to take this further Toyota GB, Trading Standards or Small Claims Court to get your money back.
Best of luck.

Anonymous · February 24, 2005, 01:36

I'd advise you to take the car to a reputable dealer. There are some very, very good ones out there who will do good work.

If the clowns you're dealing with can't get the job done, don't keep taking it back to them. In my case, I got lucky with my local dealership - no problems. But with the wife's car (Ford Mondeo), the two closest dealerships have proven themselves highly adept at causing more problems than they can solve.

So when that one needs some kind of service, I take it to a Ford dealer some 30 miles away from me, as this shop does excellent work and gets it right the first time. To reiterate, a bad shop is a bad shop and complaining won't make them do better work. Keep looking.

Slacey · February 24, 2005, 06:32

Funnily enough I popped into there last year to buy some wiper rubbers as I was passing - they kept me waiting 20 minutes! I wasn't happy to say the least....

Jap GT300 · February 24, 2005, 08:50

The exhaust vibration you talk about is almost always the heat shields around the cat.

The rear extentions are renowned for being difficult to mount and look right. IMO they are a very poor mod and shouldn't be offered by the Toyota Dealerships.

The misted rear lamps are often due to the little rubber tube (for de-condensation) either being missing or manufactured wrong and the hole is blocked.

TBH after all my experience with any Toyota Dealer I would rather fix a problem myself then ever take it in.

Anonymous · February 27, 2005, 16:57

I assume that the guard should not look like this on the right hand corner?

kanujunkie · February 27, 2005, 17:28

nope, thats for sure, looks like someone lent on that

Anonymous · February 27, 2005, 17:37

Not sure what this is...Its white and wont rub off. I haven't tried to clean it myself.

kanujunkie · February 27, 2005, 17:44

it's scratches and chips, the plastic in the car goes whiteish when this happens. Ever considered reporting them to Toyota GB or even to Watchdog, got to up there on the most sloppy workmanship ranks

Anonymous · February 27, 2005, 17:46

This doesn't do justice to how far out the exhaust pipes are, at least they are horizontal.......for the moment......

Anonymous · February 27, 2005, 18:01

I've seen the tips worse than that... Like on mine... s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Anonymous · February 27, 2005, 18:15

I can't imagine what they were doing to make this fall off. I guess sitting on it when changing the speakers....

darrenjuggins · February 27, 2005, 21:23

Hi,

Marks on the door are probably from pushing the door with a foot, i done it a few time in trianer, but leather soles with grit on will cause scratches.

If you are ever over Lincoln way, I would suggest speaking to the guy's at Listers, they have an excellent aftersales team, who make it thier mission to ensure you go away happy. maybe worth a trip over to solve these problems ?

Cheers

Darren J

Anonymous · February 28, 2005, 19:47

Sorry about the length of time its taken to get the whole subject finished, g/f's mother fell over last thursday and broke her hip.......so things have been a bit frantic. Any time my g/f has is spent on the PC finishing her college work, so all in all computer time is tight!

Right, back to the subject...........not sure about this, so comments really welcome. I am sure after many washings and polishings that this was not like this before "they" got their hands on my 2.

The last picture just about shows that as well as an increased gap the lower panel doesn't lie flush with the other one. The increase in the gap was caused possibly by the over zealous pulling to get the old bumper extension off.
Can someone confirm that the gap is not right? Near the wheel arch you can see daylight. Again, pictures don't do justice to actually seeing it. Compared to the other side its really wide.

Many thanks for the comments so far BTW.

GSB · February 28, 2005, 20:33

They look okay to me, but then I've spent hours trying to straighten them before....

The original alignment of both bumpers on both my mk3's has been crap.

darrenjuggins · February 28, 2005, 21:12

Have you lost your locking wheel nut cap or did they ?

heathstimpson · February 28, 2005, 22:24

Quote from: "darrenjuggins"Have you lost your locking wheel nut cap or did they ?

Toyota servicing have a great knack of loosing the wheel nut covers s:? :? s:?

roger · March 1, 2005, 14:10

Quote from: "darrenjuggins"Have you lost your locking wheel nut cap or did they ?

Sorry to hijack thread, but Darren can you explain?

Mine is exactly as the photo, no covers on any of the 4 wheels, never had them. Is leaving them off an '04 mod, does anybody else with a '03 + later car have them?

GSB · March 1, 2005, 14:16

My '01 car had pin stlye locknuts with a chrome cap, my '04 car has a new style of locknut, without a cap.

Anonymous · March 1, 2005, 14:18

Quote from: "roger"....never had them.....

s:cry: :cry: s:cry: s:cry: :cry: s:cry: Didn't know they existed as mine were never on the car s:cry: :cry: s:cry: s:cry: :cry: s:cry: