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Is the Toyota 3/36 warranty worthless?

1K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  tibadoe 
#1 ·
Bear with me here. I bought my truck in May of 14. Almost immediately, I developed a squeak in the headliner and occasional white smoke plumes at start-up.

Since then, I've taken the truck in a couple of times only to be put off by 2 different dealers. They can't fix the squeak in the headline, and one dealership actually said it was my tie-downs on the back floor making the noise. I was told a big cloud of white smoke is "normal" and they couldn't find anything wrong in the 45 minutes they took to service it and look for the problem.

Here I am, 18 months later with 13k miles and I still have both issues. What should I do? The dealerships are not interested in fixing the issue, and I don't know if I want a truck that is out of warranty that smokes like a 1981 Volvo.
 
#2 ·
Man that sucks you are still having the issues. Can't help with the headliner other than say to try another dealer, a good, understanding, service dept. make a big difference. I had the smoke and a paint problem too. My dealer took it in repeatedly overnight (gave me loaner cars) so they could try and duplicate and document the smoke. We ended up getting Toyota involved and I had meetings with the regional manager. The paint got fixed and he gave me a 7/100,000 Platinum warranty for the smoke (which has now stopped).

Be nice, but firm, and maybe try another dealer and get Toyota involved. Good luck.
 
#5 ·
I really feel like there are two things going on. First, dealers don't give a damn about you or your truck unless you bought it from them. Both local dealers always make it a point to ask me why I didn't buy from them. Secondly, I don't think Toyota have any concern about your problems as long as they have to foot the bill for the repairs. They seem to want to blow you off, but I bet if I was out of warranty they'd dig into it as deep as they could, running up the bill along the way.

I did actually email toyota, and filled out a survey about the poor service I have received, including seeing the tech hot rodding my truck up and down the road after the service, and not rotating the tires. I never got any form of response from Toyota or the dealership.

It kinda pisses me off, because they've always been great. I buy one of their flagship vehicles and they care less about me then they did when I had a 1990 4runner that was out of warranty.
 
#6 ·
I'm in a similar situation, except I continue to have problems with my Tundra. Thus far, there's been about $15,500 work done to it under warranty and more on the way. The local dealership (5 minute drive) will not fix problems under warranty while the dealership I bought the truck from (1 hour drive one way) does without any crap what so ever.

I'd give the suggestions a go as they seem straight forward to try. Do you have a video of the white smoke at startup?
 
#7 ·
Suggestion:

Do as much research as you possibly can on area dealership service departments. Of course there are all the "dealership" review web sites; but most likely better than 50% is just marketing half truths at best. But at least it is a start to the research and finding a good dealer.

More importantly talk to as many Tundra owners as you can:

1. Find out if they have had problems?
2. What type of problems?
3. Did the dealership repair satisfactorily and correctly?
4. How long or how many trips did it take?


After you have talked to about 50 Tundra owners in your area you should be able to identify the good ones and the bad ones.

Pick one or two of the good ones.

Go into the dealership and ask for a walk through of the service department with the service manager. You can easily make mental notes of what is good and bad in the dealership.

Try to determine if they want your business and if they are able to accept an "assignment" to become "your dealership of record". You could discuss these subjects with the dealership and decide to do this before or after the repairs are completed. Many dealerships will accepted assignments others have a policy of rejecting them. Many dealers will claim they never heard of such a thing.
 
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