Purchased 99 Corolla CE 4/1999 from SF Toyota on referral via Consumer Reports and relative's experience of trouble free Corolla while living in Japan for ten years and having sold Toyotas professionally at a Toyota dealership
Within 5 months paint was rusting on all the flat surfaces of the car. Dealer said, "it's environmental" and "it's a white car" and lack of care by owner, a detailer of autos who regularly cleaned and waxed the car. Thus all white Toyota cars in San Francisco will have rust all over the finish regardless per SF Toyota.
Periodic plus service listed below done per manuals.
30 & 37.5 Service $400 & $110
46 K miles $422 Drivers Side Power Window Out of track, bolts loose, motor and regulator dead or dying. Drivers door inner handle cracked. Door check bolts loose. ($500 also spent on 45k service plus brake repair)
57 K miles $850 Power Steering goes out. Original estimate $120 Power steering pulley was off. Thus drive belt was off. Thus power steering, alternator, etc. Were inoperable. (Technician / service advisor words follow Water pump w/dry residue behind shaft pulley. P/S shaft splines damaged also pulley is damaged scrape marks metal coming off. Replaced power steering pump due to round off shaft splines and threads. Replaced pulley due to damaged. Serp belt.) Service advisor called me and said parts were in. Said repair would be around $900. I said let me call you right back. He said o.K. When I called back less than 30 minutes later he said the work was done and they HAD to do the work to test the part for functionality. I said I didn't authorize the repair and he said he could take off the part (S). I was speechless because I thought, given my experience, another garage could do the work at a better price. I said let me call you back in a minute or two. When I did in about 5 minutes, the labor of $300 plus had been finished and all in a matter of about 30 to 45 minutes and without any authorization from me. I'm guessing that's about $125 to$190 hourly labor.
After taking a closer look at the pulley bolt that "self loosened" itself I realized (monetarily too) that this bolt is in the midst of an assembly of at least three other precision mounted and variably torqued devices which are subject to the whim of one drive belt. (Noted that drive belt and pulley configurttions as uch are not unusual designs) The damage from this seeming poor engineering could have damaged my alternator, etc and the repair would and I'm predicting will soon be in the mid thousands. How anyone could have designed a pulley and belt system that would allow a single bolt to loosen and cause damage of this magnitude is beyond me (can you say planned obsolescence) and I frankly believe the technician and service advisors and possibly Toyota know this is a common defect/problem on this and possibly other Toyota models. After hearing the service advisor explain this "very unusual occurance" I wondered about the money I had spent at 30,37.5 and 46K periodic services including inspection for loose nuts and bolts.
My call to Toyota's "Experience" customer "sharing" toll free number (800) 331-4331 was the closest thing to a funeral home's false concern for your grief. What a riot. Yes, we understand, would you like a reference number. No response when I asked for a Toyota representative to meet and discuss this situation at the dealer. I'm sure Toyota Customer Care and or factory reps come by to try and work with those that refuse to take their poorly put together vehicles (not worthy of car status) as acceptable products. They can expect my continued knocking at their door and or derision of their product or lack of a product.
Maybe I should just write this off to bad luck (as in rolling the dice on a really bad Toyota made vehicle) or that Toyota doesn't have enough pride or humanity or training in their service departments to do their part to make my car road and value worthy given the many thousands of dollars I have spent. I had even considered continuing to spend on Toyotas in the future. But instead it seems that my $25 k investment is now a bag of developing rust and loose bolts although it has had regular service. It appears that shoddy merchandise is what Toyota and their businesses are all about and will continue to be. They seem to be following in the footsteps of the U.S. Japanese made auto market sensation in the late 70's, early 80's but instead Toyota is making the cars (in Fremont, CA in my case) that are of poor quality.
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