Avensis 2004 Automatic

November 20, 2009

Hi all, First time posting. Just hoping I could avail of this site’s expertise in getting some insight concerning an ongoing Avensis related nightmare. I purchased an 2004 Avensis automatic about two and a half years ago with 79,000 on the clock. I was worried about the high mileage but was assured previous owners has used it privately. Have been having serious problems ever since. Because I don’t know anything about cars I used a nationally recognised dealership (Ireland) thinking I’d have a better fallback option if there were problems. Hasn’t proven to be the case. Will try to keep this short but had problem with transmission within weeks that had me asking for my money back/credit note. They refused and sorted problem termporarily. Within six months ECU had gone along with catalytic converter. I had to go legal to get this repaired as they, erroneously, claimed car was outside 6months or 6,000 miles guarantee. On legal advice I had to take the car back but now under 20,000miles since purchase, as I predicted car has suffered a catastrophic breakdown-gear box gone totally-car on side of road.

As I say, I know very little about cars but was just wondering before I go back to garage whether some of you could impart some wisdom. Do Toyota do lemons? I didn’t think so. Do 2004 Avensis’ have any sort of history of unreliability? Recalls etc. I would be truly grateful if any of you could help. Curiously when the garage thought they could avoid responsibility for ECU, their advice to me was that I should talk to (their)salesman who sold me car with a view towards buying another. It seemed bizarre at the time and ominous in retrospect. Thanks in advance for any thoughts. Will have to have it towed back to garage next week and would be great if I was armed with a bit of specialist knowledge prior to them trying to wash their hands of any responsibility.