Rav 4 Xt5 56 Plate Sat Nav - Help And Advice Needed

July 21, 2010

Dear All,

I have a RAV 4 XT5 with ICE pack and a few other options. Had it for the last 2.5 years, only don 34k miles in total. Over the last 3 weeks the Sat Nav lost it's ability to read the DVD infrequently, then started to get more regular, now it barely can see the DVD and insists there isn't one in there. So, I took it to Inchcape Toyota and they said that they believed the head has gone, which is a small part, but they cannot change a part on it, they have to change the whole unit - which is £2,595+VAT, plus 1 hours labour! The total cost being in the region of £3,500.

The Service guy told me he didn't expect me to pay this, as it was a ridiculous amount. He said I should call Toyota Customer services and gave me their number. He said that as I had always gone to official Toyota Dealers for service, MOT and parts, etc and it had full history and was only 6 months out of warranty (did I mention I never got offered extended warranty), Toyota may offer me a goodwill gesture and give me the replacement unit for free. So I called them on Tuesday and received a return call from them today saying £1,000+VAT, plus labour as I'd been a good customer, still an extortionate amount for in reality a broken head! The Toyota Customer Service person furthermore went on to say that they have never been able to repair Sat Navs (not what the service guy in the dealership told me - see below) and always have to replace, no matter how small the problem. I told him I would call him back next week to let him know what I thought and took his name an number.

Further to this, the service guy in the dealership gave me 2 other phone numbers, for companies that repair Sat Navs. He told me they used to use a company locally that went out of business, but these 2 other companies are ones he knows and has recommended before, but are too far from this dealership to be able to be officially referred to. So, what shoudl I do, anyone any ideas? I had hoped Toyota would give me the full level of goodwill and just replace it (considering what I paid for the car, full service with franchised Toyota dealers, always replaced parts at official Toyota dealer - i.e. tyres, etc).

Thank you for any replies in advance!

July 21, 2010

Dear All,
I have a RAV 4 XT5 with ICE pack and a few other options. Had it for the last 2.5 years, only don 34k miles in total. Over the last 3 weeks the Sat Nav lost it's ability to read the DVD infrequently, then started to get more regular, now it barely can see the DVD and insists there isn't one in there. So, I took it to Inchcape Toyota and they said that they believed the head has gone, which is a small part, but they cannot change a part on it, they have to change the whole unit - which is £2,595+VAT, plus 1 hours labour! The total cost being in the region of £3,500.
The Service guy told me he didn't expect me to pay this, as it was a ridiculous amount. He said I should call Toyota Customer services and gave me their number. He said that as I had always gone to official Toyota Dealers for service, MOT and parts, etc and it had full history and was only 6 months out of warranty (did I mention I never got offered extended warranty), Toyota may offer me a goodwill gesture and give me the replacement unit for free. So I called them on Tuesday and received a return call from them today saying £1,000+VAT, plus labour as I'd been a good customer, still an extortionate amount for in reality a broken head! The Toyota Customer Service person furthermore went on to say that they have never been able to repair Sat Navs (not what the service guy in the dealership told me - see below) and always have to replace, no matter how small the problem. I told him I would call him back next week to let him know what I thought and took his name an number.
Further to this, the service guy in the dealership gave me 2 other phone numbers, for companies that repair Sat Navs. He told me they used to use a company locally that went out of business, but these 2 other companies are ones he knows and has recommended before, but are too far from this dealership to be able to be officially referred to. So, what shoudl I do, anyone any ideas? I had hoped Toyota would give me the full level of goodwill and just replace it (considering what I paid for the car, full service with franchised Toyota dealers, always replaced parts at official Toyota dealer - i.e. tyres, etc).
Thank you for any replies in advance!

Hi and welcome to the club.

Sorry to hear your tale of woe - hard to believe that the little unit up front is circa 10% of the value of the car when new :eek:

I am sure others will be along to advise but it may be worth giving these folks a call: LINK

Good luck

July 22, 2010

I know this is a very silly question, (no insult or anything intended) but is the DVD clean, OK etc?

Did the dealer try another DVD?

We have had cases of dealers not seeming to have much of a clue with these sat navs.

It could be something as daft as the laser/lens needs a clean, but the dealer will certainly not take the unit apart to do that.

July 22, 2010

and if cleaning doesn't work buy the head yourself - it takes 10 minutes to fit.

July 23, 2010

Changed one this week for the same issue ( under wty ) unless you can change the part your self i would take it in a have a local car radio shop take a look, i have had one appart and the top tray is the cd player make sure you have a anti static wrist band on or you might fry the cd lasser aswell.

p.s make sure you open the front fully befor unplugging it it will make it easier to get the lid of .... good luck

August 3, 2010

Thank you for the advice and comments. Yes, they tried another DVD, which didn't work. They DO NOT HAVE a Sat Nav cleaner and recommended I buy a DVD cleaner from the shops. Bought two types and both of them say in the small print - "not for use in sat navs"! The dealership didn't have a clue about where to get one when I put this to them.

Their best guess is that it is just the head needing replacing, but as I said, they can't do that - all they can do is replace the whole unit.

I spoke to a couple of audio/sat nav repair places and they have quoted me a couple of hundred pounds to do the job as apparently the sat nav unit in the RAV 4 is an absolute paint to get out, get into and change!

However, this all said and done, Toyota called me last week and offered to do me the replacement Sat Nav for £1,000+VAT, plus labour. I said that was still too steep and a couple of days later got an improved offer from them - if I take out 1 year's Toyota extended warranty, they will replace the Sat Nav free of charge! Naturally I accepted this offer and thanked the Toyota Customer Services person who'd been dealing wit the case. It took time but I'm happy with the outcome.

I still cannot believe their policy is to replace the whole unit for just a head that's gone though!

August 3, 2010

I spoke to a couple of audio/sat nav repair places and they have quoted me a couple of hundred pounds to do the job as apparently the sat nav unit in the RAV 4 is an absolute paint to get out, get into and change!

IMHO, they have fed you a load of dingo's kidneys. The head unit pops out in a couple of minutes and to be honest, I've taken tricker bits of electronics apart and they are supposed to be experts! :rolleyes: Here is the very same sat nav apart. Yes it did work afterwards :lol:

I still cannot believe their policy is to replace the whole unit for just a head that's gone though!

Well, to be fair, you kind of wouldn't expect them to take an ECU apart and start attacking it with a soldering iron and the ECU supplier probably wouldn't want that either. As a failed unit, they'd want it returned in an untouched state so that they could do a failure analysis on it. Believe me, I'm in a position to know! The sat nav is really no different.

Glad you have got some sort of a result though. :thumbsup: