Another newbie, desperately needing help please.

April 17, 2017

Hi, I am not the Toyota owner in my family, Far too small for me, however I have signed up on behalf of my Mum who doesn't sign up to clubs and sites like these which I know are very helpful and useful, but as it has been left down to me to deal with a major situation and the little stuff, I have signed up.

The car my Mum has is a 56 reg Avensis D4D. Low mileage, spent more money on this than I have on any of my cars in the past. She has been ripped off with the repairs by a main dealer in Eastbourne, and now I am left to deal with the aftermath.

The Toyota with just 80 odd thousand miles on it blew its head gasket, never had a hard life, was driven normally and not ragged, and in addition to that, the clutch thrust bearing was knackered. I diagnosed the head gasket as it was only when I was using one day that I noticed while on the damn motorway that the temperature gauge went up and down with the speed of the car. Had it recovered with a pit stop to mine to drop me home, my Mum had it taken straight to Toyota in Eastbourne, A few weeks later my Mum got the car back and I nearly had a heart attack when she told me what they had done and how much they had charged her. Just shy of £6000!!! Yes, you read that right. In that £6000, Toyota replaced the BARE engine completely with a reconditioned one, and replaced the thrust bearing in the clutch. And also DISCONNECTED the air con wanting to charge her more to have it reconnected again. Does that price not seem excessive to you? I hit the roof. If it had been me, I would have told them to shove the bill and the car. So my Mum and I go out to lunch in the most expensive Avensis ever, 1st thing I noticed, it wasn't running properly, It had a bad injector knock, the clutch was not biting consistently in the same place either. The clutch rattle had disappeared though and the Turbo was not working properly. But for the money spent, I asked my Mum to double check what was listed on her invoice as surely for that money, they would have replaced the entire clutch, But NOPE. Just the thrust bearing. With this in mind, I had her take the car back to the garage at the 1st opportunity, and they told her she was imagining the faults. I didn't see her or speak to her for about a week due to other commitments, but she came over to visit, told me what had happened, I was ready to go hell for leather at the garage but was told not to. She is disabled and wanted as little stress as possible. This was about 3 years ago. I have driven the car quite a bit since and it has always had the same faults since having the recon engine fitted. But now, less than 20000 miles later, Blue smoke out of the exhaust, thrust bearing is noisy again, clutch is much worse, Have tried dealing with the garage who won't help at all. What do I do next?

I think it is disgusting that my Mum has been treated this way, and partially her fault for not A. Letting me kick off immediately, B. Not standing up for herself then.

Does anyone on here have a direct contact for Toyota Customer Relations please? My Mum has owned this car for over 5 years. She absolutely loved it, Until the day she took it in for this repair. She even offered to give the car to me to let my other half have, Sorry to say in this instance, I said NOOO thanks. But lets at least try and get this situation sorted out.

I have to admit, I used to love Toyota's. But I wouldn't buy a modern one. The best Toyota I have ever owned was an ex police 1993 2.0 petrol Carina. Fantastic car.

If I can get this car sorted, My Mum won't have to scrimp and borrow to get another car. Any help and advice will be gratefully received. Thank you

P.S, I used to like this car before the repair too and it has been maintained without any expense spared and has full and extensive service history, always being serviced at a main stealer.