PHEV delivery delay for a most stupid reason

[Nick72]

So the new company car was due to be delivered tomorrow.  Called the local dealership to check what time so I could organise the work diary and eventually discovered that our contracted lease company ARVAL had instructed the dealership last week to delay the delivery until 18th September. No reason given for the delay but the instruction from ARVAL was on the Toyota dealership system. Clearly I was having a Bobby Ewing shower moment.

Called ARVAL. Said they didn't know why they had asked for the delay but acknowledged they had done. They immediately reversed it after my rant since I've been without a company car I actually want for 6 months despite paying through the nose for a succession of high tax loaners and a period with no car at all. Shockingly customer service.

Speculation on my part was that ARVAL wanted a new plate in September on the car to boost residual value at the end of the 3 year lease. Now that would have made me annoyed (since the agreed order date was actually for July before settling on 24th August and agreeing it all with both ARVAL and the dealership) but I'd have probably said ok. But no call or nothing to advise me what they had done. I've written to the account manager asking how this has happened and why including why I didn't even receive a call. Very poor.

So I'm at the back of the admin and delivery queue with the dealership and be lucky to see the car this week despite it being parked up in the lot. 

Everywhere seems to be full of idiots and incompetent fools these days or is it just that I'm old, grumpy, and have unrealistic expectations? 

Sorry, venting here. Was really looking forward to it. Had cleared most of my works diary. In hospital Wednesday and Thursday so wanted to get it all sorted.

Anyone seen these kinds of shenninagans before?

[ernieb]

Sorry to hear that Nick, what a pain. I would have hoped that either the leasing company or the dealership would have let you know, that’s really poor customer service. It also looks like they may still delay the delivery to 1st Sept but I hope you get it by the weekend.

[Rav Rob]

That is bad, perhaps its also because they already met some delivery/contract start target this month and are trying to carry yours into next months targets.

If its any consolation, one of my colleagues had a Kuga PHEV on order for 5 months, it was delayed months further due to their Battery fire issue recall, it eventually arrived to the dealer but still couldn't be delivered as it now needed new labels (warning it might blow up or something) and of course enough had not been made. Finally it was ready and 3 days before delivery day, it was stolen from the dealer pound along with several others, never seen again. My colleague was told to start the ordering process again from the start...

[ernieb]

Rob, that’s pretty awful and once again the dealer did not seem to come to the rescue of the customer, you’d have thought that they would have reordered and expedited a replacement with the possible offer of a loan car.

These issues seem to be more common due to different regulations in countries. A friend had a delivery of a Skoda delayed for some months whilst they deactivated the phone charger system as it had not been approved in the UK, everywhere else but the UK.

I had a Skoda Yeti delayed as they had changed the refrigerant in the AC system and needed that to be approved and new labels fitted. The car was at the dealership and I could go and see the car ready for my collection. Sometimes you feel you could not make these things up.

[spicyhotone]

I picked mine up on Saturday morning. About 10 days before that, the dealer contacted me to say delivery was delayed until October! I had to call him and ask what was going on, and he blamed some "glitch" in the system, and restored the original delivery date. As far as I can understand, the car has been standing in the docks for weeks anyway, and was just awaiting shipping to the dealer. This was a private sale, not a company car.
It's been a little frustrating - but the handover at least was very quick and efficient and the car is good. Missing some of the toys I had on my previous vehicle (Kodiaq), but enjoying the performance & drivetrain smoothness & economy. And love the HUD, first time I've had that and really like being able to watch my speed without taking my eyes off the road. Frustrating that the built-in sat-nav shows instructions on HUD, but android auto doesn't (but does display on the speedo-screen, so the information must be there for the HUD to take if the software could be improved!)

[Nick72]

1 hour ago, ernieb said:

Sorry to hear that Nick, what a pain. I would have hoped that either the leasing company or the dealership would have let you know, that’s really poor customer service. It also looks like they may still delay the delivery to 1st Sept but I hope you get it by the weekend.

Indeed and that's a risk. Waiting for details back from Toyota dealership now. I've even offered to pick it up on Friday PM. Waiting for call back. Pretty poor service to be honest. Sometimes I think you have very little rights when it comes to a company lease car. If it weren't for the huge tax breaks I wouldn't bother and just go buy a Dacia Duster or something. 

[ernieb]

@spicyhotone, glad your enjoying the car, the car does go from Bristol to Brunaston Derbyshire and then to your dealers. All part of the import process I understand.  Sounds like you have the Dynamic Premium, mine is the Dynamic spec but as you’ve said a pleasure to drive.

[Nick72]

51 minutes ago, Rav Rob said:

That is bad, perhaps its also because they already met some delivery/contract start target this month and are trying to carry yours into next months targets.

If its any consolation, one of my colleagues had a Kuga PHEV on order for 5 months, it was delayed months further due to their battery fire issue recall, it eventually arrived to the dealer but still couldn't be delivered as it now needed new labels (warning it might blow up or something) and of course enough had not been made. Finally it was ready and 3 days before delivery day, it was stolen from the dealer pound along with several others, never seen again. My colleague was told to start the ordering process again from the start...

Well it is always good to get some perspective on these matters. That really does sound like a total nightmare to be honest. It's all relative I guess. 

I'm just on the back of a torrid time with Peugeot on my last company car. Would have been an awesome car if it met the spec and was reliable. But neither were true. 3008 hybrid4 GT 300 PHEV. 4 of 9 months of ownership spent in the dealership getting NOT repaired for numerous problems, some safety critical. Probably back and forth a dozen times and often without a replacement car. Torrid. Hence I'm a bit sensitive. 

[Nick72]

26 minutes ago, spicyhotone said:

I picked mine up on Saturday morning. About 10 days before that, the dealer contacted me to say delivery was delayed until October! I had to call him and ask what was going on, and he blamed some "glitch" in the system, and restored the original delivery date. As far as I can understand, the car has been standing in the docks for weeks anyway, and was just awaiting shipping to the dealer. This was a private sale, not a company car.
It's been a little frustrating - but the handover at least was very quick and efficient and the car is good. Missing some of the toys I had on my previous vehicle (Kodiaq), but enjoying the performance & drivetrain smoothness & economy. And love the HUD, first time I've had that and really like being able to watch my speed without taking my eyes off the road. Frustrating that the built-in sat-nav shows instructions on HUD, but android auto doesn't (but does display on the speedo-screen, so the information must be there for the HUD to take if the software could be improved!)

Glad you got this sorted and it's all good. I didn't know the Android Auto nav instructions appeared on the MID (speedo). That is actually useful although better if it were on the HUD. May be a future update.

[Rav Rob]

2 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Well it is always good to get some perspective on these matters. That really does sound like a total nightmare to be honest. It's all relative I guess. 

I'm just on the back of a torrid time with Peugeot on my last company car. Would have been an awesome car if it met the spec and was reliable. But neither were true. 3008 hybrid4 GT 300 PHEV. 4 of 9 months of ownership spent in the dealership getting NOT repaired for numerous problems, some safety critical. Probably back and forth a dozen times and often without a replacement car. Torrid. Hence I'm a bit sensitive. 

And every right to be, 2nd biggest purchase most of us make. Good service isn't asking too much.

[Nick72]

So just spoke to the dealership. They were mistaken. The car is not with them but likely somewhere in Derby! Delivery date was showing 18th August to the local dealership  so why it is so late is anyone's guess. Potentially not helped by the can you push it all back a month request from ARVAL. Painful. 🤦‍♂️

We aren't talking engineering the space shuttle here. 😂

[Nick72]

Ps. I got the VIN number needed for setting up the My T app. App looks nice and clean and simple which I prefer.

Can't set the connected services up because there's a step requiring an Odometer challenge to prove I'm with the vehicle and a rightful user. Otherwise I could have just have told them where the car is based on find my car in the app.

Didn't want to start guessing if it was 4 miles on the clock or 15 etc.

 

[ernieb]

I guess the cars in Brunaston, Derbyshire, it travels there from Bristol to Derbyshire and then to the dealers, obviously it requires transportation at each stage and as we know lorry drivers are in short supply? Fingers crossed it gets here PDQ.

[Nick72]

Just now, Nick72 said:

Ps. I got the VIN number needed for setting up the My T app. App looks nice and clean and simple which I prefer.

Can't set the connected services up because there's a step requiring an Odometer challenge to prove I'm with the vehicle and a rightful user. Otherwise I could have just have told them where the car is based on find my car in the app.

Didn't want to start guessing if it was 4 miles on the clock or 15 etc.

 

Presumably I just now need the odometer value and the app is all set up? I can then preheat, turn the defroster on etc and find the car, check stats etc. Or, do I still need to pair the phone (and app) with the car using the infotainment display etc?

[Nick72]

3 minutes ago, ernieb said:

I guess the cars in Brunaston, Derbyshire, it travels there from Bristol to Derbyshire and then to the dealers, obviously it requires transportation at each stage and as we know lorry drivers are in short supply? Fingers crossed it gets here PDQ.

👍Roll on autonomous lorries. 😉

[ernieb]

@Nick72, you will need to register the infotainment system to enable the car communication. I found it a bit of a pain, that said it worked, following the procedure set out by Toyota, I also think I used a YouTube example to help. I can not remember exactly but I think I went though the process and it did not look to have worked, I closed and rebooted the app and it had registered the infotainment number etc. It does do the job and it’s great to precondition the cabin.

I did an early supermarket run this morning and used the key fob pressing the AC button, the headlights winked and the heating was up and running.

Once I’d set up the app on my Samsung Android phone I downloaded and logged into the app on my iLad and it all worked without further actions. So once it’s linked to the account it works across the platforms.

[spicyhotone]

I had to try a few times for the app to sync with the car to get the odometer reading, but worked eventually, and then synced the infotainment (just make sure the car is hooked up to wifi eg. hotspot on your phone) and then in the infotainment settings menu you can enter your toyota account email/password and it will sync to your toyota account/myt app.
For some reason the car disappeared from the app yesterday (got an email to say it had been deleted - I don't *think* I did it (intentionally!)). I had to add it again - this time I used the number plates rather than VIN (didn't know these first time I set it up). I had to resync using the odometer reading (which again took me several attempts). The infotainment was synced straight away (I guess because I'd already entered the details in the car).

[Nick72]

2 hours ago, spicyhotone said:

I had to try a few times for the app to sync with the car to get the odometer reading, but worked eventually, and then synced the infotainment (just make sure the car is hooked up to wifi eg. hotspot on your phone) and then in the infotainment settings menu you can enter your toyota account email/password and it will sync to your toyota account/myt app.
For some reason the car disappeared from the app yesterday (got an email to say it had been deleted - I don't *think* I did it (intentionally!)). I had to add it again - this time I used the number plates rather than VIN (didn't know these first time I set it up). I had to resync using the odometer reading (which again took me several attempts). The infotainment was synced straight away (I guess because I'd already entered the details in the car).

Thanks for the advice.

 

Does the car not have it's own 4G sim built in to support registration etc? Assumed it would since the preconditioning controls via the App must go this route in terms of communications with the car?

When you sync the infotainment display where do I get a Toyota email and password?  Or are they the same as what I used to register the App or different? 

 

[ernieb]

SIM part of the Head Unit, you’ll need to set it up when you get the car, just follow the setup in the menu.

I’ve noticed that you can not have the car connected to the phones hotspot and the Toyota internet, from time to time when I’ve been trying things it comes up the need to deflect one over the other.

[philip42h]

57 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

Does the car not have it's own 4G sim built in to support registration etc? Assumed it would since the preconditioning controls via the App must go this route in terms of communications with the car?

When you sync the infotainment display where do I get a Toyota email and password?  Or are they the same as what I used to register the App or different? 

Yes - the car does have an in-built SIM to support the e-call functions. I don't think that it does anything else - but I would bet anything on that ...

You can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi - any Wi-Fi will do: your home Wi-Fi, via a mobile hotspot, or any other hotspot that you can access

You have probably by now created a My Toyota account - you use those self same details when logging in to your head unit / infotainment thing. It does give you the opportunity to create a new account but you probably don't want to do that now!

[Nick72]

1 hour ago, philip42h said:

Yes - the car does have an in-built SIM to support the e-call functions. I don't think that it does anything else - but I would bet anything on that ...

You can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi - any Wi-Fi will do: your home Wi-Fi, via a mobile hotspot, or any other hotspot that you can access

You have probably by now created a My Toyota account - you use those self same details when logging in to your head unit / infotainment thing. It does give you the opportunity to create a new account but you probably don't want to do that now!

That's great advice.

 

Thank you

[Nick72]

On 8/24/2021 at 5:29 PM, philip42h said:

Yes - the car does have an in-built SIM to support the e-call functions. I don't think that it does anything else - but I would bet anything on that ...

You can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi - any Wi-Fi will do: your home Wi-Fi, via a mobile hotspot, or any other hotspot that you can access

You have probably by now created a My Toyota account - you use those self same details when logging in to your head unit / infotainment thing. It does give you the opportunity to create a new account but you probably don't want to do that now!

Just thinking about this...

How does the App tell the car to precondition if it doesn't have a 4G connection? 

Does that mean you can only do it when at home and it is connected to home wifi?  In which case might as well just press the key fob aircon button? 

Where as if I'm away on business for a while in winter it doesn't matter where my car is as I could just use the app to get the car to start defrosting? 

[ernieb]

My understanding is that it uses the Toyota SIM for these control functions. Included for 3years and then an annual fee.

[Nick72]

Update...

So it seems that after the ARVAL 'mistake' in requesting Toyota deliver my car a month later than the 3 parties had agreed upon I won't now be seeing the vehicle delivered until the end of next week. Assuming that Toyota can fit it on a transporter coming up next week. To be fair to Toyota they're doing their best to fix this mess but it seems that ARVAL have got their way and got the car onto a new September plate to increase their residual value when I hand it back in 3 years. All that would have been fine yet annoying if they had advised the customer of what they wanted to do rather than just doing it without any phone call or message. If I can be bothered this weekend I'll write a formal complaint.

Clearly all just a first world problem but the main irk is that it is all just so simple, or should be. Dodgy manufacturers (Peugeot), sneaky manufacturers (Volvo), and now either incompetent or sneaky lease company (ARVAL). Had a much better time and easier life when I was self servicing and repairing a succession of old bangers that averaged under a grand to buy. In fact the best Car I ever had was a 99 (last year of that mark) Vauxhall Corsa. I had that for 7 or 8 years. The only hassles I had with it were the MAF (eBay for 30 quid), idle air valve (eBay 70 quid), and that it got written off twice through idiots backing into it when parked outside the house on the road. It is still on the road!

[ernieb]

@Nick72, more or less what you expected but a right pain in the *****!   I’d certainly write to them and lodge a formal complaint but if the truth is that they wanted the Sept. plate then I’m afraid you could probably write the reply you’re likely to get back yourself “very sorry, etc., etc”.  It’s sometimes good, however, to vent a frustration as it has a way of settling it in the mind.

I’ve  had many company cars in the past and the experience has been mixed but those were purchased by the company rather than leased. Nowadays as I once again buy my own I can at least keep track of the delivery and always insist on at least monthly updates by phone and more frequently when the date is near. For me the MyT app was great as I was sometimes ahead of the dealer in tracking a movement or progress stage.

Once again I hope it really gets resolved and that you can then have a firm delivery date.