Faulty Car!

[T180 owner]

:( After owning many a Ford and Vauxhalls, my wife and myself thought a change was on the cards.

After much shopping around we went for a Verso T180, first 5 months off ownership was great, the sales experience and the car.

But now the car has 6 k miles on the clock the following faults have developed.

Car faults as November 2006

1.N/S seat belt height adjuster was loose needed re-fit.

2.N/S and O/S door panels noisy and loose, both replaced movement now better but creaking was still evident, was fixed by myself with plastic rubber trim spray down the edge of where the door metal meets the trim, now ok?

3.O/S seat frame creaking and squeaking, new seat fitted now ok.

4.Tonneau cover over boot was very noisy, volume depending on type of road, replaced.

5.Steering appears vague at low speed; steering veers to left and wheel wobble at low speeds, wheel balance or tracking, both checked still the dealer cant find the fault?

6.Airbag recall, all versos affected.

7.N/S door trim panel loose at bottom corner keeps popping out, refitted now ok.

8.N/S intermittent rattle, source appears to be coming from upper dashboard, where the A pillar joins the upper speaker, the speaker appears to be a loose fit and dashboard movement is evident?

9.Wiper blades never seem to clear windscreen properly; streaks and marks were always left, always juddered when raining, both replaced now ok.

10.Tonneau cover is more noisy than previous one, when retracted not as noisy, packed with sticky plastic strips to reduce creaking and rattles, if the springs on both sides are pushed down the noise goes away, now ok.

We bought a Toyota for the so-called build quality legend, and reliability, is my Verso a one off?

My five year old Vectra was screwed together better than this car.

Although the car is mechanically sound, so far? Build and trim faults are just as annoying not what you expect on a 21k car.

Why does the brochure advertise an auto-changer in the accessories section at the back, but the dealer says Toyota does not have a compatible changer?

Thought I would share my Toyota experience with other owners, faults and cures?

Now going in for the sixth dealer visit, to try and cure the wheel vibration, and the N/S buzzing and rattle.

Currently awaiting Toyota UK, to give me a response to the above, before I escalate the situation under the sales of goods act.

Will update next week.

[lorna]

Basically your waisting your time with toyota Uk, they will !Removed! around and tell you in the end that the dealers are independant.

I sold my verso and lost alot of money, the car was not built correctly so had panels not fitting as they should, this was admitted by Toyota UKs inspector but still nothing doing.

The car was in their repair shop longer than on my drive.

In the end Toyota Uk offered me 500 quid off a new verso and my local dealership Dingles Toyota at Norwich offered nothing as Mr Dingle him self said his garage could not meet my expectations.

My expectations are to receive a car built to Toyota UKs spec and not outside it!

best of luck but personally after giving Toyota my buissiness for 6 years and purchasing 4 brand new cars from them in that time Id never go back.

[T180 owner]

Thanks, reading this forum, and the fault stories on the new Is Lexus forums, it appears that Toyota and Lexus are not as good as they make out!!!!

[lorna]

Thanks, reading this forum, and the fault stories on the new Is Lexus forums, it appears that Toyota and Lexus are not as good as they make out!!!!

[/quote

Well to compensate me I am now awaiting delivery of my Audi Q7 I hope this is built much better than my verso, and to make it even better I now live in New Jersey USA so this Audi cost me half as much as it would in England.

[Martin6]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear your Verso tale.

Lets face it even Toyota can make mistakes, and they will admit that.

How they deal with their mistakes however is a completely different matter. They should be horrified and go out of their way to sort them out. In my experience they don't, and at that point, being a Toyota owner can get to be really inconvenient.

My advice; if you are unhappy, ask for whatever form is needed to make an 'official complaint' I don't know if they have a form but in my experience they start listening a lot harder.

Putting things in writing is always a good move because its evidence if you get into a legal dispute and they know this. (always keep a copy)

If in the end you are really unhappy with the car or dealership, and the dealership are being unreasonable in your view, then you could always threaten to tell your story to the local papers. Toyota, being this bad was probably news to you, it will be newsworthy to others.

I like my Verso, and as an engineer I can forgive the little things which have gone wrong with it so far. (fewer than yours, granted) In my experience however, the arrogant attitude of the dealerships is shameful and needs to be fixed.

Give me a Vauxhall dealership any day.

Hope this helps.

Martin

Thanks, reading this forum, and the fault stories on the new Is Lexus forums, it appears that Toyota and Lexus are not as good as they make out!!!!

[/quote

Well to compensate me I am now awaiting delivery of my Audi Q7 I hope this is built much better than my verso, and to make it even better I now live in New Jersey USA so this Audi cost me half as much as it would in England.

[bjw]

My experience of Toyota Gb was the same as yours .I raised a complaint with Toyota customer services and the treatment I received was terrible in fact the worst treatment I had received from any company I have dealt with

I wrote to customer services in Epsom ,then Graham Smith managing director ,then Toyota Europe ,and finally the executive vice president in japan as yet I am still waiting for a reply with an acceptable explanation or apology.

The thing I cannot understand is my avensis had to go into the dealership to have a steering rack replaced and I came away with a £10 of petrol and a bottle of champagne excellent customer service I think you will agree but there seems no consistency in how customer complaints are dealt with .

I wonder if Toyota GB monitor these forums if so they could learn a lot about there core customers.

As far as Toyota dealerships are concerned I find them very good

[Essex Toura]

I have had no problems with my verso! Had it a year and it is still going fast!!!