Goodwill For A 4 Month Repair

[David Gilbert]

Morning all,

Some advice on what I should be expecting as Goodwill for a 4 months repair (under warranty) to my 2 month old car.

Bought a new Corolla in July. Unfortuately, 2 months later it became apparent that the air conditioning did not work. So complained to the dealer and Toyota club. Consequently, I received a curtesy car while waiting for a part to fix the car. After six weeks, the part missed it shipping date. After another six weeks, the part arrived. At this stage, I started to complain to Toyota JPN (Apparently within JPN, any part can be delivered within 2 weeks).

The dealer was unable to repair the car within a week, so I suspected that there were other issues with the car and proceeded to threaten legal action and reject the car outright (after seeking advice from consumer direct and SMMT). As a result of this, (and 6 weeks after the part has been delivered), the car has now been fixed and according to Toyota Customer Service, I am entitled to a Goodwill gesture.

Anyway, I would really appreciate any advice on

. How do I guarantee that the Corolla has been fixed to a satisfactory by the dealer? (i.e. what documentation should I expect the dealer to provide bearing in mind that I believe the fault was present when the vehicle was first delivered?)

. What Goodwill should I expect?

Regards

David

[geoffb]

All sounds a bit fishy to me B) I wouldn't expect any part for a new Toyota to take anything like that long and the bit about missing a shipping date sounds like a fob off line. I find it very odd that you should be left driving around in a courtesy car for so long given the nature of the fault. All very odd.

On the paperwork front, my own experience of warranty work carried out at the Toyota dealer is that you get no paperwork at all for some reason but others may be able to confirm that or otherwise. Either way I don't see why they can't provide written confirmation that it has been fixed if asked.

As far as what constitutes a goodwill gesture you could ask Toyota themselves what they meant. Sounds like you might have difficulty translating that into reality with the dealer concerned but the point is that you bought a product from that dealer and were denied use of it for a considerable amount of time. You don't say what courtesy car you had but if it was a lesser car or spec e.g. an Aygo or Yaris then I think that should help your case but you may want to get legal advice. From a personal perspective in this case I'd expect a goodwill gesture to be something like a free service or free supply and fit of an accessory etc.

Hope that helps!

[DaveSR]

Just to confirm the above really -

All I can say is that I have had a fair amount of warranty work carried out on my car and not recieved a single bit of paper work for it.

But I suppose that they have it on record, so it shouldn't really matter

Plus I doubt very much your get anything from them, even free accesories, service etc :( I asked and got a blank face

And all Toyota HQ will say is that you have had the work carried out under warranty and that's all your getting.

Also about the courtesy car thing, I asked for a similar peformance car and I got give an Aygo and a 1l Yaris, I was told that you got a car and that's it .......

It's as if they offer you the basic needs and that's it - as you can't complain because they have done something

*Been in a similar boat you see ;)

[David Gilbert]

I was offered 3 service vouchers.

However checked the car on Saturday and now the alarm has stopped working (i.e. Leave a window open, wobble the gear stick and no alarm goes off). It seems that this dealership is incapable of having the alarm and the air conditioning on at the same time (Them: The alarm sensor does work, it just need some adjusting to increase its range and sensitivity. Me: Call me, when it passes the gear stick wobble test.).

Now taking them to small claims court to get my money back and buy a different car. I don`t blame the Toyota but I do blame the dealership. Solicitor advised taking them to the Ombudsman for the extra embarassement as well. In Japan, the Toyota executives have been on the news for 2 days celebrating their record profits.

David

[DaveSR]

Goodluck dude

Let us know how it goes ;)

[geoffb]

I agree - keep us posted on this one. Could be valuable information for anyone else involved in a dealership dispute.

Good luck from me too