Dealer is denying warranty service... (1 Viewer)

[bamachem]

I would look it up in the manual myself, but the cruiser is at the dealership and they're denying my warranty claim.

Info: 2000 LC, 65k miles, BornOn date of 12/99.

I looked in the manual and found that the Exhaust Manifolds are covered under the 7yr/80k mile emissions warranty. I have a very minor exhaust tick at cold start-up, so I take it to my local incompetent toyota dealership. They look at it and tell me "yup, it's the driver side exhaust manifold, but it's not covered under the emissions warranty." I tell them BS and tell them what the owner's manual says. They respond with "i'm looking at my book now and it says that the passenger side manifold is, but the driver side isn't". I call more BS and he decides to get the warrany supervisor - or whatever he calls it - involved. He calls back, said they made a mistake - the exhaust manifolds - both sides - are ONLY covered under the 3/36 warranty UNLESS it's a CA-spec vehicle that's still in CA. then they'd cover it under the emissions warranty. I got the toyota corporate number and gave them a call. They haven't made a determination either way yet.

The jist of it is that the dealer wants $1002.36 to change the driver side manifold.

Does anyone have their manual handy? It's listed in the description of what's covered in the emissions warranty. The exhaust manifolds are specifically listed...

Can someone confirm that i'm NOT going crazy????

 

[bamachem]

interesting that this comes out today...

Toyota: Quality Control May Delay Some Models <--- Clicky

 

[Tundra61]

I just whent through this myself. I have a 2001 lx470 which has 60,000 miles.

Originally, they denied the item under warranty, but I remained persistent.

Utimatly, I was able to push my point be referencing the powertain section of the trucks owners manual. In it, it says that the manifold is conidered part of the engine.

The rub came when they looked at the emmissions part of the warranty where the manifold is not designated as falling under the powertrain warranty.

What I pushed, was the line in the emmissions warranty that says "Specific components may have longer coverage as part of the powertrain warranty". After a day of back and fourth, they ultimatly agreed.

Honestly, if they did not agree to do it, I would have taken the dealer to small claims court. For the lexus, they wanted 2600 to do both sides.

What's funny, is that the told me it would take two days, but miraculously, after they said it was covered, they had it done in a little more than a half day.

good luck.

 

[Tundra61]

one more thing, the manifold is part of the 7yr 80 mile warranty only if you are in california.

 

[tsobrado]

I went through this whole ordeal with Toyota NA about two months ago. I was anticipating that the dealer would contest my claim. As a result, I called the parent company in Torrance and had them confirm that this issue was in fact a warranty item. Once confirmed, they provided me with a reference number for my file.

The next day, I went to the dealer to get this issue fixed. As I had assumed, the service manager rejected my claim. Once he did this, I gave him my reference number, he confirmed my conversation with Toyota NA and proceeded to fix the manifold as a warranty item. Before going to the dealership, try calling Toyota NA to confirm your claim before wasting your time going to the dealership.

Incidently, this item was covered not under the Toyota warranty but some State of California smog law that made my claim valid only in California

 

[dclee]

At least our stupid conglomeration of CA laws are good for something...

 

[sethos1]

I went through the same thing a year ago. I called the the dealership where I bought the truck and they told me it was not covered under the warrenty. So I called another dealership 10 miles away and they covered it no questions asked.

It just goes to show how some of these dealerships opperate. Needless to say I take my business to the dealership that was honest with me.

Stay on these guys to do the right thing.

 

[donco]

I got so p*ssed with the dealer, having to arm wrestle them for every single warrantee item. I reached a point where I didn't even bother asking them anymore & automatically did all further repairs myself, just to spare the aggrevation. Granted, I have no negotiating skills & couldn't give away free heroin to a crack addict. Bought a CPO at 31k & an extra $400 for the extended warrantee to 100k which wasn't worth the paper it's printed on. Needless to say I won't buy another car from that dealer, nor parts for that matter, & will never pay extra for any sort of warrantee. Toyota called later, doing a follow-up survey & I flamed them on every detail & suggested they might try to make it up to me -- never heard from them again.

Sorry to be a whiner, just venting

 

[LXPearl]

Toyota NA has a Customer Service arm that handles customer issues. I used it once for O2 sensors that failed at about 85K (coverage was to 80K). They asked how many Toyotas I owned, service used, and parts ordered. They approved the repair at no cost to me.

It is worth a try if there is no other Toyota dealer in your area.