What do you do?

[Peaches]

10:00 AM

Hubby leaves to get his truck inspected for the State of New Hampshire. About an hour later, the owner of the station comes into the waiting room and says * Charles, I have bad news and good news for you, which do you want to hear?*

Charlie responded with , *Lets hear the good news*

The gentleman stated *well, the good news is your vehicle passed inspection, and your vehicle failed inspection.*

Wondering how in the world can it pass and fail perplexed Charlie. As the gentleman continued talking, the failing part was due to the truck, which was sitting on top of the lift with the lift in the air, decided to literally split in half.

So now, we have a 1999 Toyota Tacoma that was unuseable. So, what does one do? They pull out their documents that were sent to him from Toyoto 10 years ago, and then went to the internet to get the updated documents.

Here is the gist of what is going on:

Extended warranty for 15 more years on *most toyota trucks*. They list the years but I wont go into that. Ok, so, now, once again, we have a 1999 toyota tacoma, *500 dollers for new tires spent recently and it has a bed on the back of it with a lid on it. So, we call Toyota with all these documents in our hands. Local toyota kinda played games with us, for two days. *Note: when the frame breaks on these trucks, they guarantee that we will have a car to use for up to 30 days while the determine the fate of the truck.

Ok, so I call the place that is holding the truck for us, and they give me the corporate telephone number for Toyota. I was spitting nails literally, but I settlled a little bit and called them. They told me that they just assigned us an account number and would be in touch with us soon. Meanwhile, a call had come in and gone to voice mail from the local Toyota company. The whole nasty situation reversed itself with that one phone call. Not only did they arrange for us to have a car rental, no charge, but they came to the house to pick us up.

The bottom line? Well, we lost the truck. They no longer have frames for them. So, we get the blue book value of a similar truck in excellent condition. The car rental will last until we get the check in our hands.

Now, we have to go try to find a car, used before we lose the rental, and you know what? I will NEVER EVER EVER buy a toyota vehicle ever again. Heh

Thanks for listening!

[Shian]

That is one crazy story! Glad to hear you get taken care of. We're still car-less.

[Thicklesip]

Oh my word! I... never even imagined that could happen. Wow.

And it's terrible, and I wish it hadn't happened to you, but boy would I have liked to have seen the mechanics' faces when the truck decided to reproduce amoeba-style.

*hug hug hug* Hope you find an awesome replacement with minimum fuss or hassle!

[awdz]

wowsers! i'm really really really glad the truck did not decide to split in half while you were in it!!
good luck, i hope you find the vehicle of your dreams at an affordable price!

[Dhalin]

Do they have proof that the truck splitting wasn't their fault, and that it was a defect or wear-and-tear on the truck's frame?

Just curious...

I've never heard of a vehicle splitting in half in an inspection before, kinda makes me wonder if something weird didn't happen (other than the frame deciding to break for no apparent reason)...

But at least you got the money to get a new vehicle, without having to try to sue somebody lol. And I don't blame you one bit in avoiding Toyota in the future... weren't they the guys with the unstoppable cars (literally!) a year or so ago?

[Peaches]

It wasn't the fault of the person doing the inspection. The proof is in the pudding, it was the document that we held where the makers of the truck extended the warranty for the frames to make sure that folks like us were indeed, covered. No warranty, we woulda been losing a truck with no money , no return. With the warranty, we stand to gain just about enough cash to get a used car.
Oh, the frames were corroding from rust. It seems that there might have been a missing ingredient in the frames when they were made, that caused this to occur.

In fact, the Toyota company sued the makers of the frame and won 25 million or thereabouts from them. At least they were decent in what they cover:

30 days use of a rental car for free
tow of truck to their facilitiy for free

They would have replaced the frame, which woulda cost about what the pay off would have been, but, they did not have any more frames for the 1999 toyota tacoma.

And, this is for each truck that lost a frame, and according to the inspector, he has had 100 alone come through. Now make that 101. LOL

[Frith-Rae]

Eh, for trucks I always stick to American manufacturers anyway.

For cars, though, I go Foreign. And I'd still buy Toyota over a Ford or Chevy car honestly lol. Though being in the market this summer, I'm probably going to go Nissan or Honda (just cuz they have the two-door models of cars I like and Toyota really does not!)

[Dhalin]

It wasn't the fault of the person doing the inspection. The proof is in the pudding, it was the document that we held where the makers of the truck extended the warranty for the frames to make sure that folks like us were indeed, covered. No warranty, we woulda been losing a truck with no money , no return. With the warranty, we stand to gain just about enough cash to get a used car.
Oh, the frames were corroding from rust. It seems that there might have been a missing ingredient in the frames when they were made, that caused this to occur.

In fact, the Toyota company sued the makers of the frame and won 25 million or thereabouts from them. At least they were decent in what they cover:

30 days use of a rental car for free
tow of truck to their facilitiy for free

They would have replaced the frame, which woulda cost about what the pay off would have been, but, they did not have any more frames for the 1999 toyota tacoma.

And, this is for each truck that lost a frame, and according to the inspector, he has had 100 alone come through. Now make that 101. LOL

Yeah, I think that you'll never, ever find me behind the wheel of any Toyota.

I never even heard about this. The brake/accelerator problems this past year were -enough-, now bad frames in their vehicles? Oi...

I stick with good ole American-made, they've never gone seriously wrong on me.

In the five cars I've owned:

A Mercury Topaz: old beater car, first car that I bought for a couple hundred. Had somewhat high mileage and some rust. A broken strut caused just enough frame damage to force us to junk the car. It lasted a couple years or so.

A 1980s Pontiac 6000LE: Family car, they used it for -years-. It blew a cylinder in the engine, dad fixed it, but they got another car in the meantime, and the 6000LE wound up sitting around under a tarp for awhile. When the Topaz went, he fixed it up and I drove it for two years.

A 1988 Olds Ninety-Eight. This car also did very nicely, but it started coming down with problems. We originally bought the car for $300; the guy thought the engine was bad because the garage told him that it didn't have compression. Dad looks at the sparkplug wiring, sees something looks strange, re-wires it, and it fires right up. Drove it for 3 years, the car's problems were getting worse and I was worried that it was going to break down at any moment, so I bought...

A 1993 Pontiac Bonneville. Great car! I loved it! It had a couple minor transmission quirks. I drove this car for 2 years as well, until this past December. A person driving "too fast for conditions" (the officer's own words) came flying around a turn, and wound up in my lane. I swerved to avoid them by going into their lane and in the process, lost control of my car, which ran into a bank and rolled over. A sad end to a very nice car.

Now, I drive a 2000 Pontiac Bonneville. Somewhat high mileage, but very little if any rust, we know that there's been some minor body work done on the rear driver's side fender (some sort of minor parking lot collision perhaps) and it has a couple little quirks, but otherwise this car runs like an old pro too.

So I'm going on 10 years now, and I've been happy with the American-makes.

[velveeta]

i have had my chevy s-10 since april 26, 1996 - she is looking her age but still runs like a dream *knok on pressed board*, thanx god....
american made is good enough for me! getting a bit rare around here, despite what the car commercials would have you think....

[Dhalin]

i have had my chevy s-10 since april 26, 1996 - she is looking her age but still runs like a dream *knok on pressed board*, thanx god....
american made is good enough for me! getting a bit rare around here, despite what the car commercials would have you think....

Around here, Toyotas, Hondas, and Chryslers (yeah, yeah, so Chrysler is technically an American company, but ever since they merged with Dymlar, I don't consider them an 'american car' anymore) and the occasional Mazda or Mitsubishi are pretty much what is seen on the roads, in the car department. You'll see a few Fords, Pontiacs, the occasional Dodge or Buick, but they are nowhere near as plentiful.

Trucks, though, here in the Northeastern US, American-made rules. You see way more Fords and Dodges than anything else, with Chevy being the 3rd. I think I've seen, maybe 1 foreign-made truck in the parking lot where I work in the last year. lol.

[Steelclaw]

The whole nasty situation reversed itself with that one phone call. Not only did they arrange for us to have a car rental, no charge, but they came to the house to pick us up.

You did the right thing -- the dealer was jerking you around so you went to corporate. Don't ever take a dealer's word as final on a warranty claim.

Given the circumstances, I think the settlement sounds pretty reasonable. You might be able to go back and ask for compensation for the tires and shell, or at least arrange to have those removed from the vehicle so you can sell or use them. It's not like they're going to need tires on a truck with a broken chassis.

Your experience with corporate sounds like they went beyond what they were obligated to do -- and a very good reason to continue to do business with them, or at least, not not do business with them. I'm not saying other car makers don't do this sort of thing, I'm just saying that when bad things happen and the manufacturer makes an exceptional effort to make things right again, they should be rewarded, not punished.

That being said, you're still out a truck.

On the bright side, you're not paying the full cost of replacement out of pocket. Look at it this way: you just sold your old truck for more than its bluebook value.

Me, I'd check the junkyards and private ads for a super-cheap (like $500) beater to drive around, put the rest in a liquid (or semi-liquid) investment, then wait until I could afford a more desirable vehicle.

Just check the trunk for dead bodies and drugs first.