758 messages,
Last post on Jun 13, 2013 at 2:26 PM
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Toyota Sienna Forum.
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Toyota Sienna, Car Safety, Van
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#442 of 758 Re: - [wowzer]
by slyons
Jul 21, 2010 (12:01 pm)
I had the same above problem with my Sienna 2004 and have not had the door fixed due to the cost of $2000 1 month after warranty ran out. If you do buy a Toyota buy the extended warranty. We did not buy it due to there reputation that is no longer is the case. I still have my van and it was in a accident we are toying with the idea of putting a new motor in the door while they (repair shop) have it disassembled. Anyone have a opinion on whether we should do that. My husband will put it in himself. Has done a lot of work on cars.
I also had the same prolem with the liftgate hit me in the head so many times. I got the letter telling me it was unders some form of recall (but not a recall) and the Chantilly dealership told us it was not on our car. Proceed to tell us it was only on vehicles with automatic lift gates. I called corporate and they said that it was on our vehicle. Fought with the chantilly dealership for a long time. I finally went to Manassas and the guy pulled it up on the computere there they had it fixed in 2 hours. The manager called from Chantilly and did apologize after finding it somewhere in his computer that is was covered. He offered to do it. This of course was after I had it fixed at Manassas Toyota and I had sworn off the Chantilly dealership.
I will never buy a Toyota again.
#443 of 758 2006 Sienna Driver's Rear Sliding Door won't open fully
by garrisa
Jul 25, 2010 (6:32 pm)
I have a 2006 Sienna LE with a manual driver's sliding door. Today it would open only a few inches before something blocks it from opening further. I think there is a link between the door and the gas cap but the gas cap is closed. Any info out there?
#444 of 758 Re: 2006 Sienna Driver's Rear Sliding Door won't open fully [garrisa]
by macdukep
Jul 26, 2010 (5:21 am)
If your window is rolled down it won't open. Did you try making sure the window was all the way closed?
#445 of 758 Re: 2006 Sienna Driver's Rear Sliding Door won't open fully [macdukep]
by garrisa
Jul 31, 2010 (7:27 am)
All the windows were closed. Too hot not to use the AC. I found a "thingy" in the lower track that I moved with a long pointed tool that allowed the door to open. This did the trick until we opened then closed the fuel door again. We have a temporary work-around but sure would like to know how to get to the problem.
#446 of 758 06 seinna sliding door
by mred1976
Jul 31, 2010 (6:57 pm)
IMy 06 seinna sliding door doesn't close all the way unless I go and push the door in which took several tries. When the door stays slightly ajar the lites won;t go off. Someone said to spray silacone on gasket. I'll let you all know
#447 of 758 Re: 06 seinna sliding door [mred1976]
by jjllcal
Aug 02, 2010 (7:41 am)
I have the same problem and my mechcanic fix it by replacing the latch that hold the door on the rail. It is a L shape latch. The cushion on the latch has worned off therefore the door is scratching the body of the van...
It cost about $200 including the part.
#448 of 758 Re: 2011 Sienna Tailgate problems - Recall Imminent [faultysienna]
by headclinic
Aug 02, 2010 (7:55 am)
Faultysienna, as much as I sympathize with your situation, I don't think an emotional tirade riddled with over exaggerations is really going to help anyone that reads your posts. You are obviously upset but you might want to try being a little more objective and realistic with your comments. You comparison to a stale pancake is a little over the top. Toyota is responsible for repairing your vehicle and if they are unable to repair it within a certain number of tries you can proceed towards arbitration/lemmon law. While you may think a product recall is in order based on anecdotal observations, this is a decision that would affect all sienna owners, including those that are having no issues with their cars such as lowering their residual values amongst other things. If your goal is truly help others (and not to simply rant) on this board, please share what the final outcome is while avoiding too much speculation so that others will know what to do if they encounter your situation with the least amount of grief.
Aug 02, 2010 (3:32 pm)
The pancake comparison was exact and not at all over the top, which you know very well. It's a direct slap in the face of toyota, that two Brand new cars were spotted by a customer with the same exact defect at the same body shop at the same time. Nobody likes to get caught. Toyota lost the ideal opportunity to put the blame on the customer, because if someone brings a car in with something wrong, hey it's always the customer's fault. Pls don't give me these company- scripted tactics, Toyota can't make a fool out of everyone.
Next, $40,000 might be loose change for lamborgini owners, but not a typical Toyota customer - ie. us. It's so easy to talk about someone else's money so
casually. After all, it's not your earnings going down the toilet.
I paid $40,000 for a brand new ( not USED) vehicle to go defective within 10 days.
Do you think I am a fool to pay $4,000 per day for a car?
Plus, it's not some luxury sedan, it's a MINI- V A N. What is a minivan for? For the KIDS. Nobody LIKES to put money in these things unless they have no choice!
Kids equals safety first. That's why some companies actually have those words in their name. understand?
What residual value? An Accord has residual value, a Volvo has residual, a Merc has residual value. A Camry USED to have residual value before the pedals fiasco.
Nevermind, you're a Toyota person so who am I talking to.
As you are aware of, 14 days AFTER being in the shop, Toyota motor Corp FINALLY decided to replace our car trunk door.
this was not on day 1 or day 3 or even day 10. It took them. 14 days to come to the decision to replace the door. All that time they were probably wondering how they could get out of it. Now, we are in our 3 rd week of not having the car we paid for in full and own, a less than two week old car when it went to the shop.
Pls bear that in mind. This was not a 1 month old, 1 year or or 1 decade old car. You expect me to pay $40,000 for something that works 10 days, and Toyota has the gall to sell me an extended 6-7 year warranty for that???
Thats called take- my- money- and- run.
Wake up! These kind of third- world tactics don't work anymore. Even in the third
world, people know their rights by now.
On top of that, you ( Toyota ) has no regard for the real customers of a sienna - the kids who sit in it. Just because they can't sign on the dotted line, you just ignore them, is that it?
who gives a hoot about residual value when my kid's airbag won't
deploy, or the sliding door shuts down on her?
I'm not asking for bells n whistles. Build a solid car that works. We can buy a $100 portable DVD player And put it in ourselves, but we don't know how to build cars. We can just shell out for them, so you take us for a ride?
That's just NOT done.
Again, as you are well aware, since you've asked for a follow up which I was going to post anyway - the door is still on it's way. When it gets here, prolly Tuesday, it'll be put in and that's that. It's called what is commonly known as a quick- fix, ESP because this customer in particular is a headache. The engineers who came down from Toyota have zero clue what's wrong - otherwise don't you think our phones with be ringing off the hook with self- congratulatory smugness?
After all this, we will be taking the thing back to the MD dealership we got it from. They have - so far- agreed to replace the vehicle. Do you know why? Because we have spent $100,000 at that same dealership, as all THREE of our Toyota purchases in the last 5-6 yrs have been from Laurel Toyota. In all this, TOYOTA CORPORATION has done fiddlesticks for us.
It's the LAwrenceville NJ BODYSHOP that is getting the door fixed. It's George and Renee who've been so helpful. It's the lawrenceville bodyshop that's given us a rental till the car gets fixed.
It's our laurel Toyota DEALERSHIP that's promised to replace the car. NOT TOYOTA.
Toyota's doing zit.
That defective minivan could have come from any Toyota dealersip across the nation. instead of me, someone else could have bought it. Regardless, a human being's safety is at stake.
The dealer is just the middleman, they retail whatever they get in wholesale from the manufacturer. The bodyshop is the last place a car should be visiting, in it's dying days. It's not an ICU for newborns.
TOYOTA made this car on IT'S assembly line in IT'S plant in Indiana. This car came out from IT'S line faulty and unsafe. It is a Toyota corporation fault plain and simple.
The dealer has agreed to replace it because it values our safety like we do. That's called CUSTOMER SERVICE. We just hope that they stick to their promise, because the trunk door will likely take another 7 - 10 days to fix, so we are talking atleat two more weeks.
I will send my friends and family to these two dealerships IF they Really want to buy Toyotas. If you seriously want to buy a Toyota, these are the places to go to. Atleast the people are human.
But for now, after this Sienna, we are done with Toyota. There is something called ethics And decency which Toyota motor Corp seems to have lost.
Aug 03, 2010 (5:48 am)
As for arbitration and lemon law, when a person buys a new car, the car manufacturer sells them the car indicating that it will last 3 yrs 36,00 miles or whatever, and they buy that car on a TRUST basis by putting down xx,xxx amount of money on the spot or paid over the years to the bank.
Regardless, the car manufacturer gets their money THERE and THEN, with no need to proceed to arbitration or lemon law or other legal hassles on their side, so why isn't it the same for the consumer? Because we consumers individually have limited buying power and the car manufacturer has a lot, hence whoever has the most loot has the most clout and wins?
How come the car manufacturer does not have to go through fire to get their money? Can someone tell me this?
When buying a new car, the car maker and the dealers say basically that this is "THE" car for Mr or Mrs .X, they collude together to sell something that has been put hot out of the oven without proper testing just to make it to market before their competitor does, and that way to make a quick profit. Then, when the item is defective, they fold their hands, sit back and say sorry, can't help you; or, go to arbitration to get your money back or whatever. That's total nonsense. Something is sold with the full knowledge that it may or may not work - is that even ethical anywhere?
We consumers are fools to buy it, that's for sure. The idea is, whatever we put out, fools will rush in to lap it up, so why bother. That's the complacency Toyota is showing.
We thought a Congressional or Senate investigation is usually enough for a man to shape up his act. Nothing seems enough for Toyota.
With those pedal situations, come to think of it, those people have been murdered by plain simple negligence. They innocently put their trust in a company that simply does not care. Someone should be putting Toyota on trial for that.
Why should I go through arbitration and deal with Toyota-paid lawyers who will obviously rule in favor of their paycheck? Just because I bought a faulty car doesn't make me that stupid.
And when selling me that car, Toyota didn't make me sign any extra paperwork that said this car could be a lemon, who knows, and in that case, please be prepared to go car-less for 30 days before dumb you, your $200/hour lawyer (or even worse, advocacy group with lengthy waiting periods to get in for an initial consulation) can send us a letter about how the car is a lemon and the lemon law should apply and then we can send a return letter that MAYBE, we'll see, etc etc blah, and THEN after another 10 days has passed before we can start discussions about getting a replacement possibly, and another 20 days will pass before the company starts to consider our request for a refund and then another 30 days has passed before we finally get a replacement or refund. Don't forget to factor in that "corporate check processing" time (which conveniently never seems to apply when it's your check they're cashing), and all that time going back and forth with the snail mail/email/whatever to get the legal work over with - IF you're lucky enough to get a refund.
If you don't go the lawyer route and decide to do things yourself, or you do both the legal and your own legwork, in all that time, you have to be calling a generic company 1-888 number that puts you on hold forever, and deal with case managers who either don't answer or are out and 90% of the time you don't even get their voicemail so you have to leave a message with "Toyota Customer CARE" (ha!), and even then you still have to be the one calling them back to check on the status of your case.
You're working? Hey, I have a job too. I'm not just sitting around to deal with all this runaround all day. My time means money too, not just Toyota's.
Nowhere did Toyota tell me when I bought this car, that I might need to wait a whole half-year to get what I paid for. They didn't wait more than a few hours to get my money, I have to wait 3-6 months? Wow. Car manufacturers don't tell you this, and they expect you to shut up and take it? That's rape.
And no, this doesn't just apply to my situation, this applies to anybody who's buying a new car.
I'm yelling and screaming bloody murder, hell yes, I a right to. I'm not interested in being another Toyota statistic thank you vey much.
A defective new car within it's warranty period and all Toyota can do is "fix" it?? B.S. And then they want us to take that car down the road and kill someone with it???
Hell NO!
And how the heck they sold me that extended warranty shamefacedly beats me. It's as if they're saying this is the next best thing to sliced bread and here's our seal on it, we're THAT good.
Hey, don't sell me something that makes no sense whatsoever.
More fool me for buying it.
Aug 03, 2010 (6:02 am)
Last thing, the dealer is replacing our fine hopefully, that's all well and good.
But I'm not the only toyota consumer. There are lots of innocent people out there with cars still under warranty who are having to eat the cost of their repairs, whose insurance costs are going up because of those repairs (I'm not talking about accidents here where drivers are at fault or problems caused by car owners themselves), or who have bought new cars and are experiencing "little" problems or are getting runarounds for major ones. Why have all these people had to shell out their hard-earned money for something that doesn't work? What did they do wrong?
They bought a Toyota, Japanese-quality, Japanese hoshin-kanri whatever, expecting the quality they paid for.
If something has gone wrong with the quality, if there is something faulty, tell us plain and simple. Lower your prices to fall in line with something that stinks. Your principles have already been lowered, lower buyer expectations as well so that they know who and what they have to deal with. Then a person can say, hey, I'm getting what I paid for. Then Toyota won't be getting any complaints because then they will be in a position to say, this is what you paid for, this is what you get.
Until then, don't dare make a grab for our money, and don't you dare call your minivan a "family-friendly" (hence safe) vehicle to be in.