- #28 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by jondubus
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Nov 29, 2008 (8:36 am)
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Replying to: Tdisibio (Nov 28, 2008 8:24 pm)
Tdisibio, I hope you weren't injured, but if so, get them documented by your physician immediately, however minor. Take photos. In my case I refused to Toyota to ever drive my RAV4 again, for fear other airbags would deploy. I would start with whatever Perto Rico government consumer protection agency there is; here in Ohio it happens to be the state Attorney General's Office. There should also be some sort of military agency to help, so start with your commanding officer or go through the chain of command. Keep after Suburu, they have vehicles worldwide and are responsible for them anywhere. They will drag their corporate feet. Be patient but persistant, for however long it takes. See also my posts on the Toyota Nation forum under the RAV4 threads. Good luck!
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- #29 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by Tdisibio
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Nov 29, 2008 (9:43 am)
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Replying to: jondubus (Nov 29, 2008 8:36 am)
Thanks for the suggestion. I don't know much about consumer protection here in Puerto Rico but we purchased our vehicle in Seattle when we were stationed there and I found something today regarding consumer protection for Military Personnel so I am going to check them out. I recently filed complaints with the BBB and Car Safety Agency and I am working on a letter to send to the CEO and anyone else whose name I can find. It is so interesting how difficult it is to get contacts for this company. The Assistant to General Counsel at Subaru only lists her first name and through articles I have been able to find the information for communications people who I am also going to send letters along with pictures of my husband's arm and our car. I haven't refused to drive my car but I think we might because they aren't able to find out yet what caused this. The Subaru people here are being very helpful but they can't seem to find anything wrong with our car which is causing fear for us to drive it again even if it does get repaired. We aren't allowing them to work on the car yet we might have to get a rental car soon which is going to be very expensive as well. I just can't believe corporations are allowed to just toss people aside like this. So disappointing. Thanks again for your suggestions.
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- #30 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by jondubus
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Nov 29, 2008 (3:09 pm)
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Replying to: Tdisibio (Nov 29, 2008 9:43 am)
I have to warn you it's a long ordeal, but keep at it. Ours took around 4 months before we finally got a settlement. Our car rental fees wound up at about $4,000, which was later incorporated into our settlement. In my case, I tried to advertise my predicament, anywhere and anyhow I could- e.g., I approached local and TV stations near Toyota's s corporate HQ's in Torrance, CA., Then I'd let Toyota Legal know about what I was doing, trying to canstantly be a pain in the a$$. Suburu will no doubt try to stonewall you so you'll give up. You have been wronged by their product, and they are obliged to restore your condition to what it was before their product injured you. I wonder if there are some military legal resources at your disposal. For all that military people have done for us, Suburu SHOULD be happy to expedite your case.
P.S. Look for a local Suburu dealership and tell them you want to contact the Zone manager. I didn;t buy my car locally either, but the local dealership was helpful at times. I asked their repair manager, " would YOU drive this car again if it was yours?" Reply: "uhhhh......No".
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- #31 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by Tdisibio
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Dec 01, 2008 (3:57 pm)
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Replying to: jondubus (Nov 29, 2008 3:09 pm)
Was your car repaired? Was your car still under warranty? Our car is still being looked at and the Service Manager here in Puerto Rico is trying very hard to find out what caused this. As of now he located someone (at Subaru) who wants to have a part to the vehicle sent to them so they can look at it. I am concerned about doing this because I do not want them to be able to come back at me and say "Oh well the car has been touched we can't say what happened." I am so skeptical. I heard from someone through email today at the corporate communications level and was supposed to hear from someone in Consumer Affairs but didn't. I called tonight and asked for someone on the consumer affairs team and I was told they don't have anyone listed with that title so they suggested I go back to customer service where I have already come up with no help. I asked the Director of Communications for the name of someone in the legal department and I was denied the information. I am starting to picture these people at Subaru in a secret castle someone that no one can get to them. So far I have been denied the name to someone on the counsel and denied to speak someone in a managerial role who passed the message down to me that this was a problem for my insurance company.
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- #32 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by jondubus
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Dec 01, 2008 (6:14 pm)
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Replying to: Tdisibio (Dec 01, 2008 3:57 pm)
My local Toyota dealership said they would repair mine and they were told to order the parts to do so. It was at that point I refused to let them, and the dealership agreed. It was not under warranty. It is NOT a "problem with your insurance company", and your insurance company will probably tell you that, since there was no accident. The Ohio state trooper who arrived at the scene when it first happened, would not file an accident report, since there was no accident, and correctly pointed out that if he did, it could wrongly affect my insurance rate. I don't understand how your car could be driveable with airbags hanging down? You're getting the corporate run-around. Get on every Suburu forum , TV station, local newspaper, etc, you can find, then tell your Suburu dealership or anyone at the corporate level that your advertising Suburu's treatment of you to anyone you can find. I found Toyota corporate personnel names on Wikipedia, including phone numbers, and I went from there. There is also a Toyota consumer hotline number, and I made a number of calls, finally getting assigned a case number. Suburu should have a similar number. Good luck and keep at it.
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- #33 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by Tdisibio
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Dec 02, 2008 (4:37 am)
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Replying to: jondubus (Dec 01, 2008 6:14 pm)
I was just wondering if you allowed them to work on the vehicle. Here at the local dealership they are wanting to know if they can go ahead and fix the dash board. The service manager here got in touch with someone in the states who wants him to send in a part to our car so they can look at it and see what is going on. We are hesitant to let them do anything to the car because I don't want it to give Subaru a reason they could get out of covering the cost. They have already told me during the first conversation, "We don't know what happened to your car, maybe a wire was cut." So I hate to do anything to it before they send someone out here to look into it because god knows what kind of excuse they could come up with after someone has touched it.
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- #34 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by jondubus
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Dec 02, 2008 (6:46 pm)
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Replying to: Tdisibio (Dec 02, 2008 4:37 am)
I think you are absolutely right in not letting them do anything to the car. It's likely that an airbag sensor was defective- it's a computer designed to detect an impact and instantaneously "tell" the airbag(s) to deploy. It's only supposed to do that at impacts that occur at speeds above about 20 mph. My dealership and others told me that. Your dealership shoud know that. The Toyota Zone sent out an engineer to determine the cause and take photos, I got a chance to speak to him, asked him the cause-reply: we don't know. Your case: Wire cut? By what? What wire? In my case, I ABSOLUTELY refused to let them fix it, fearing that since the side airbags deployed for no reason, how am I to know the fronts would deploy because of another bad sensor? From the time it happened, I refused to drive it again. Ever. I could have been killed but that it happened on a straight four lane with no surrounding traffic. A half hour earlier, I was on a very twisty, hilly road, with many drop-offs to the side. I surely would have been killed at that time. Express to the dealership you want the Zone manager involved to have the car inspected, and you are looking to have Suburu "buy back" their car from you, plus compensate you for your injuries. Tell the dealership to CALL SOMEBODY! good luck.
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- #35 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by Tdisibio
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Dec 02, 2008 (7:19 pm)
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Replying to: jondubus (Dec 02, 2008 6:46 pm)
I have finally gotten in touch with someone. As soon as I called and asked for the CEO a kind lady in the executive offices took down my information and I was contacted by a Manager in the Customer Relations Department. They are now working to determine what caused the car to malfunction. Then we are going to go from there. I expressed to them my dissatisfaction with their complete disregard for my issue because we didn't live in the US. This is what it seemed to me. At least we now have the ball rolling and we can go from there.
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- #36 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondub
by jondubus
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Dec 02, 2008 (7:43 pm)
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Replying to: Tdisibio (Dec 02, 2008 7:19 pm)
Great news!! It's likely there'll be more hurdles, but you're on the right track. Nice going.
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- #37 of 37
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Re: '07 Rav4 side airbags blew up in my face with NO impact to car! [jondubus]
by chrisc111
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Jul 21, 2009 (1:41 pm)
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Replying to: jondubus (May 01, 2008 7:30 pm)
This just happened to me too (July 17, 2009). I have a '08 RAV4 with around 7500 miles on it. The car was in a parking lot, was in park and the parking brake was on. I was not involved in any accident—I was not even moving and nothing hit my car. I subsequently contacted Toyota Corporate and the car is at the dealership to see what happened. I would be interested to hear if someone out there has some advice on how to deal with Toyota on this issue or if this is happening to other '08 RAV4s. Thanks.
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