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SolaraGuy.com • View topic - Clifton Park Toyota (NY) Outright Lied
Ever have a bad experience? Well here's the place to discuss things.

Clifton Park Toyota (NY) Outright Lied

Clifton Park Toyota (NY) Outright Lied

Postby jth877 » Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:05 pm

Where to begin. First off, they no nothing about the vehicles they sell. I ordered an 06 Solara and was told 2 weeks. It was more than a month and the sales person told me the cars come from japan. Oh really, I said, I'm pretty sure they are made in KY. Nope, I'm wrong she says. Yeah, right. Anyway, just because the sales staff is qualified for the special olympics doesn't reflect on the quality of the vehicles, so I roll my eyes and press on.

I get the car and it runs as it's supposed to, quiet and smooth. A week later I notice a valve tapping sound (650 miles on car). Take it to the dealer. Explain the noise. They call back with "NPF". I was told it sounded the same as another V6 solara they compared it to. OK, I'll come in and listen for myself. I go to the dealer and listen to my car and another 3mz solara. Definate sound difference. I point out the obvious and explain that I have built engines and am a mechanical engineer (don't jerk me around). Nope they sound the same the service manager says. He then tires to feed me the line that the engine is totally redesigned for this year and the pistons are different. He went so far to say that the 3mz-fe is totally new and this is the first year they are out. Finally they admit it sounds louder and want to wait till the first oil change before messing with the engine. I go home and call the Toyota complaint #. I make a case and state the dealer admits a problem and will not fix it and will not document the problem. Since calling Toyota directly, the service manager changed his mind and now states I AGREED the engine sounds the same as a "like vehicle" and that he explain to me that the pistons were redesigned to the Toyota rep. Toyota immediately gets a call from me and records my statement about the service manager lying to me and making a false invoice.

The second week I owned the car it had to get flat bed TOWED to the dealer because the # 1 shift solenoid went bad in the trans. I, again, state that the engine still makes the tapping noise. Nothing happens, they said we are not going to look at it (engine noise). If I want, the toyota rep can come there next month to look at the car. Toyota, in the mean time, never gets back to me about my complaint.

The arrogance of the delaership is amazing. I see, from reading posts around here, this is normal for toyota dealers and toyota. 3 co-workers and a family friend will not be buying toyotas now. I never said not to buy a toyota to them, they simply do not want to be treated poorly by a dealer and realize toyota vehicles are no better than anything else on the road. I have grown up with toyotas (88 celica GT and 91 GT). They were excellent vehicles, too bad toyota is nothing of what it used to be. I'll be looking at an altima 3.5 in 3 years as a replacement (if they still make them).
Last edited by jth877 on Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby jhenty » Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:21 pm

find another dealership to take the car to. Unfortunately you're not going to get great service everywhere.
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Postby PhreakdOut » Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:44 pm

It's too bad Toyota can be represented by poor service dealerships. These dealerships are independently owned so it's not "Toyota" that has disserviced you, it's the dealer. (A customer of Toyota.)

As for your issue of the tapping noise, what was the resolution from your previous posts?

http://www.solaraguy.org/viewtopic.php?t=21880&highlight=

If all else fails, try another dealership or call up Toyota's Customer Experience Center:

Customer Experience Center
If you would like to discuss your experience or share your comments, please call us. Toyota's Customer Experience Center representatives are happy to assist you. Phone: 800-331-4331
Mon - Fri, 5:00 am - 6:00 pm PT
Sat, 7:00 am - 4:00 pm PT
Fax: 310-468-7814

Or send correspondence to:
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
19001 South Western Ave.
Dept. WC11
Torrance, CA 90501
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Postby QuickSEV6 » Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:16 am

If that were my first experience, that would turn me off of Toyota forever. But that one dealership does not represent Toyota as a whole. I beleive Toyota makes the finest cars out there. It sounds like you just got unlucky. I hope it all gets resolved in your favor. Good luck!
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Postby jth877 » Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:14 pm

I'm waiting for the toyota rep to come to the dealership at this point. I realize this is mostly a dealership problem, but the car is not up to previous toyota standards and toyota never got back to me. That makes it a toyota problem as well. I just got a 3 page survey about my toyota buying experience. It goes directly to toyota :-) What fun I will have.

My friend had a 99 solara, it was awsome and drove new after being almost totaled twice (he is accident prone).
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Postby silversurfer220 » Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:08 pm

Good luck with the Toyota Experience center. I have called them at least 10 times and have NEVER gotten a call back from Toyota, or the dealership. I was then assigned a case manager at Toyota customer service- he looked at my file, listened to the service manager that told him that "he is making the problem up" and closed my case. Now, Im stuck with a car that nobody will service and that I absolutely hate. I know how frustrating it is. GOOD LUCK!
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Postby jth877 » Tue Dec 20, 2005 7:46 pm

You scared me. Looks like I'm stuck as well. When the 3 year warrenty is up you bet I'm trading it. May I ask what problems you had with your 04?
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Postby silversurfer220 » Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:50 pm

jth877 wrote:You scared me. Looks like I'm stuck as well. When the 3 year warrenty is up you bet I'm trading it. May I ask what problems you had with your 04?


*********This may take you a few minutes to read************

I bought my 2004 Solara SLEV6 FULLY LOADED new on Oct 20, 2004. It had 200 miles on it. First of all, it was sold to me with only 2 years of warranty on it, apparantly someone bought it, put 200 miles on it and took it back because they didnt like it, but it was sold to me new. (I found this out 1 year after I bought the car). Since I had the car for 3 days, it has had a random starting problem- sometimes you go out to the car, turn the key, no start- no lights, no beeps, no gauges- NOTHING. Other times, it will just shut off while driving. No check engine, service vehicle soon, NOTHING. The car has been in for this problem 15 times now, and the dealership continues to tell me "there is no problem". The 3rd time I took the car in, a Toyota tech from Chicago was to come up and work on the car. Well, the car sat outside at the dealership the night before- it snowed- covered with 2 inches of snow. I drove by it before I went to work at 630am to see where the car was. I drove by it after work to see where it was- didnt move- snow didnt get cleaned off of it, nobody touched it, even though I was told a tech from Toyota in Chicago came up, drove it, tested it and found nothing wrong.

I took it in a couple more times and drove by it every day to see where it was. It was parked out in a back corner, never touched or never moved. I put a pen under the front and back of the tire- if it had moved, the pen would have been pushed into the snow. Every time I went and looked, the pens were never moved at all. Even though they told me that they looked at it, tore it apart, drove it and put it back together, they didnt. Then, I go to pick it up, the service manager tells me that I'm making the problem up and to STOP bringing my car in for service at that dealership. Well, there is only 1 other Toyota dealership in the city and they wont look at the car either, because the dealership that I bought the car from called them and told them that I am "making up a problem" and it does not exist. The problem existed before I bought the car, but you wouldnt know that from my dealership's computer, because they have deleted a ton of service documents for my car from their computer. I talked to a different dealership who could pull up bits and pieces of what was done at other dealerships- all of which does not any longer exist at my dealership. Hmm- trying to cover their ***????!!!????

I called Toyota customer support 11 times now, and they are no help at all. I have spent a total of 22 hours of time on the phone with them. I am told that a case advisor will call me back, and that the dealership will call me back, and NOBODY EVER DOES. Am I surprised- no. They then assigned another case advisor to my case, he called the dealership, asked the service manager what was going on, the service manager told him that I was making the problem up, and Toyota closed the case.

It was in a few more times after that, now taken in the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. They gave me a rental car to use so they could work on it. I got a call saying that they had put 1000+ miles on it and couldnt duplicate the problem. They had the car for 1 week and also told me that they could no longer drive the vehicle because it was not displaying a front license plate (In Wisconsin you are supposed to have 2 plates on display). I know for sure that every car they work on does not have 2 plates on it. There is a large portion of people in the state of Wisconsin that do not have front plates on their cars- you can't tell me that they only work on vehicles that are obeying EVERY Wisconsin law. What makes me mad is when I got in the car when I picked it up, it had 74 more miles on it than when I left it there the week before. GRRRR

When I picked up the car the last time, I walked out in the lot of "owned" vehicles and showed the service manager that there were at least 15 vehicles without front license plates on them- his excuse was "they have them in the vehicle if we get pulled over". Ya right. Anyways, I was told that when I picked up my car, I was told that I would have a meeting with the GM of the dealership, who has been incredibly un-cooperative up to this point- he wont return any phone calls or acknowledge that there is a problem with my car. Well, I sat on the show room floor for 2 hours before anyone decided to tell me that he (the GM) had to leave 3 hours before that for a dr appt. I then talked to him the next day and he never appologized and told me that in order to get this issue resolved, I need to STOP bringing my vehicle to their dealership and take it to a different dealership. I told him that nobody else will look at and he told me "Well, then you have a problem". Its pretty bad that I can't get service on a 30,000 dollar car that is a GIANT piece of $***. Toyota does not seem to care that the dealership wont look at the car and that they called the other dealerships in the area to tell them that i'm making up the problem, which i'm not doing. WHY would I take my car in sooooooooooooooo many times for a problem that does not exist???? Its pretty sad that my 2003 Grand Am GT1 has had only 1/8 of the problems that this Solara has had- and Pontiac is 100% willing to fix anything that happens with the car.

Needless to say, this is the LAST Toyota vehicle that I will ever own. My next vehicle is going to be an Infiniti G35 Coupe- I know that Infiniti has a wonderful customer service dept that cares about their customer. (My girlfriend has a FX35 and has had a wonderful experience with Infiniti)

Its soooo frustrating that I have a vehicle that is worthless because nobody will fix it or look at it. I'm going to pay it down for a few more years and dump it as quick as I can. Too bad a car with EVERY option-leather,heated seats, navigation,VSC, tons of airbags is such a piece of crap. Whats even worse is that Toyota wont stand behind their product.

Good luck!
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Postby michaels artic frost » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:03 am

Wow, sorry to hear of your bad experience.

I have other issues that's not related to my Solara and contacted Toyota's Customer Experience Center and they too were not helpful, but in the end. I basically talked to the GM of the toyota dealership and got my issue resolved.

GL,
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Postby wiz2 » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:39 am

I think Kinderhook Toyota is not too far from you. Eddie from eddieandamanda.com used to work there and I think his family owns the dealership if I remember correctly. I purchased my SC from them 3 years ago.

On a side note most delaerships suck!!
Most will not go out of their to locate a creative idea. Now this isnt to say all the service employees are idiots. Some service guys are car guys and would love to sit around all day to create cool stuff, but the dealer wants the to turn hours not wrenches. This is how they make a large part of their revenue. Its sad a lot of my friends are techs at various dealereships in my area and have to turn off their creativity to work at the level the dealerships require.
Customer service is one of the biggest reasons people change makes or move to a premium brand.
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