My wife decided to buy a new Yaris back in March.
"Dismal" is the best description of the vehicle, in terms of build quality, presentation and the overall lack of interest from the supplying dealer. There has been a non-stop catalogue of minor and irritating faults, from lights not wired up through grille and number plate dropping off to fumes entering the cabin.
Nothing has been fixed first time. To drive the car lacks any power at all, is really noisy with mechanical racket competing with the rattling trim.
The car is back at the original dealers and I have refused to collect it. The dealer has indicated that ours is "normal for a Yaris" and is implying that our expectations were too high. Toyota Customer Services simply refer everything back to the dealer.
We have lost all confidence in the car, Toyota and especially the dealer.
So what next? The temptation is to leave the wretched thing with the dealer but I suspect they will try to charge for storage.
|
So what next ?
A Skoda - touch wood, in 6 months ownership and an unexpected 11k, nothings gone wrong. (apart from a rattle, which I've traced and may fix tomorrow with some double sided tape) oh and two pretty good dealers.
|
|
I think the replacement will be a Mazda 2 or a Honda Jazz. I was thinking more about what to do next with the little tin box.
|
|
If your Toyota dealer does not offer you a full refund plus any costs, then you must use a solicitor. That should do the trick.
|
WDB
How does this troublesome car compare to the demonstrator you tried?
Is it a lot noisier, was the demo as badly put together as this one, was the demo much quicker?
I'm surprised that toyo arn't interested in putting things right, it doesn't sound like the toyo i know.
Maybe a letter to toyo head office, explaining your grievance?
|
|
|
|
Very unusual for a Toyota, Will - see my comments in the other Yaris thread that's running at the moment.
I suggest you try another Toyota dealer - I don't know where you live but Octagon Bracknell are excellent, and my elder daughter has had two totally reliable Yarises from them. Plenty of zing too, and (subjectively) feels livelier than the otherwise excellent Jazz.
These sound like minor problems that a good dealer would fix without trouble.
|
Doesn't fit with the Yaris 1.3 TR I tested in March. Did 620 miles in a day in that. Very comfortable. Not a twinge. Best seat and steering wheel adjustment of any small car. And 41mpg. I thought they had improved the plastics inside from the first of the 2nd generation Yaris/Vitz.
HJ
|
The trouble is, this wretched thing has now been to three separate dealers and all repeat the mantra that this is "normal for a Yaris" and "you must expect teething troubles". So, npt deliveringt eh car in a road worthy state is a "teething trouble" is it? And the clutch snatch that seems to blight the Yaris is now "normal"?
This is my wife's car so (thankfully) I rarely drive it. However I could not live with any car where the slightest bump means the glove box flies open.
The faults have all been relatively minor but there are lots of them and they point at a poorly built little car. My thoughts are that it's a £5000 car with a £10,000 price tag. I cannot speak for whether this is normal for Toyota as it's the first and only Toyota we've owned.
It seems like it will cost be the thick end of £2000 in depreciation to get out of the thing but quite honestly I'm prepared to do it.
|
I'm sure Toyota wouldn't be very happy to have their dealers quoted "You must expect teething troubles with our cars".
Nothing can be guaranteed perfect, but I've had three new Hondas since 2002 (still got the Civic we bought then). Nothing has ever gone wrong with the Civic from that day to this. The CRV I had from 2002-2005 needed a 'clock ring' to put the airbag light out at 50,000 miles (covered by warranty) and - disaster - the dome light bulb has just gone on the 2005 CRV. That's it, so clearly it's not 'standard' to have lots of teething issues.
All three Hondas came from Swindon as well - where was your Yaris thrown together?
|
I think all of these tin boxes come from France.
I also have a Swindon-built Honda and it's been fault free.... lesson there somewhere I think.
|
|
I'm glad to read this thread - I thought I'd done the wrong thing choosing Colt over Yaris for my daughter. The Colt isn't great, but at least it only cost £7K.
|
I'm surprised by this thread because the only people I know with a Yaris think it's an amazing car and Toyota seems generally to have a good reputation.
I have heard salesmen say "they're all like that" in responding to something you might find a bit negative on a test drive, but not a dealer in responding to a genuine problem.
Could it be that your expectations are too high, WdB? If not, then I guess you have to reject the car and I'd be very interested to know what happens if you do that.
Shame it's a disappointment. Good luck.
|
Sorry if I am wrong WDB, but my impression is that you also run some fairly expensive executive-class device.
Sounds as if your Yaris is a bad example or 'Friday car' compounded by high expectations on your part and an offhand main dealer unwilling to consider swopping the dud for a better one. Bad luck really. I wouldn't know what to do about it but it must be very annoying.
Very bad examples from new are much rarer in these days of robotics since robots don't get resentful or have hangovers. But they must wear out, sometimes perhaps all at once.
|
|
Test drove a 1.3 TR a few weeks ago, and while it didn't seem as nippy as I was expecting, having driven to the dealers in our mk1 1.0, it was ok and seemed fairly smooth and refined. Was underwhelmed by the dash though.
|
|
BTW haven't yet had a problem with our 6 year old (French built) Yaris mk1.
|
|
Sorry Lud, I eschewed the expensive pluto-mobiles long ago. I run a Honda Civic diesel and I'm delighted with it.
Friday car - maybe, lousy dealer - definitely, complacent manufacturer - probably.
I don't see what is wrong with expecting a new car, even a cheaply built one, to go, stop and generally do the things a car is supposed to do without shedding various bits and being a total pain in the backside. I fear that in modern day Britain we do "cheap" far better than we do "good".
My wife is coming around to that school of thought too.
|
I fear thatin modern day Britain we do "cheap" far better than we do "good".
Yes, but that's only because we want to pay 'cheap' and not 'good'. - I'm not saying that was your intention though btw!
|
I don't think we pay cheap - look at what the prices these cars sell in other countries. I think we probably pay 'expensive' and get 'cheap' (comparative to other countries) in a lot of cases.
|
I don't think we pay cheap - look at what the prices these cars sell in other countries.
£10-12K for these little cars is insane really. In the US a couple of weeks ago, Ford Focus, visually the same as ours, but no idea of engine or trim, was being advertised at $8999.
Edited by Bill Payer on 21/05/2008 at 13:17
|
|
Doesn't seem like much has changed - in 03 we bought SWMBO a Yaris 1.3SR - we test drove a new 1.0 and this second hand 1.3SR - the basic 1.0 was quiet and smooth with not much road noise but 1.3 was bumpy and noisy mainly due to the 195/55 15 tyres and stiffer suspension - today it has 76k on clock and it's never faultered - still unable to listen to radio at speed but it does return 44/47mpg regularly - would I buy another - No - something a bit more relaxed next time.
|
Well, the dealer dumped the thing on the drive today while we were both out and posted the keys through the letter box. In the car there is a "job sheet" that shows a long list of "No fault found" items, most of which we had not even reported. Very interesting that the recorded mileage is 200 less than the car has really done.
I think the dealer has played this "we reject the car" game before and is trying to show that we are still using the car. Luckily we have the previous job sheets and the last two show a higher mileage.
Letter from Toyota predictably says "we suggest you take up these matters with your dealer".
Solicitors letter will land after the weekend but he's not hopeful. There may have been 17 faults reported so far but only the clutch judder can be described as serious.
Tomorrow I'm going to tour a few Toyota dealers pretending to be a new car buyer so that I can see what other tin boxes are like. What a waste of time and money.
My wife has started using her bicycle again!
|
I am really sorry to hear about your experience.
I am not with Toyota, nor drive a Toyota but may I suggest you give
BRIAN MUNDAY
General Manager - Marketing / Customer Relations
Toyota Financial Services
Epsom
a call on 01737 36 5430...
He's a really nice chap and I hope he is able to help, or direct you to someone who can.
I should not really be giving this information out in public, so anyone else reading this please do not unnecessarily bother the poor chap.
Regards
|
Car Nut - that's really kind of you. The car isn't on finance but maybe he can point me at someone in Toyota who gives a stuff!
I've driven 4 Yari over the weekend, 5 if you include moving ours to the back of the drive where it won't obstruct the cars we are using.
My conclusion is that my wife shouldn't have bought one. The build, fit and finish is just too inconsistent. Noise and poor ride / handling is certainly a Yaris trait as is rattling trim and juddering clutches. I am also very concerned at the amount of discounting out there, we got £800 off of the TR and this weekend the D word has been mentioned by every salesman.
There's also been the usual sales guff and more trashing of competitors' products than you can shake a stick at but I guess that's just the way business is done these days.
One great thing that occurred to me on my travels, running my own company as I do, the likelihood that the company will never buy a Toyota product should matter to someone, even if the fleet is only 5 cars.
As regards the private car, the Yaris simply has to go!
|
Shame. Just for balance, the salesman (at Octagon Reading) who let us take a test drive in a TR was enthusiastic but not pushy, and didn't do any trashing when we mentioned we'd already had test drives in a Corsa, Agila and Colts.
When he rang a week later to see if we were still interested and I told him we'd gone for a Colt, he appeared to take it well and just said they were good cars.
|
I can agree with the dealers being patchy.The wife's previous Corolla had a whole list of faults which she reportedly repeated to the dealers every service. The worst by a long chalk was poor synchro on 2nd &3rd. At 40K I got involved & the dealer finally accepted the problem. They rebuilt the gearbox & the bill must have been massive. It included 1st, 3rd & 5th gear clusters every bearing & seal.
The other issue was non cancelling indicators which after they'd faffed about we were asked to demonstrate as they recorded it NFF. Again I got involved & they changed stalks & steering column!
I might add the new Corolla D4D has been pretty good although the gearbox isn't fantastic.
|
|
|
|
Hello HonestJohn,
I do not agree with your comments. I found the Yaris T-Spirit 1.3 petrol (2007 model) noisy on the motorway, had a rather bouncy, unpleasant ride and the steering lacked a bit of precision at speed. (Incidentally even the archaic Rover (Metro) 114 had a much better ride quality and superior handling and was much nicer to drive)
But the Yaris did look pleasant, was an excellent town car, had marvelous space packaging and extremely versatile rear seats and I did like the equipment levels especially the keyless entry, although the radio sound quality was truly diabolical for this price of car.
Good to drive on the motorway for 620 miles it was not and it would not be my first choice supermini for doing so!
snipquote.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 05/06/2008 at 02:09
|
|
|
|
|
I hope and believe that Kevin's experience (I'm sure he was called something else when he started this thread!) is untypical - sorry to hear it nonetheless.
Elder daughter has just ordered her third 1.3 Yaris from Octagon Bracknell - an excellent privately-owned dealership (alongside Octagon Reading). Yaris no. 2 has done 55,000 completely trouble-free miles in just over 2 years; it's had a hard life but goes and looks just as new, with no rattles. The first one was fine as well.
She's now expecting to do a slightly lower mileage but we got a very good PCP deal (on a TR 1.3) still on 20k a year, and for £20 a month less than she's paying for the current one.
Interestingly that's £10 less a month than the PCP available on a Suzuki Swift 1.5 GLX despite the Suzuki dealer offering a slightly better trade-in allowance on the Yaris and for a car supposedly £1000 cheaper than the Yaris TR. She liked the Swift but her experience with two excellent Yarises and with the dealer made it an easy decision to stick with Toyota.
|
Kevin changed his name to avoid being confused with me - thanks to Kevin and DD for sorting that out.
Coincidentally, I'm a Toyota customer too - but, so far, a satisfied one. Only three days and fewer than 100 miles gone, though, so I'll keep you posted.
|
|
|
|
