TO ANYONE SENDING AN EMAIL TO TOYOTA

[xoom]

Hi All Sportivo buddies,

I have editted this post due to conerns that have been made aware to me. As indicated below if you need to raise concerns with toyota call them.

CUSTOMER RELATIONS DEPARTMENT (02) 9710 3955

From the original post:

This is exactly what i did and now i have finally found out where i stand. Toyota will NOT be fixing my problems with the statement that the faults on my car are my doing and this is due to the fact that i have been misusing my vehicle....What a crock of bu115hit but what can i do. And i dont have the time/patients/will to keep chasing them any more. And they have basically said unless i can prove otherwise any further repairs i will need to pay for.

Anyway thats it for me im out with going to them for help.

Also they wont be seeing another cent from me either

I am now investing my own money to get it all sorted privately. As you all may or may not know but i have been hunting toyota down for the past 14 months trying to get answers for us all which have been having problems and have been pushing our issues with them more than anyone else on the forum but now i call it quits.

For those waiting to see how it works out for others my recommendation to you is dont because the longer you wait the less warrenty time you are going to have to get them to look at your issues and because they have never heard from you before about your issues they instantly have the upper hand and can state that the faults are your fault from your driving why didnt you have these faults before ?

so all sportivo's with problems get in touch with toyota ASAP and let us know how you go

Good luck

Bill

Edited November 26, 2004 by xoom

[ZEEROLLA]

Thanks Xoom, i will be sending emails to the three men. There will be some rather harsh words, no more holding back. They took our money and they now treat us like idiots and think they can get away! Not without hearing what i have to say

Zee

[BlackRolla]

I've already reported the fault since day one. They just told me to give it a few more km's. I then raised it again with the filed technician who said he will report it for me and we just have to wait for a solution. I'm not sure what will happen but they said it will be sorted out and fixed for me but I will just have to wait. So I really don;t know what's going to happen. Like I've said I've been constantly trying over the last year to solve all my issues but it's not getting very far. I doubt that these problems will be fixed and really don;t have any faith in Toyota. I will be going to Toyota on Thurs and demand some answers.

[hicam]

This is what i am sending to all those adresses listed by xoom on Monday. The barrage won't stop What do you guys think. Yes i know it will probably fall on deaf ears :( Just keep emailing Just keep emailing Just keep emailing!

Dear Sir,

The sole purpose of this email is to express my complete dissatisfaction and frustration that i myself and many other fellow owners of the Corolla Sportivo have or are enduring in trying to seek resolution on a number of issues that plague our cars. The below problems are some but certainly not limited to, what i have experienced from purchase date-

1. Squealing Brakes

2. Knocking noise in left front area (struts were replaced a month ago and noise is still occuring. Rear struts were replaced as well - noise still present)

3. Squeaky clutch ( has been lubricated three times without success)Won't replace? But they will next time i'll make sure of that

4. Dash board rattles

5. Seat belt retractor rattles - Passenger side ( has been tightened numerous times without success)

6. Vibration in engine bay - cannot fix?

7. Notchy and clunky gearbox - characteristic of the car well read on..

This issue is the biggest concern for not only me but alot of other owners that are having the same problem when changing gears at high revolutions. At all times when i am in lift (with clutch fully depressed) the gear shifter will not engage in gear unless revolutions are decreased, basically it gets stuck and wont slot in. Before you reply saying that this is not how the car should be driven and this is the result, beacuse that is crap and you know it. I and many others bought the vehicle based on it's high revolution range and vtec like quality. Why has toyota designed an engine with max power at the top of it's rev range and a gearbox that won't allow the change of gears when in this high end lift band. Please explain. Don't give me that crap either as well about pleasing the majority and sticking in a soft ***** clutch so Grandma and Grandpa will still be able to drive it. Clutch with a compromise- this is supposed to be a sports car and thats how you have marketed it and that's why probably 95% of people have purchased it.

I will not go into how we were deceived about the car being underpowered, beacause to be honest it will not happen again as this will be the last Toyota i will buy. I still don't know if what i paid for is exactly what Toyota has marketed about the car. Who knows.

So what are you going to do about this? I have paid a significant sum of money for this car which is faulty and is not operating within it's capabilities. I do not abuse my car but yes i enjoy some spirited driving, well should we not as this is supposed to be a sports car right. Hence the name "Sportivo". The only modification i have is a cold air intake. Can't link that to the problem. You will probably try.

You will most likely not respond to this email based on your thoughts that i abuse and race my car to it's extremes and this is my doing and the result of such. Pathetic. I and most others are genuine car enthusiasts and treat and look after our cars with great passion and care.

It's up to you. However the emails will not stop with you. Yes and thats a promise.

Michael.

[xoom]

Sounds good

need to see more letters

1 or 2 emails isnt gonna get any action

everyone who's been complaining in other threads now is the time for you to act and put something together

Edited November 20, 2004 by xoom

[ADR_rolla]

Heres mine.

Dear Jenny,

Due to a lack of responses/solutions back from you and thus your technical group in regards to the gear problems encountered in the corolla Sportivo, we, your consumers have united together to let you know, that it is not only a few of us that have this problem, but the majority of us. We feel cheated, as would anyone; buying a new car and having this ongoing problem since day one of our purchase and nothing from Toyota to resolve the issue nor any constructive feedback from Toyota about this issue. What we would like to know, is what is going on? We are very unhappy with Toyota Australia, as we feel you have let us down and left us in the dark. How are you going to win back our confidence in Toyota? As for now all we can say to others is, how poor Toyota’s craftsmanship is, in producing low cost performance cars and will not be ashamed in stating it too car magazines. Bottom line is, we want to know what is going on with this gear issue from your technical team and Toyota Australian management, and what are you going to do about it.

Yours Faithfully

Adrian

I have sent this to evey email.

Edited November 21, 2004 by ADR_rolla

[Ilivfor6]

If you really want to up them, you also need to CC the major newspapers on your emails to them. No car maker likes to see multiple letters of complaint from multiple parties arrive in their mail boxes with CC's to the newspapers. Contact a newspaper and ask for a relevant email address. Explain to them the situation and they should be happy to give an address for the CC. Also in the CC include choice magazine, Motor & Wheels. I would also put consmer affairs.

If you think you bugging them will have an effect wait to they start taking calls from journalists sniffing around for a story.

In each of your individual emails attach a note specified towards the media that upon their request vehicles can be made available for their verification of the said issues.

It would make a great read, especially with the background info on how the car failed ADR noise and was underpowered from stated advertising and possibly still is!

If you can co-ordinate a number of emails in this way you will have Toyota's attention. I did just this with a group of about 20 BMW Z3 owners a few years back as BMW would not recognise the problems with our new Z3's. After all our emails and the 2nd phone call from the media BMW Australia suddenly paid attention. Having done it once already I just could not be bothered going through it all again. A decision each has to make!

Be warned though your only problem is who would buy your car after that. The danger to you is yes you may get Toyota to fix the car but the resale will be worth nothing.

After the issues with the Z3 I changed jobs and as it was a company car it was no longer my issue. I do know though on a 12 month old ($70,000) BMW Z3 the best trade they could get was $35,000 because people had begun to associate it as a lemon in the industry.

[ADR_rolla]

Got this today.

Thank you for your email. I have been out of the office over the last two weeks and have only returned this morning. I have forwarded your emails to the Technical Manager for Victorian Region. However, as advised previously while we have reported your issues back to the factory etc. at this stage we will continue to monitor your issues however there is nothing in the pipeline at this moment in change regarding product changes.

I will come back to you after speaking with the Technical Manager.

Many thanks

Regards,

Jenny Stewart

Customer Relations Centre Manager

Customer First Development Division

Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited

Email: jenny.stewart@toyota.com.au

And i replied saying can i have the email of your technical manager etc...

Edited November 22, 2004 by ADR_rolla

[xoom]

make sure u include all the people i have indicated above on any emails

[BlackRolla]

This is my letter sent to those 4 email addresses

Dear Toyota,

I am writing to you to express my frustration and utter disappointment with the way Toyota has been handling many issues and problems with the 2003 – 2004 Corolla Sportivo. I purchased my Sportivo back in October 2003 and since day one there have been constant problems with it, some that still have not been resolved. There are a number of Sportivo owners across the nation who are experiencing the same problems. Toyota needs to acknowledge these problems and should work to develop some sort of fix/solution to it. I am fed up with the taking my car back at least every 2 weeks within the last year to get things fixed. I end up getting the car back with the same problem or even worst.

One main concern is a sticky/notchy gearbox. When trying to change from 1st to 2nd gear above 5500RPM it would just lock up or jam. It would be impossible to get it from 1st to 2nd in the rev range above 5500. Some owners experience this problem going from 2nd to 3rd as well. Occasionally there would be a crunch when changing gears. This occurs with clutch fully pressed down and a slow gear change. I couldn’t understand why it would crunch into gear with the clutch fully in. A number of Sportivo club members have raised this issue to their dealers already and have been told different things. In my case I was initially told that it was a big ask to change gears at high revs. We all know that this excuse is a load of crap and I didn’t appreciate that answer at all. For one, I use to own an 89 Corolla SX and I’ve driven many other performance cars and they do not have this problem. Secondly, if it was designed like that then why do some Sportivo owners have this problem and some don’t. Thirdly, crunching of gears when changing at low revs shouldn’t happen at all. There is no excuses for that! There are 70% of us in the club who have this problem and the others don’t. If 70% out of about 25-30 Sportivos have this problem imagine how many other Sportivos out there that are not in the club experience the same. This car was marketed with 141KW at 7200RPM. What’s the point of 141KW at 7200RPM when we can’t even take it up to that rev range without the gears jamming up? There is no doubt that there is a problem with the clutching mechanism. Roughly 70% of us experiencing this and there should be a number of reports from the dealers unless they haven’t been reporting them. I have had my report submitted by a field technician and I hope that went through. That was a month ago. I have raised this issue since day one and my other colleagues have as well. We were all told to give a couple of km’s for it to wear in. Now it’s been a year and with almost 20,000 km’s on the clock the problem is still there. To fix this problem, some have chosen to replaced the clutch and flywheel to TRD or TOM’s clutch and flywheel and the problem has gone away. Now if there is a product out there that does eliminate the problem then why can’t Toyota implement that as a solution. Either make a deal with TRD or design something similar and get these out to the customer’s. We have been waiting too long and it is simply unacceptable. With the rate of crunching and jamming, it is not healthy for the gearbox and would damage it. This is a brand new car we’ve purchased with a lot of hard earned money and we do not wish to wait any longer until the gearbox gives in.

That is just one major issue we all have experienced. I have also experienced a scraping noise with gearing down and using engine braking and rattles and vibrations. I really do wonder about Toyota's build quality and will think twice about buying another Toyota.

I hope you have taken this letter seriously and find a solution fast. We all have been patient and have co operated fully with all our respective dealers. They’ve all put in reports and we are still waiting. Our patience is wearing very thin and our frustration is growing by the day. We will not stop until this problem is rectified and we will fight it all the way.

Regards

[ZEEROLLA]

This is my letter sent to those 4 email addresses

Dear Toyota,

I am writing to you to express my frustration and utter disappointment with the way Toyota has been handling many issues and problems with the 2003 – 2004 Corolla Sportivo. I purchased my Sportivo back in October 2003 and since day one there have been constant problems with it, some that still have not been resolved. There are a number of Sportivo owners across the nation who are experiencing the same problems. Toyota needs to acknowledge these problems and should work to develop some sort of fix/solution to it. I am fed up with the taking my car back at least every 2 weeks within the last year to get things fixed. I end up getting the car back with the same problem or even worst.

One main concern is a sticky/notchy gearbox. When trying to change from 1st to 2nd gear above 5500RPM it would just lock up or jam. It would be impossible to get it from 1st to 2nd in the rev range above 5500. Some owners experience this problem going from 2nd to 3rd as well. Occasionally there would be a crunch when changing gears. This occurs with clutch fully pressed down and a slow gear change. I couldn’t understand why it would crunch into gear with the clutch fully in. A number of Sportivo club members have raised this issue to their dealers already and have been told different things. In my case I was initially told that it was a big ask to change gears at high revs. We all know that this excuse is a load of crap and I didn’t appreciate that answer at all. For one, I use to own an 89 Corolla SX and I’ve driven many other performance cars and they do not have this problem. Secondly, if it was designed like that then why do some Sportivo owners have this problem and some don’t. Thirdly, crunching of gears when changing at low revs shouldn’t happen at all. There is no excuses for that! There are 70% of us in the club who have this problem and the others don’t. If 70% out of about 25-30 Sportivos have this problem imagine how many other Sportivos out there that are not in the club experience the same. This car was marketed with 141KW at 7200RPM. What’s the point of 141KW at 7200RPM when we can’t even take it up to that rev range without the gears jamming up? There is no doubt that there is a problem with the clutching mechanism. Roughly 70% of us experiencing this and there should be a number of reports from the dealers unless they haven’t been reporting them. I have had my report submitted by a field technician and I hope that went through. That was a month ago. I have raised this issue since day one and my other colleagues have as well. We were all told to give a couple of km’s for it to wear in. Now it’s been a year and with almost 20,000 km’s on the clock the problem is still there. To fix this problem, some have chosen to replaced the clutch and flywheel to TRD or TOM’s clutch and flywheel and the problem has gone away. Now if there is a product out there that does eliminate the problem then why can’t Toyota implement that as a solution. Either make a deal with TRD or design something similar and get these out to the customer’s. We have been waiting too long and it is simply unacceptable. With the rate of crunching and jamming, it is not healthy for the gearbox and would damage it. This is a brand new car we’ve purchased with a lot of hard earned money and we do not wish to wait any longer until the gearbox gives in.

That is just one major issue we all have experienced. I have also experienced a scraping noise with gearing down and using engine braking and rattles and vibrations. I really do wonder about Toyota's build quality and will think twice about buying another Toyota.

I hope you have taken this letter seriously and find a solution fast. We all have been patient and have co operated fully with all our respective dealers. They’ve all put in reports and we are still waiting. Our patience is wearing very thin and our frustration is growing by the day. We will not stop until this problem is rectified and we will fight it all the way.

Regards

←

I love your letter mate just the 141kw @ 7200rpm bit you got wrong. Should be 7800rpm if you don't already know :P

Zee

[BlackRolla]

I love your letter mate just the 141kw @ 7200rpm bit you got wrong. Should be 7800rpm if you don't already know

Sorry guys. My mistake :D

Should I send the email again???

[xoom]

hmmmm....nah i dont think u need to send it again

i think they should get the message

maybe

[ADR_rolla]

Just got a phone call to take my car down for them to have another look. So far they have given me a new clutch, but that didnt do anything.. so let see what they will do now. The service department said they have some guys coming down to look at it thet dont work there. So i'll let u all know how it goes.

Cheers fellow members.

Adrian.

[xoom]

Good luck Adrian..... I hope it doesnt happen to you but im just waiting to see when toyota switches it around and starts blaming u and ur driving.

Let us know what happens

[xoom]

Hi All,

Due to some concerns that have been raised that i am now aware of regarding this post i have removed all the details above.

If you need to contact toyota please call their service centre

CUSTOMER RELATIONS DEPARTMENT (02) 9710 3955

Cheers

Bill

[CHA54]

so the managers didn't like their email address's being published??

[Northy]

so the managers didn't like their email address's being published??

←

sportivo owners dont like there car doing weird ****, but they have to live with it why dont they........

[CHA54]

I guess you guys could always contact one of the current affairs shows to try and get some action...

http://seven.com.au/todaytonight/contact_suggest

But knowing how shows like that react to driving car's in a spirited manner, they would probably turn it into a "hoon" story...

[rollagrl]

I guess you guys could always contact one of the current affairs shows to try and get some action...

http://seven.com.au/todaytonight/contact_suggest

But knowing how shows like that react to driving car's in a spirited manner, they would probably turn it into a "hoon" story...

←

yep especially in light of all the recent crashes, and we cant say it happens at the drags or on the track cos toyota will probably grab our warranties and tear em up, not that the warranties are doing much 2 help us

[ZEEROLLA]

Whats with those people at Toyota, Jenny didn't work so why would the customer relations department work? That's bloody ridiculous

[rollagrl]

my car goes in 4 some work next friday, either my father or myself will be yaking it in and havin a talk 2 the service guys, ill let yall no how i go

[ADR_rolla]

OK.... THEY FIXED IT TODAY WELL SO FAR IT IS ALOT BETTER. tHEY DID SAY IT WAS A PROBLEM WITH THE CAR, AND THE PROBLEM WAS THAT THE CLUTCH WAS NOT ALLOWED TO GO ALL THE WAY DOWN ETC.. SO THEY MEASURED IT AND aDJUSTED IT ETC ETC...

THEY DO KNOW ITS A PROBLEM AND DIDNT BLAME MY DRIVING AT ALL.

SO THERE U GO.

SO GET IN TOUCH WITH sHANE (GIVE ME A WEEK OR 2 TO TEST IT OUT FIRST) AT NADW TOYOTA TO GET IY FIXED BUT IF YOU USE THEM AT LEAST SHOW SOME RESPECT AND GET A SERVICE DONE THERE MENTION aDRIAN TO sHANE... SO HE KNOWS ITS THE SAME PROB....

Edited November 26, 2004 by ADR_rolla

[ZEEROLLA]

my car goes in 4 some work next friday, either my father or myself will be yaking it in and havin a talk 2 the service guys, ill let yall no how i go

←

What work you getting done?

[ZEEROLLA]

OK.... THEY FIXED IT TODAY WELL SO FAR IT IS ALOT BETTER. tHEY DID SAY IT WAS A PROBLEM WITH A CAR. aND THE PROBLEM WAS THAT THE CLUTCH WAS NOT ALLOWED TO GO ALL THE WAY DOWN ETC.. SO THEY MEASURED IT AND aDJUSTED IT ETC ETC...

THEY DO KNOW ITS A PROBLEM AND DIDNT BLAME MY DRIVING AT ALL.

SO THERE U GO.

SO GET IN TOUCH WITH sHANE (GIVE ME A WEEK OR 2 TO TEST IT OUT FIRST) AT NADW TOYOTA TO GET IY FIXED BUT IF YOU USE THEM AT LEAST SHOW SOME RESPECT AND GET A SERVICE DONE THERE MENTION aDRIAN TO sHANE... SO HE KNOWS ITS THE SAME PROB....

←

Can you provide more details regarding what they did? Did they adjust the engagement point of the clutch?