I guess that every one already know that Toyota Company is extending the warranty on these cases with 2001, 2002 and 2003 RAV4's with automatic transmission harsh shifting problems. They extended the warranty for 10 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, and will cover both the transmission and the ecm computer. I heard that they did it after some pressure from California's government, but extended it to all the USA. I had the bad luck that mine was around 162,000 miles, so no warranty extension applied to me and I was in need of a new ecm computer to fix this problem. Luckily enough, I fixed it by sending it to an aftermarket ecm repair Company for an affordable price (http://www.OtherDeal.com - $197.00) and after driving about 1000 miles since the repair was done, I can tell that the problem is gone for good. Toyota is not covering ALL the 2001 - 2003 RAV4 vehicles with this problem, as the friend who recommended me the service I paid, had the same situation and though his car was less than 150,000 miles, the dealer told him that it doesn't cover cars with some letter in some location in the VIN number. I do not remember what letter and in what position in the VIN number, but you will easily find out by calling to your local Toyota dealer. I guess that the letter must have something to do with the location of the manufacturing plant of that specific ecm computer. It is a pity, as Toyota knew it all the time and did not took action until today, but limiting the span of such action, as as mentioned, it depends on the VIN number and will not cover if the vehicle is outside the USA, even if it has the same problem, which in first place, was a manufacture problem. Just my 2 cents here.
