I'm a new member to this site & would like to say hi to all existing members. I have a 2008 RAV CV6 which I purchased in 2009 from a Toyota dealership- it was the service manager's car (8 mths old) & had done 15000ks. I've been very happy with it (till now) & currently have 92000kms on the clock. I was driving to Sydney 4 weeks ago when the gearbox suddenly started to muck up. I pulled over & called the NRMA road service, resulting in the car being towed to the nearest Toyota dealer. They stated that it was a gearbox problem & quoted between $5000-$6000 to repair it. I was aware of the well documented ECU malfunction that resulted in the clutch plates burning out & gearbox damage in earlier models (2000-03) that was supposed to have been fixed. I asked if was an ECU problem & they said no. My car has been serviced at Toyota except for the last service & is only 8 mths out of warranty. After recontacting the NRMA it was recommended that I seek other quotes & through my insurance had the vehicle towed to a very reputable autmatic transmission specialist closer to home, who quoted approximately $4500 to do the repairs. Needless to say it's turned out to be the classic ECU problem resulting in the damaged clutch plates & gearbox. Toyota was supposed to have fixed this problem but obviously not. As most of you probably know Toyota has only only acted on this in the USA following the successful class action, leaving owners in the rest of the world unhelped. In the USA they replaced the ECU for free & extended the gearbox warranty to 150000 miles or 10 yrs. The auto transmission place contacted Toyota but were told they wouldn't do anything as my car was out of warranty (by 8 mths). My car's been at the workshop for over 3 weeks & I could have to wait another 3-4 weeks before a replacement ECU is delivered. With the ECU the total cost looks like it will be about $5000. I'm wondering if any other members have experienced this issue with later model RAV4s & what their treatment by Toyota's been like. I know they've some major recalls over the last couple of years but if they want to keep their customer base they should take some responsibility worldwide for problems caused by the (ongoing) use of faulty parts in their manufacturing. Cheers.
