[Wiotte]

Originally Posted by VICAR OF DIBLEY

We’d been told when we first were dealing with this issue that nothing would come of our efforts, and that has turned out to be exactly the case. But we learned....



We learned that the final authority in the auto industry structure is the dealership! They are the ultimate boss over Toyota Corporate (Texas) and even Toyota Motor Company (Tokyo). The dealership is the ‘business partner’ in that they generate the income. Thus, there appears to be an understanding that the dealership can do whatever it wants, the bottom line of which is exactly that—the bottom line—make money no matter how it affects buyers—and put nothing in writing. Thus, no one in Toyota’s company structure can tell the dealership what to do—and certainly none of the organizations who are in place to support consumers have the power and authority to tell the dealership what to do.



Toyota generally makes a fine product; for decades we have driven Toyotas, as have our children and grandchildren for whom we’ve bought cars. We ourselves have had nothing but great buying experiences with Toyotas, including the two we bought at Phillips. Clearly foolish of us to think that in this rare instance that we had a Toyota with an intermittent problem that the dealership's service dept couldn't fix that the dealership would stand behind their product. There is absolutely no doubt that we were told—by general manager, service manager, salesman—and told multiple times—we’d be given a replacement car with the same safety features as we had already paid for. We took their word for it: definitely foolish on our part. ‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!’ A ‘next time’ will never happen!



Why 2-0? Because they sold two vehicles that they would not do if it weren't profitable—the replacement to us which they viewed as a new car sale—and our original vehicle which they put up for sale in their used car division with zero info about the intermittent electrical problem in the CarFax report. So we now have a perfectly running 2018 RAV4 that we expect not to keep for long as it lacks the safety features we had already paid for and which we bought specifically for those safety features. When the new owner finds a dead battery for no reason, she or he won't know that it's not a new problem, rather they bought a used car loaded with safety features and low mileage—but also an intermittent electrical problem!



Many local Toyota owners can say that they had good buying experiences at Phillips. We ourselves said it about Phillips in 2012, when we bought our third Prius (the first two when we still lived up north) and the RAV4 in 2016. But as uncommon as problems are, they still can happen—and it was our bad luck to be the ones who had it happen to. We wouldn’t think that there are frequent problems with Toyotas, but what we now do know for sure—and are widely sharing our feelings about—is that at those infrequent times when there are problems, be prepared to be hung out like the laundry if in any way it could affect their bottom line. Up north we dealt with a Toyota dealership for many decades and where we knew that a handshake was as good as a contract. We take responsibility for trusting what we were verbally told many times by several Phillips staff. We are two old people who have been buying cars for decades who never before felt victimized—until now with Phillips Toyota.

I hope you have removed the license plate frame they installed. I’ve never seen so many frames in one place advertising the same 3 dealers as seen in TV. First thing I tell a dealer is NO dealer decals on my vehicle but a frame is ok which I take off immediately as soon as I get home.


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