If you're a Gen 3 owner, what do you do?

I gotta say not a lot of companies I have had an issue did the final outcome make me appreciated as a customer. The solution was either borderline or under my expectations, and or it was a 2nd job working thru their maze of customer service to get there.

Negative example from a list of many: My last GM commuter I had the engine blow a turbo and seals right outside of warranty. 1-800 GM offered me a year of free on star " to assist with my future towing needs." Which given the vehicle was still back firing after $3000 in repairs was indeed a service I would needed if I had not found a local Toyo dealer that did not test drive trade ins

About the until big company A+ I can give is Amazon for my Backflip revolver topper. They totally messed up charging the order which made me miss out on the daily deal that was why I ordered it from them in first place. Took 2-3 calls to Amazon and they credited me the full cost of the topper for the aggravation. Free topper.

I hope Toyo makes this right. A long extended warranty to all, a full crate engine or a buy back offer at buyer decision for any failure, and a rebate certificate to all toward any future Toyota/Lexus product would be my expectation. The last one is as much for their benefit to keep customers in the fold.

 

You may want to change the word “expectation” to “hope”. It might dampen your disappointment when the day comes.

 

Expectation is still my word. If you don't meet my expectations then I can at sole discretion black list a vendor from future consideration. Ford has been black listed for 27 years. GM for 6 years. I am not married to any brand. Not like a brand I buy is my identity. Just a purchase decision

 

I am barely in the hope camp, myself, if only after seeing how Toyota dealt with my tonneau cover safety recall. According to Toyota I should have had no more expectation of going less than 8 months without my cover, which is a major piece of equipment for my use case, or accept the risk for it flying off and hurting someone. When they could have demonstrated goodwill and bought it back so I could get a new one in the aftermarket and carry on with zero down time. But, no. They kept my nickels and dimes and pissed me off.

 

I'm with you on that. Get f’ed once and you never forget it. If you do and go back, no complaining. I’ve owned nearly every mfg at one time, and Ford and anything related to the old Chrysler are on my lists.

 

My biggest concern is another Takata-like situation. “Your truck has a flaw that, if a failure occurs, could create a situation which could kill you. But we’ll fix it. Just give us a couple years.” Happened with my wife’s 2006 Benz. Got the recall letter. Was approx. 2 1/2 years before they had parts in to fix it. Meanwhile, we had no choice but to drive it knowing that one stupid person in front of us could cause it to deploy and potentially explode and throw shrapnel at the speed of a bullet.

 

The Takata recall was clearly much worse as every bag was affected Basically every bag the produced, and it put them out of business. Logistics for engine r&r will be difficult, and if that is thr remedy, will likely be triggered in stages based on age and mileage.

The airbag issue is likely still out there with other brands too. My late brother, an engineer, literally walked off a very high paying job from a different airbag manufacturer after bringing up some major safety concerns and being ignored.

 

I liked your post but that is scary info. I wear my cycling sunglasses during the day and those might mitigate airbag shrapnel somewhat.

 

Yeah, it’s clearly different, especially as that affected nearly every mfg. I was drawing parallels to the fact that it's already identified as a safety issue as a failure at highway speed means loss of power braking and steering, we don’t really know yet how susceptible any one truck is, and if the remedy is teardown or replacement, it’s going to take years. And from the tracking spreadsheet, there have been plenty of trucks that failed in under 10k and plenty over 40k. One failed at only 179 miles. And some that were after the 2/23 build date. Unlike the Takata recall, it’s not like an aging component that increases likelihood.

 

I hope you're kidding?

 

Maybe not much, but better than nothing!

 

I think with Takata, the risk was always there but more likely as the bag aged. I would say it is a similar parallel. Yes, there are trucks failing early, but at least based in what has been reported here, most happen in the high 20k+miles.

Resources and logistics always come into play, and we (consumers) are left holding the bag.

 

I wonder what we’re going to see as a more significant number of gen 3s start hitting 30-50k miles.

 

To me, $70k is a huge sum of money. To any car manufacturer that's not even tip money - more of a rounding error. I'm sure GM and Chrysler execs wake up every morning and think "wow, I still can't believe we alienated Mr. KABC to the point we'll never see his money again, I wonder if there is something, anything, we can do to change his mind?"

Companies won't give a shit. So you leave because they "didn't make it right" (I hate that expression BTW). They won't cry in their cash register.

I do hope for a long extended warranty (already used mine for the Ford wretched DCT automatic transmission, was out of normal warranty).

All else in your list is a pipe dream IMO. Owners won't get buyback option, nor a choice of short/long block. We'll get whatever is cost effective for THEM.

Rebate certificate? Hahaha. Doubt you'd see that but as for me, if it ever got to a point to where I was that pissed at a manufacturer I'd take that rebate certificate and wipe my ass with it.

 

This is the attitude the formerly Big 3 had in the 70s and 80s when they had 80%+ market share. That mentality led to multiple bailouts, bankruptcies, and a massive loss of share.

 

True! And yet, in 2024, they still act exactly the same...

 

Which means a smart competitor can eat their lunch. Toyota USED to do that. It is a shame to see them resort to the lowest common denominator approach.

 

Toyota sells more than trucks. I’m speaking about the mentality generally.

 

We agree on that!

 

I bought my 2024 1794 in the end of April. It is my first Toyota, and I love the truck. However now that this information has come out and more and more vehicle outside of the dates of when Toyota says they fixed the production issue keep going down I can't help but feel anxiety every time I drive my new truck. I should be enjoying the driving instead I am left wondering if mine is one of the ones that will stop working. I have been reading over these threads hoping to find some revelation that will ease my worries but have yet to stumble upon that. I keep seeing people say that Toyota will "make it right" if something does happen. I do not see that being possible. The only way they could make it right by me if my engine blows would be to pay me what I paid for their 70,000+ dollar paperweight and we all know that is not going to happen. Even if they replace the engine with a new long block, I do not trust that the techs are putting everything back together the exact way it was when I brought it in and who knows how long I will be without a truck while it is being fixed. I bought the truck based on Toyotas reputation but I feel like I was lied to. They have known there was an issue since early 2023 and still kept selling trucks like nothing was wrong.

 

Well there are reports here of engines blowing up since late 2022 so this really isn’t a surprise. Your only real choice is to trade or sell your truck. The failure rate while higher than we expect is still unknown, although I bet it is not going to be every truck. If mine breaks so be it, let them fix it, I’ll take a long block over a short block rebuild. Also it depends on your service department, mine has 3-4 master techs that know this shit inside out. If you dont have that then find one that does. But we can’t help you to feel better, other than I can tell you I don't give a shit, I’ll drive it till it shits itself or for 300K like my last one.

 

That's what I mean they have been investigating this knowing there is an issue and never thought to stop production and fix it??? "Kaizen"

 

It’s like wearing a condom to bed if you sleep by yourself.

 

First off I don't hang out and get resumes from the Toyota service department to weed out if they are qualified to handle my warranty repair and I doubt very much you do either. Second I did not ask you to help me feel anything I am sharing my frustrations about the current dog crap situation. I'm glad you don't give a shit about getting hosed on a $70,000 dollar truck but I do very much.

 

It seems to me that the hosing could mostly wind up being from people getting cold feet and flooding a cooled market that shows no signs of heating back up any time soon (it’s not just Tundras that are piling up on dealer lots) with barely used trucks.

The best thing to do is just wait. Your truck works. You haven’t lost anything yet. What if your truck never has an issue? What if Toyota offers a lifetime powertrain warranty?

I understand feeling anxious about it. But nothing anyone posts is going to change what happens with your truck or what Toyota does about it.

How it works is this: Toyota is an impersonal, self-interested corporation who has built themselves into the most profitable automaker in the world and has a reputation to uphold. They will make it right simply because they need to. The only questions are how they will do so, at what cost, and to what degree affected customers will be satisfied. They historically do this better than others.

 

FACTS

 

Sure the people that do not want to drive a truck that might seize up at any moment are the ones hosing people not the multi billion dollar car company that made the trucks....

 

Dump it at a loss with no indicator that it will fail before Toyota even corrects the issue, then. Seems hilariously irrational to me, but what do I know.

 

I would call a 100,000 vehicle safety recall a pretty big indicator, but what do I know