GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Seems like Toyota has been having problems with sheet metals lately. The Sienna has weak welding spot, the FJ cruiser and its fender cracking, and the new Tundra with is rear liftgate deforming.

One thing for sure though, Toyota needs to fix the sienna asap. The doors are critical parts in absorbing collisional forces. If that door busts as soon as the sienna hits/gets hit, then oh boy. I dont want to even think of the possible damages.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Personally, I don't think the media itself is singling out Toyota. For the past 12 years that I've been working in television, I've seen many many reports of recalls and various manufacturer's vehicles. From Ford, GM, Honda and others. Now Toyota just happens to have a bunch of recalls close together in the past few years and seems like they are getting all the attention. It is not like the media is discarding other recall reports and only looking for Toyota recalls to report. It is just that Toyota has a lot of recalls lately. I remember the Car Chat forum used to always have posts about other manufacturers recalls and how members here would all have a good laugh and make fun of it. Unfortunately it is Toyota's turn lately.

GS69

Toyota to Fix 600,000 Siennas, Again
It appears as though Toyota's Sienna woes have not gone away quietly, as the Japanese automaker has discovered a fault with the van's rear liftgate. In October of last year, Toyota announced that it would voluntarily fix a defect in 600,000 2004-2006 Sienna minivans, and the new problem appears to affect the same batch of minivans.

Since the majority of the Siennas affected by the original problem were past their 3 year/36,000 mile warranty, Toyota issued a warranty enhancement to vehicles with up to 100,000 miles. Toyota will follow the same strategy with the latest problem, but will extend the warranty to six years, unlimited miles. Toyota is not calling either situation a recall.

The first warranty enhancement service was due to a bad spot weld on the Sienna's front doors that could possibly fail, causing the doors swing freely and unexpectedly shut. The rear liftgate of the Sienna suffers from a similar problem, causing it to have problems opening or staying up once it is open. 34 incidents have been reported with 14 minor injuries.

While Toyota isn't calling the situation a recall, it only adds to mounting quality concerns as the company attempts to become the world's largest automaker.

UDel

I hope they keep going with this warranty extension/recall or whatever it is and address some glaring expensive/potentially deadly problems with the 2nd Gen GS like
-door lock actuator failures
-moisture in headlights
-rough/low idle
-premature lower ball joint failures
-the damn squeeking/creeking noise in my right front side of the suspension that the dealer wants $265 to fix from TSB SU004-02.

Come of Toyota/Lexus. I will be happy if they adress 3 issues: address the door lock actuators, ball joints, and TSB SU004-02 which has to do with the springs/shocks and I will have a much better opinion of them instead of just ignoring this stuff like they are doing now.

spwolf

if you start petition on cars having forever warranty, i will be first to sign up :-).

whoster

hm...i know my dad's sienna got fixed for the first TSB....


dunno if it's been affected by the second one. seems fine when i use it...

and we use the HELL out of that van...

rai

I had this fix on my Sienna (drivers side door) last year around this time they told me I would have to pay to get it fixed but I didn't bother, this year about 4 months ago I brought it in to be fixed and they did it no charge. This was ll before the announcement was made.

I think Toyota has done a good-will thing and is good PR for a poor quality door part so I don't hold this against them. If I had to pay out of pocket or had to fight it I would have been PO-ed at Toyota.

Incedentally last year my dealership did several service things on my Sienna which my wife told them to do whatever they thought it needed. But I did not agree with some of what they did, specifically replaced my battery when it was not showing any signs of being week and flushing my tranny fluid when I had it done 6-months previous (so it was done twice in 6 months) etc.

I was upset and contaced the service dept and they ended up giving me $200 credit which covered a lot of the extra work but not everything but I was OK with it. And happy they didn't make me get anyone else involved. this year I had the door fixed (free) but they also did some service which was to be something like $230 but with my credit applied they said it was no charge for everything which made me happy with the way theu have treated me. I know dealer service can be a rip off but at least my dealership makes an effort to keep me happy as I can be.

bagwell

have you EVER seen Ford offer a "warranty enhancement" or voluntarily recall items like this? Ford usually is mandated to issue a recall....after deaths or severe injuries and/or damages occur of course.