BUYER BEWARE – 100% FAILURE OF 4RUNNER LIMITED X-REAS SUSPENSION UNDER 50,000 MILES. CONTACTED TOYOTA CEC. TOYOTA ACKNOWLEDGING FAILURES ONLY OFFERING $500 TOWARD $3866 REPAIR CLAIMING $500 COVERS COST OF BASE SYSTEM SUSPENSION, FURTHER CLAIMING NO DIFFERENCE IN RIDE BETWEEN BASE SUSPENSION SYSTEM AND X-REAS.
To begin, I don’t off-road! This is all City and Highway driving. I have a 2013 4Runner Limited and my wife has a 2015 Rav4. My 2013 4Runner Limited has just over 47100 miles, with suspension failure diagnostics at under 47000 miles. Diagnosis came during an early December 2018 alignment check when all 4 shocks were noted as “leaking”. This is additionally after a 10-11-2018, 45912 mile, regularly scheduled maintenance check at Mountain States Toyota (Colorado) which included Toyota’s “complimentary multi-point inspection” in which no suspension issues or concerns were noted.
Based on the above, Toyota wants me to believe that ALL 4 shocks, 100% of the system, failed simultaneously within 1000 miles. They further want me (and you) to believe that these X-REAS systems are reliable, lasting up to and through 150K miles, yet facts show differently. The X-REAS systems can only be considered reliable up to 50K miles at most. If you get more, consider yourself lucky.
To formally price out repair costs, I contacted Stevenson Toyota West (Colorado). Stevenson Toyota West asked me to bring it in, confirmed 100% failure, and recommending I contact Toyota’s CEC (Customer Experience Center). Ultimately, Toyota CEC’s representative acknowledges that these failures are far more common than Toyota cares for you to know stating, “For all of the customers that have this issue, the majority end up replacing with the standard base model suspension system”. So, while Toyota recognizes the cost to replace their proprietary system, and recognizes that failures are far more common than they would like you to believe, when the X-REAS systems do fail, Toyota expects you to downgrade your system from what you purchased and the ride you expect, to something very sub-standard. If you question this, just take vehicles with both suspensions for a test drive. The rides are completely different. In the end, the only reason that Toyota is saying this is because customers are forced into a situation where customers simply DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO REPLACE WITH LIKE. CUSTOMERS ARE FORCED TO SETTLE FOR SUB-STANDARD SUSPENSIONS.
But don’t worry, Toyota cares and is there for you (Sarcasm). Since you can’t afford the $3866 price tag to replace the X-REAS system with like, they will help you out, offering you $500 off the system replacement. Toyota CEC’s representative explained where that number came from. See, shocks for Toyota’s sub-standard base model suspension system only cost $500 (For all 4). BTW, the full cost of the sub-standard base model suspension system, furnish and install, is $1280. Now, by offering you $500, aren’t they generous?
Toyota is minimally skewing facts if not outright lying to customers. They tout their X-REAS suspension system as some revolutionary thing yet it is unreliable and will cost you dearly in the end. The only part you can rely on is it will fail and, when it does, Toyota will be happy to bend you over in one way or another. For note, I declined the $500. It is a complete slap in the face and now I can freely speak out.
Toyota … If you’re reading this, your response was a joke. Reference case number 1812132362. It’s time you stand behind your products. If such failures are so rare, as you wish people to believe, you should provide longer warrantees and, for these systems when they fail so early, replace them at your cost.