Always ask for what you think is fair by getting advise from a lawyer. Toyota pays lawfirms and laywers who represent them. Dealers have lawyers but if they have good ownership, managers and being part of the local community generally do what ever they can to help the customers. I am sure her issue has been elevated through the channel and a couple of resolutions have already been presented internally by Toyota corporate with three important factors a) Alleviate negative publicity ; b) Maximum customer satisfaction at minimal cost and c) Good out come favorable to toyota's image. The customer's lawyer and Toyota corporate will come to a compromise depending on the fine print of the law. If you don't have a lawyer, it will be hard if not impossible to know what you are entitled to under the law.

An attorney isn't going to be able to tell Pumacat what is or is not "fair". An attorney representing Pumacat does not have insight into Toyota's internal standard of how such matters are mediated nor does an attorney have the ability to put a value on select parameters of this specific situation at hand. Pumacat would be needlessly wasting his/her finances retaining an attorney, unless said attorney were able to determine this is a case in which Toyota would reimburse Pumacat for his/her legal fees. I highly doubt that would be the case, but hey, there are a lot of lawyers out there that need to eat. If Pumacat wants to go that route, he/she would be best contacting several attorneys for a free consultation and seeing what the options are. Pumacat will learn quickly whether or not its worth retaining an attorney as one worth their expensive degree would take on the simple case by not charging Pumacat, instead being confident they could charge Toyota for those as well.

It isn't pain and suffering. This isn't a personal injury settlement. Asking for a different model isn't for the sake of avoiding this same situation either. The idea is that Pumacat was without their personal property for reasons beyond their own doing, for an accumulated time far exceeding what may be deemed as "normal" service time to repair said issue.

Pumacat was making payments (presumably) without their own vehicle for a prolonged amount of time.

Toyota is replacing the vehicle out of necessity.

The time that Pumacat has been without their vehicle, and all these interactions taking away from their personal time, are things that Pumacat is kindly asking to be respected by potentially offering him/her a small perk that would be nothing to Toyota's bottom line.

If Toyota were to reject his/her request, Pumacat wouldn't deny Toyota's replacement nor would Pumacat consider this a failure. Hence, it isn't "douchey".

I've been following this thread with intense interest. Pumacat, I commend you for your efforts and perseverance. It benefits all of us, and hopefully, Toyota Marketing and Engineering is watching this forum and devoting resources to resolve this issue. At the very least you have their attention via your negotiation with the dealer, the regional techs and national level techs.

Toyota should recognize that your vehicle has considerable value that would help them identify what is causing the vibration because this issue is easily reproduced with your vehicle. Toyota Engineering could put your vehicle on a dynamometer, aim high speed cameras at the tires, frame, CV axles, steering and suspension to capture information about the natural frequencies of each component and the system to diagnose the root cause. Google "vibration analysis by high speed camera". See Iris M™ - RDI: Performance Motion Amplification Technology for Machinery and High speed image correlation for vibration analysis - IOPscience ...

Maybe that's why Toyota wants to take her truck back, to analyze it

I hope they choose to ship it to Toyota Engineering to analyze it.

Google "what happens to lemon law cars?". You will not like the answer. Buyer beware. See What Happens to Lemon Law Cars After They're Bought Back? and Can "Lemon" Cars be Resold? - MargarianLaw and more …

In this situation, Toyota is trying to avoid a lemon buy back designation. We may never know what they do with the vehicle.

Great observation! I will definitely check out that link later. Thanks for sharing.

This forum really is the best and why I’m sharing my experience.... to help others.

I would definitely love to know exactly what Toyota will do with my car once they get it back. I’ll keep an eye on the VIN from time to time to see if they ever sell it again.


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It's an option. if you choose not to that's fine. Like anything in life A good lawyer, mechanic, contractor etc is worth the money. Point was they got knowledgeable lawyers making their policy and if you have one as well it makes for a more even playing field nevertheless an underdog.

Free consult wouldn't hurt. Lawyers are rarely the answer. A law firm vs. Toyota's team is almost never the answer.

If this were a lemon law case then a lawyer will serve you well, but here you are getting a trade assist and a lawyer may not be necessary and will cost you money.

Me? I'd see what Toyota comes up with and then, if I had any questions, I'd get a free consult with a lemon lawyer.

There is another challenge that you want to keep a good relationship with your dealership and a legal battle won't help that.

At this point, just cool your heels, stick to your guns and see what Toyota will do.

Is your steering wheel wobble any worse than this?

sounds like you have a dealer willing to fix the situation , myself just had a nightmare experience with a GM dealer. Bought a new 2013 gmc sierra crew cab 4x4 that started having the dreaded oil consumption issue related to the displacement on demand (4cyl-8cyl mode) around 79000 miles, it actually ran out of oil as I was driving on the interstate. Dealer rebuilt the engine under factory warranty, however I was enrolled in a dealer program that if I had them do the maintenance I would have additional engine coverage that was related to anything oil issues as long as I owned the truck . 60000 miles later engine has exact same issue, this time though the original dealer SOLD out and another took over the dealership...they inform me the company that did the extra warranty shouldn't have offered it to me because my truck had exceeded the mileage threshold by 2k miles at the time it was offered to me so they were not going to pay for the engine replacement. I did not want to put another dime in the engine so I sold it after a MONTH of back and forth arguing with them and bought a 2016 4runner with 20k miles on it ( been wanting one for many years) ...Im not sure what legal recourse I have at this point but I took a big loss on the truck

Yes, it’s that same high frequency but even jumpier and more harsh. Haha if that makes sense.


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Where did you find those plastic straws in the Bay Area. Got any plastic water bottles?

They probably only did a cost analysis.
The cost of parts and labor, and corporate time, must have reached the point where it exceeded Toyota’s profit on that truck. With no end in sight they decided cut their losses and buy her a new truck.
It’s all about the money.