Fadiddy said:
Just for $hits and giggles, how many of you would do something similar about your recently purchased 4Runner (lets say, oh i dunno, I win)??? Be honest....
I can understand your frustration, but me personally, to answer your question: No, I would not try to run the lemon law rally with these issues. Instead, if it really bothered me like it clearly bothers you, I would have my attorney contact Toyota corporate directly and have them do the proper TSB with the new cat's as prescribed for model years prior "which has a 50/50 sucess rate", I would also insist the GX470 TSB be done on my 4runner, or as close as possible "some suspension bushings are a little different", and I would simply accept the fact that all anything mobile rattles, including ole' Mother Earth, as evidenced by the earth quake last week in LA.
You won't win this though. Sure, they might offer to purchase the car back from you, for "fair market value", but you won't get dollar for dollar. Or, they may simply say "let's play ball, I've got an army of arguments against you". One, for instance, and I'm sure the Toyota attorney will clearly do, is simply come onto this forum and hit "print" on a few of these threads about these very common issues. Two, the problems you're stating for grounds of your lemon law, are only "problems" in your definition. In other's, they're simply described as Toyota characteristics, and clearly don't drive customers away, as clearly evidenced by Toyota being the #1 automobile maker in the world. Time and time again, through all automobile manufactures, there have always been, and will continue to always be, a handful of customers that simply realize 3,000 miles into ownership that they don't like their car anymore. How do you think MB owners feel over the past 8 years? How about BMW 325-38-30 owner feel when their subframe mounts tear loose in the back, costing thousands to repair. Or the Ford Exhibition owners who constantly deal with a leaking front differential seal, or Chevy owners with the parade of recalls every year? Simply put, your argument for enacting the lemon law will get shot down before it even hits the taxi way.
Lemon law is for "defects" beyond repair. Judging by the sales figures during the past 10 years for 4runners "birth of the clunk in 98'", and attempts by Toyota to address the sulfer with TSB's, I'd have to say these aren't defects, but rather characteristics. Furthermore, the sulfer smell is under heavy acceleration. Not normal acceleration, or at idle, which will ultimatly be tested in the case, and therefore your smell issue will deemed a characteristic of your driving style, not the car's normal operational style. Additionally, if you'd look on the brighter side of life, you'd realize that you have the ultimate weapon against tailgators.... Trust me, my 05' V8 stinks up too sometimes, and comes in VERY handy when some punk-ass-chump is riding my bumper. A little slip into "N", a couple quick revs to 5krpm, and back back back they go! I love it!
By the way, given your kind remarks about the "harmonic vibrations", I assume you KNOW what causes them, right? Well, do you? I do. I know exactly what causes them. I know they will never be fixed on the 4.7 V8 so long as they're built. Not yesterdays, and not tomorrows. But, do you?
I'll give you a hint: It has three letters, it's required on all "cars", but isn't for SUV's beyond a certain weight/design. And, it's very expensive to fix when it breaks......
: ).
