Lemon law time!!!

[silversurfer220]

Well, sorry to say, but after being jerked around enough times with my 04 Solara, its time to file for the lemon law. I bought it in Oct of 2004 and it has had problems since day 1. The famous no start problem has irritated me enuff, especially since it was in for that repair before the vehicle was purchased by me. Pretty bad when you buy a new car that has a pre-existing problem. My dealership is 100% unwilling to work with me on this and solve it- they just tell me "problem can't be duplicated" I have spoken with Toyota corporate in Torrence California, and they dont seem to care that if this car kills in the middle of the freeway (like it has done 2 times before) that someone could be killed or seriously injured. I guess that Toyota does not stand behind their products. All of the paperwork has been submitted for the lemon law- now its the waiting game to see what they are going to do. I am fighting for a lemon law buyback in which I get my money back, since there is NO WAY I will ever have another toyota! I'll keep everyone updated.

[CHRIS CLUTCH]

Wow. That all sounds pretty crazy! Good luck to you. Fortunately I've had nothing but good things with both of my Solaras. Hope everything works out for ya.

[Jackass-Jeff]

what problem?

Intermediately occuring problems cannot always be duplicated... you should have spoken to the shop foreman

If you file the claim, the first thing that will happen is a Toyota Factory tech comes out to check the car. Once he determines nothing is wrong, you get the car back. Case closed... We have a lot of people that get mad when we cannot duplicate things that happen... but it happens at certain times (cold start, bumpy roads only, etc) so it's not always occuring... like non-starts in the morning that occur once a month... it's hard to determine which day it'll happen and 99/100 times will not happen when in the service drive.

Good luck though! Hopefully you get passed this.

[Down2TheC]

Sad. Toyota will prolly lose much more fighting the suit than if they gave you a loaner for a week and had one of their better Master Techs drive it for a week to repeat the problem. Plus the bad press, plus the value of finding the solution for an oddball issue that can happen to presumably many of their cars (since so many models share stuff with us.)

I had a simlarly problematic Grand Am in my care that did the same thing. Took three shops, two unneeded equipment replacements, lots of wasted cash and a year before someone found it to be corroded injection wires shorting. Killed the entire electrical system when it happened and it wouldn't start for 15 minutes. Doubt yours are corroded though.

Good luck and no hard feelings. I'd be hatin' too if that all happened to me.

[dominoSLEV6]

That really is too bad.

Like I've said before though, I don't think it's Toyota, I think you happened to get an oddball car, and it's unfortuante that this happeend to you.

You are the same guy who had the rust problem right? Or am I wrong?

Either way IMO you're just as likely to get similar problems on any other manufacturers cars. If you go and buy a chevy, you could get the one out of however many cars that for some reason or another has an inherent problem. And in the same right I think you could get another Toyota and have the same thing happen to you again. It's doubtful in either case, but it could happen. I suspect it's location and the dealership for whatever problems that have been created and I doubt factory. I understand completely where you're coming from though. I went to drvie a Grand Prix GTP before I bought my Solara, and when I was driving it, I tried putting down the passenger window and the control pushed right through the panel on the drivers side door, obviously not helping my opinion on Pontiacs build quality. Of course it wasn't new either like your Toyota. If I remember right you said you had a Grand Am, and that it's been great and that's great for you. A car should do everything a car is supposed to do, and not die on the highway etc. I don't really have much to add I just ramble, ignore me.

Good luck with everything.

-chris

[silversurfer220]

what problem?

Intermediately occuring problems cannot always be duplicated... you should have spoken to the shop foreman

If you file the claim, the first thing that will happen is a Toyota Factory tech comes out to check the car. Once he determines nothing is wrong, you get the car back. Case closed... We have a lot of people that get mad when we cannot duplicate things that happen... but it happens at certain times (cold start, bumpy roads only, etc) so it's not always occuring... like non-starts in the morning that occur once a month... it's hard to determine which day it'll happen and 99/100 times will not happen when in the service drive.

Good luck though! Hopefully you get passed this.

Problem- Vehicle wont start at random times- no lights, beeps, etc... NOTHING. On other occasions, the vehicle will kill while driving it- going down the middle of the road.

I have spoken to the shop foreman a bunch of times, and he is accusing me of "fabricating a problem because I dont like the color of the car". They told me this last week that they drove it around for 3 days and made sure there were no problmes. They put 4 miles on it. GRRR.
They have lied to me about fixing it before. Basically, they wont stand behind their product.
I am filing the complaint with the Better Business Bureau. It will go through arbitration with a 3rd party arbitrator. He will then make the decision.

[Jackass-Jeff]

Ok, that makes sense then. Remember to blame the DEALER and not Toyota. =P

4 miles in 4 days is ridiculous... if our foreman takes a car to verify something, he gets authrization from the owner to do at least 60 miles (depending on the problem... we've done 1000 miles before and I think we paid 1 payment for him in return)

Assuming you have the "chip" in your key, the immobolizer seems to kick in. I bet it's the key that has a problem... no way to prove it, like I said though =\ Write Toyota Corp. a formal letter regarding it if you can prove it's the key (if you have multiple keys, I'm sure you do, test another key and use that for a few weeks)

[Astro]

^^^Sounds very possible.
Don't hate on Toyota, but the dealership is to blame. Not nessesarily for the car, but the response to a owner in need of help. Good luck and I hope all works out. Just remember, many of us on this board have never had any major problems, with some having both gens...so don't think ALL Solaras are lemons!

[importtuner2oo4]

Assuming you have the "chip" in your key, the immobolizer seems to kick in. I bet it's the key that has a problem... no way to prove it, like I said though =\ Write Toyota Corp. a formal letter regarding it if you can prove it's the key (if you have multiple keys, I'm sure you do, test another key and use that for a few weeks)

i agree with him. my friend was in a similar situation with his ML... kept shutting off on him, not starting for hours at a time. all it took was a new key and his car is perfectly fine now...

give it a shot

[silversurfer220]

Ive gotten 3 new keys and still have the problem. They think its something in the computer, but can't prove it, so they wont do anything about it. It killed on the highway today and I was about 6 inches away from getting hit hard by a DHL truck. frustrating

[mmcdonald]

This is EXACTLY the kind of issues that lemon laws were put in place to rectify. Every car manufacturer knows that they are going to have some klunkers in every run of cars. The lemon laws were put in place to make them take these klunkers with oddball problems back.

What they should have done is just take it back. But they want to see if you will follow through with litigation. Then their problem is that they can't resell the car without lemon documentation, which some dealers will do by selling the car to a shadey wholesaler. (I have worked at several dealerships).

See you on 60 Minutes.

[Hcomplyr]

sounds like a bad contact on the ground wire, either from the battery or the frame. Take off the negative wire from your battery and using a wire brush scrape the crap off both the connector on the battery and the wire. Then take some of the electric grease and put it on the battery terminal. Tighten it, very tight. then see if it does it again. My 99 Monte Carlo did the same thing when I yanked the engine. The negative cable didn't want to make a good contact from then on. And died a couple times when I was driving.

[SolaraTRD_Edition]

its like... Aids..

1 outta 3 people has it without knowing...

same with cars. 1 outta 10,000 (not true fact) is faulty.

Apparently you got the bad one. Bad luck I guess of the drawing... but... good luck, and I'll probally be pissed like you as well. good luck =)

[FLUXEMAG]

Have them completely replace the ECM. Your 32 bit controller is defective. Or, replace it yourself.

[Mandarinsolara]

aw man, thats not cool. im sorry to hear that... now you deserve a 2006 Mustang Gt