Jack sent a message to Akio Toyoda President and CEO, Toyota Motor Corporation – email address that said:
I am a long term Toyota customer having purchased my third 4-Runner vehicle in 2014. I am very dis-satisfied with this vehicle as the quality has substantially deteriorated with each subsequent vehicle.
The last straw came today when I had the vehicle serviced for 30,000 miles. I asked for the instructions so I could update the Navigation database since the instructions I found on-line did not match the unit in my vehicle. I was told it would cost $200 to have the dealer update the database and that I could not do it myself. This is totally unacceptable. Garmin provides lifetime updates which are easy to perform using any desktop or laptop computer.
This is only one of many ways Toyota cheapened the 2014 vehicle compared to 2008 and 2002. Other examples are:
1. No locking gas cap so anyone can pour sugar or other damaging substances into the gas tank!
2. Extremely poor sun visor design which allows sun to shine into driver's eyes from the center of the windshield and the sides of the vehicle. Gone are the dual visors which worked very well on winding roads where the position of the sun changes often. This is a huge safety issue!
3. No more rear cargo cover so anyone can see items and break into the vehicle to steal them.
4. No more covers on rear storage areas so items fall out and can be seen to be stolen.
5. No more air conditioning outlet under the steering wheel which provided cool air on the driver's body without blowing in the driver's face.
At this point I do not plan to ever purchase another Toyota vehicle and I will tell everyone why they should also NEVER purchase a Toyota vehicle. You are losing a long term customer due to greed - GOUGING the customer for a simple Navigation database update will NOT BE TOLERATED!
Jack
