AHMED sent a message to Akio Toyoda President and CEO, Toyota Motor Corporation – email address that said:
Dear CEO,
I'm contacting with you from Dubai, UAE. Im an owner of a Toyota Avalon, and I have a problem that I would like to share with you seeking your help.
It's been almost 16 months since I got a brand new 2014 Avalon from Dubai showroom and I noticed that there was something wrong with the rear brake pads as I used to hear metal to metal contact sounds. When I informed the showroom about it they advised me to change the pads and that will not be included in the warranty.
I took their advice, changed the pads and cleaned the disks. However, one week later I started to gradually hear the voice again.
Later on, I had an accident where I hit another car from its back side when my brakes disappointed me and couldn't stop the car as they should although I was doing a low speed.
The air bags went out and the car was massively damaged. The showroom assessed the car and classified it as salvage (total loss) as the approximate repair cost reached up around 79,000 AED. However, the insurance company after agreeing on the status of the car suddenly changed their mind and insisted to repair the car.
What I came to know from the showroom that the remaining stock from 2014 that was being sold in 2015 had some imperfections in the brake system, sensitivity of the front objects detector and air the bag sensors. As I received a call from Toyota custom care center that I need to turn over my vehicle to repair those imperfections when it was too late as I got this call almost a week after the accident. Now after what I went through everything was denied and I'm the one to be blamed.
This was also my friends' opinion who experienced that same car and the same model. The problem is unsolved till now and it's been 6 months as the accident happened on 15-12-2015. They haven’t completed repairing the car even though I disagreed on getting it repaired and 6 months is not acceptable to any customer waiting for their own vehicles to get repaired and during this 6 months period I had to rent a vehicle that I can use and ended up paying 4000 AED / month for straight 6 months for now and god knows till when. They have promised me to provide me a replacement until the issue is solved, which was never done of course.
Through several arguments, after getting disappointed from Lulua working in the body shop customer case I was able to reach and communicate with the customer care manager for Dubai Showrooms Khalid Al Mazmi, who arranged to have a meeting with me to discuss the whole case, firstly offered providing a replacement car until the issue is resolved, completing repairing all damages with the vehicle, changing tires as it stayed parked for 6 months without moving till now, repairing all external scratches and dents occurred due to misuse and mishandle while it’s in the workshop, repairing inside seat leather which got teared off due to putting tools inside the care during the repair, the penalty to be paid for insurance as I was considered at fault by the police for the accident when it was all due to manufacturing defects and finally the penalty for traffic department for delaying the car renewal.
I have also got the chance to meet Mahmoud Omran the head of customer relation and I have shared with him what I have been going through, he promised to take care of the matter with no update till now as I haven’t heard from him.
This is a very essential safety matter in the first place not mentioning the huge amount of money that I lost and still losing. Further, the price drop of the car I own is going to be massive which is totally unfair.
I have sent my case and raised official complaints to Toyota Dubai Showroom, Ministry of Economic Department, Dubai Consumer Protection and Authority of Insurance.
Please advise on what’s best to be fairly done to minimize my losses as much as possible as I have tried to reach to the all Toyota departments here in Dubai and nobody was useful for me.
Seeking your kind assistance.
Kind Regards,
AHMED
