Poor passive restraint Warranty

This morning when I was putting my 3-year old daughter’s carseat in my spyder, the passenger seatbelt jammed in the fully extended position. I immediately took the car to my local dealer (Tuscaloosa Toyota) and I was told that the seat belt could not be repaired and was not covered by a cradle-to-grave warranty, merely a 5-year, 60K warranty. I was told that the seat belt would have to be replaced at a cost of nearly $300. In my opinion, I believe that this shows that Toyota does not care about the safety of the drivers and passengers of their vehicles.

Tuscaloosa Toyota http://www.tuscaloosatoyota.com/

As a side note, after 21 years of service my ’86 Honda CRX needed similar service. This was immediately remedied by my local Honda Dealer at no cost, with no questions asked.

Did you try to call Toyota customer service? They may resolve this issue for you. I have read a lot of positive notes about them. I personally cannot say that. But it anyway worth to try.

Good luck,

Sam

Customer satisfaction called me back regarding my faxes and the young lady that I talked to said that she'd talk to her manager and I'd hear back within 24 hours. It has now been 72+ hours. I got one of our Japanese post-docs to get me the Toyota customer satisfaction number in Japan (0800-700-7700), but I haven't called yet. Sigh.

After calling back customer service again, they agreed to reimburse me for the full costs of replacing the seat belt. I still think that the most important safety feature in the car doesn't have a more comprehensive warranty. Plus it shouldn't have failed with under 1000 cycles, irrespective of the warranty period. The jamming smacks of poor design, in this engineer's opinion.