Poor passive restraint Warranty

[cocrpt]

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.

[somick]

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

[cocrpt]

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.

[cocrpt]

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.