We maybe lemoning our celica

[Z24and GT]

Well weve had it with our celica and its problems. Tonight my wife is going to find out how may days the car has been in the shop for and if its over 30days or at 30days it will be lemoned.

lets see what we have replaced on this car/whats still wrong with it.

both window motors
Seat sensor
High beams didnt work
Belt still squeaks when you start the car(dealer cant repeat)
car makes a clunk when you shift(dealer cant repeat)
Seats are faded after 1 year.
car idles wierd(even before the intake)
and some other things

Overall i will never own a celica again after this(maybe not even a toyota), So much for Toyota Quality. My damn Z24 was more reliable than that.

Edit: forgot to mention that the service sucks ass a the dealer we bought it at. They are rude and leave parts out and left parts in our car from another car. Oh yeah the dealer is Fred Haas aka Etoyotas.

[Z24and GT]

just got the paper work faxed to us. the car has been in the shop for 28+ days and we will be filing a lemon law.

now the question is do we need to retain a lawyer?

[Personafied]

Damn Ed sorry to hear that about your car. I had no clue you had that much trouble with the celi.....They must have given you a bad one. I havent had any problems with mine. (knock on wood) If you dont need my spoiler anymore just let me know.

[Z24and GT]

Originally posted by Personafied
Damn Ed sorry to hear that about your car. I had no clue you had that much trouble with the celi.....They must have given you a bad one. I havent had any problems with mine. (knock on wood) If you dont need my spoiler anymore just let me know.

Christian,
Well my wife will probably be reply to this thread also. We may still buy it because of the fact that we may lose. and if we win we could always sell it again. Ill let you know.

[Celica Lady]

OK, well we really aren't lemoning it. It's arbitration. Has anyone ever done this? It's completely different then the lemon law. Toyota hires an outside arbitration company to meet with me and the Toyota dealer. We state our problem and the aribitrator makes his decission on what to do. If he says that I'm not having problems out of the oridnary then we walk away and I keep my POS. If he says new car, I get a new car...From what I heard though he can come up with several ideas to resolve the matter.

[insunan]

I'd be curious to hear the outcome of this.

I have to wonder how fair and impartial an abritrator can be if they're hired by Toyota. Seems the party that's paying the arbitrator would benefit more often than the party that's not.

[Celica Lady]

I agree. I'm a little worried about there "independent" arbitrator. To me if I was getting paid a bizillion bucks by Toyota I would want to rule in their favor not ours. But we'll see. We are allowed to bring a lawyer if we chose. I will know more when I get the arbitration packet from Toyota.

[Personafied]

Insunan makes a good point. I have never heard of this happening but you may want to seek professional advice on this one. Why would the arebitrator be in your favor if they are getting paid by toyota? Insunan had a great point with that. I hope everything works out well for you two. I hope you get a new car out of this. Good Luck.

[Celica Lady]

Well I just got good news. The arbitrator is not paid by Toyota. It's a service provided free for situations like this. Toyota has to sign in front of me that they do not pay or owe this arbitrator any money. I also have to do the same thing. That makes me feel a little better. The arbitration will be within 40 days and a decision will be made within 2 weeks after that. I have to decide before hand what the resolution will be. I can't say either replace or repair. It has to be one or the other before we go into arbitration. I think I'm gonna shoot to replace the vehicle.

[Griffin]

Arbitration is stardard policy for pretty much all auto companies these days. Yes they really are independant and impartial. Its just a LOT cheaper for everyone than going to court over a lemon law suit and it goes a lot faster too. The only advice I can give it to document everythign in EXACT detail "Car Idles Weird" <--- not gonna cut it. Take pictures, video, etc. Have all your service records and everythign in order and arranged for easy viewing. Try to make it as easy as possible for teh arbitrator to do their job. Also rememebr that it IS an impartial third party so be nice to them, and try to be civil in general. Hope this helps and I hope they can make you gusy happy. I wish your dealer could have fixed your car, that stuff all is pretty simple to fix if they would have tried and had good people work on the car.

Griffin

[Z24and GT]

Originally posted by Celica Lady
Well I just got good news. The arbitrator is not paid by Toyota. It's a service provided free for situations like this. Toyota has to sign in front of me that they do not pay or owe this arbitrator any money. I also have to do the same thing. That makes me feel a little better. The arbitration will be within 40 days and a decision will be made within 2 weeks after that. I have to decide before hand what the resolution will be. I can't say either replace or repair. It has to be one or the other before we go into arbitration. I think I'm gonna shoot to replace the vehicle.

HOpefully they will give us another car besides the celica. I wonder what they will do with the loan for the celica since we dont have it anymore. I wonder if they will pay that off also.

[Personafied]

Good choice. I would replace the vehicle too. Why keep a vehicle that you had so many problems with. It wouldnt make sense. Its really good to know that the arbitrator isnt being paid by toyota. I guess that wouldnt be fair if they were. So you have to wait at least 60 days before you even know what will happen to your car. Keep us updated cuz I am very interestedin what happens. I have never seen this before.

[insunan]

Good to know the arbitrator isn't on Toyota's payroll.

Looks like Griffin has some solid advice; I'd definitely document and detail as much as possible. The more specific you are and the more supporting evidence you have, the better your case will look.

Good luck.

[Z24and GT]

Originally posted by insunan
Good to know the arbitrator isn't on Toyota's payroll.

Looks like Griffin has some solid advice; I'd definitely document and detail as much as possible. The more specific you are and the more supporting evidence you have, the better your case will look.

Good luck.

well we got the 17 pages of service records from the dealer on the car.

[tripnotic]

So the abitrator is independent, what does he/she get out of this?

[Griffin]

Originally posted by tripnotic
So the abitrator is independent, what does he/she get out of this?

Money. They get paid by the state I think - its way cheaper than putting it through the court system.

Griffin

[Ntence99]

mayby i should do the same!!!ill wait till 2003 though(get the new model!!first my second and third gear synchros went out.lSecond when they gave me a new trans the screwed up my axle,,took them about 2 months to get the new one in..But before they didMy motor mounts (all of um)wore out and the trans mount braket broke in one place and in another has a peice of transmission block on it..noit tpo mention every time i put gas in my car my car tryes to drop rpm and stall for the first 5 minutes..car squeeks when it starts.The thing that pisses me off is they r tryin to make me pay for the new trans..its needed becouse the old one has a peice of the block missing..its about 1 inch be a quater inch and a 16th deep..

[Griffin]

Originally posted by Ntence99
..noit tpo mention every time i put gas in my car my car tryes to drop rpm and stall for the first 5 minutes..

Possible issue here:

over-filling. If you pump past the first click you can force raw fuel into the evaporative emissions system. If ya do when it purges you'll have the problem you have been noticing, or even stalling.

[Celica Lady]

The arbitrator doesn't get anything out of it from Toyota or me. They are hired by the state to do this.

And Ntence yea I would call and talk to the Customer Relations manager at your dealer and first tell him about what happened, because that's odd for your Celica if it's fairly new, then if that doesn't work call 800-331-4331. That's the main number for Toyota, talk to Customer Service and you can either file a complaint and let the managers at the dealer fix it or if it has gone on long enough ask her for arbitration papers.

Most likely I wont get a new car out of this. When the papers come I have to chose the outcome, once I get all the documents prepared I'm going to have them looked at by someone who knows what you have to have to win in arbitration, if it doesn't justify a new car or paying off my car, then I will request something smaller, like extended factory warranty or something.

Like I said, I will keep y'all updated incase anyone else has to go through this. All I have to say is this car has been a POS and I will never get another Celica again or a Toyota for that matter.

[Brett]

Im currently going through the process myself. my list of problems keeps growing.

Two transmissions (500 miles apart)
Spun rod bearing
Belt tensioner twice
AC twice
Replaced head light due to fogging (no aftermarket bulbs, never touched)
MAFS was replaced
And just last night my belt came off. Didnt snap or break, came off somehow. thinking it has to do with yet the belt tensioner aswell. I also had to pay for towing. Will know tomorrow on this new ordeal. Just another nail in the coffin. I requested a replaced vehical. My hearing for it is July 16th.

[01 Spectra GT-S]

I think if a mass produced car, there will be one or two that will be problems.

I personally don't think toyota makes crappy cars. Because My whole family own a toyota. 4Runner, corrolla, celica, camery, and sennia. And none of those car ever, that is EVER, had any problems at all.

and not sure if it is just becuase I'm in Canada, every Toyota dealer I've been to treated me like a king or god :D :D

For example... When I was getting my celica, I first walked into a dealer without driving a fancy car or wear nice clothe. Just baggy jeans, t-shirt and took the bus to the dealer. All i said to the salesmen was, I looking into a new car, perfer the celica.... next thing you know was we (me and the salesmen) took a GT-S out for a 30mins test drive.

[Brett]

Oh, I dont expect most Celicas to run into the same problems as me. And I do think Toyota makes great cars all around. Just mine in particular has had far to many problems, far to fast.

[01 Spectra GT-S]

I do think Toyota makes great cars all around. Just mine in particular has had far to many problems, far to fast.

Yea, that is my biggest problem with my celica too... They made it too fast :D :D :D

[Griffin]

Originally posted by Brett
Oh, I dont expect most Celicas to run into the same problems as me. And I do think Toyota makes great cars all around. Just mine in particular has had far to many problems, far to fast.

Sounds to me like a lot of em were maybe your dealership not fixing things properly. Theres a LOT of repeat offenders on that list. If you wind up keeping it or getting another one you might want to change dealers.

Griffin

[yakkosmurf]

Originally posted by Z24and GT
just got the paper work faxed to us. the car has been in the shop for 28+ days and we will be filing a lemon law.

now the question is do we need to retain a lawyer? Interesting...a lemon GT. Want to change your username? :D

I don't think you'll need a lawyer, but depending on how things go, you might. My brother is a service advisor at Sterling McCall Toyota. He says they do hear some complaints about Fred Haas (not that all dealers don't get there share of complaints). There's a reason Sterling McCall is the second largest Toyota dealer in the country. I even take my ITR there for work when needed. They are very nice and are good mechanics.

Good luck with your GT.

[mickey513]

Originally posted by 01 Spectra GT-S
I think if a mass produced car, there will be one or two that will be problems.

I personally don't think toyota makes crappy cars. Because My whole family own a toyota. 4Runner, corrolla, celica, camery, and sennia. And none of those car ever, that is EVER, had any problems at all.



Not my family, we have the WORST of luck with Toyotas. First my mom's 93 Toyota Camry V6 XLE's engine to decide to go bye bye at 57k miles. This was 2 years ago. Note, that would have been less then 7000 miles a year that she drives. Maintenace work was up to date and always done on time. Worst of luck too because the powertrain warranty was over.

My 01 Celica is also experiencing probelms that it should NOT BE. Muschy breaks, "clicking" noise when braking sometimes, this weird shaking or studdering when I acclerate sometimes. "might be called knocking?" I have bought my car back to the dealer several times and they said they couldn't reproduce the porblems. I have a 94 Integra gsr with 110k miles and it runs way better than my Celica. Go figures.............Hondas. One thing for sure is that my next car is not going to be a Toyota. Toyota make great cars but my family just has the worst of luck with them....

[Brett]

Originally posted by Griffin


Sounds to me like a lot of em were maybe your dealership not fixing things properly. Theres a LOT of repeat offenders on that list. If you wind up keeping it or getting another one you might want to change dealers.

Griffin

Your telling me Griffin. I have moved twice since I have owned my Celica and have been to 3 different Dealers. AC went out 2 days after they fixed it (And Im assuming they broke it cause it worked fine when I brought it in for the Spun rod). I didnt make it 5 miles from the dealership last night. I go pick up my car. One of the bolts was replaced (snapped off the recently install Belt Tensioner) and a new belt was added. Well, 5 miles down the road. My car starts to over heat. So back to the dealership it was towed.

I think the main problem about my current dealership is they try to fix the problem as quick as they can so they can move on to the next car. Over tighten something, dont install something properly, dont bother to test the car to make sure the problem is installed correctly , etc.. Im just the by product of that. But I do agree some of the problems are very likly a results of poor installation. I mean I open my hood up next to a stock GTS and my engine looks like garbage. I missing a cover on the left side of the car, my intake box latches are broken all but a few. It just looks beaten up. Its gone through too much :(

[Edison_Chen]

maybe its just the celi
most of the other toyota cars are pretty good

[yakkosmurf]

The Celica does seem to be having its fair share of problems. I would say it's more than other current and definitely more than past Toyota models. However, Toyota has also had problems with the Echo as well. Not as many as the Celica, but problems of the same kind.

As for Toyotas, I don't think you can buy a more reliable car, in general. My ITR the first time anyone in my family has owned a Honda, and I've had no problems so far. I hope the Integra can prove as reliable as my Toyotas have been so far. My dad had an 86 Cressida that ran for almost 200k miles before my brother wrecked it. My dad now has a 90 LS400 and it's got almost 270k miles and is still going pretty good. My 86 MR2 has 235k miles, and the engine still runs strong. The synchros in the transmission are wearing out though, but the car is still on its original clutch.

On the other side of things, my wife has a 95 Mercury Mystique. In the year that we've been dating, she's had more problems with her car than I've had with both of mine combined. There's constantly recalls on it, and I am constantly replacing things on it that break. I drive the car almost as much as she does, and she has always taken excellent care of the car. It's my first experience "owning" a Ford, and it's getting frustrating. I didn't expect to have this many problems.

[onigami]

Originally posted by yakkosmurf
It's my first experience "owning" a Ford, and it's getting frustrating. I didn't expect to have this many problems.

my mom's 93 explorer eddie bauer (it was ~33k new) has had the tranny rebuilt twice (as of 99... I haven't talked to her about her car lately).

american hunk of junk heh. if I knew what I know now, I would've told her to get a 4runner.

[Griffin]

Originally posted by Brett


Your telling me Griffin. I have moved twice since I have owned my Celica and have been to 3 different Dealers. AC went out 2 days after they fixed it (And Im assuming they broke it cause it worked fine when I brought it in for the Spun rod). I didnt make it 5 miles from the dealership last night. I go pick up my car. One of the bolts was replaced (snapped off the recently install Belt Tensioner) and a new belt was added. Well, 5 miles down the road. My car starts to over heat. So back to the dealership it was towed.

I think the main problem about my current dealership is they try to fix the problem as quick as they can so they can move on to the next car. Over tighten something, dont install something properly, dont bother to test the car to make sure the problem is installed correctly , etc.. Im just the by product of that. But I do agree some of the problems are very likly a results of poor installation. I mean I open my hood up next to a stock GTS and my engine looks like garbage. I missing a cover on the left side of the car, my intake box latches are broken all but a few. It just looks beaten up. Its gone through too much :(

If your in the orlando area try Kissimmee Toyota, I used to take my cars there when I was in O-Town. Service manager was a great guy and they seemed to always do a good job. I went to Toyota of Orlando once when I first moved there and they REALLY didn't impress me very much.

Griffin

[Brett]

Bout 2 hours from Orlando. Will think about it. I do go up there every now and then.

[808dRaStIkgts]

can we say it out loud people

"WE BOUGHT A PIECE OF $4!t CAR"

Look Fast but its a pain in da ass.

STI soon!!!!!!!!!

[Griffin]

Nope. I honestly can't say that. I'm on Celica number 3 and I've never had a single problem.

Griffin

[yakkosmurf]

Originally posted by onigami


my mom's 93 explorer eddie bauer (it was ~33k new) has had the tranny rebuilt twice (as of 99... I haven't talked to her about her car lately).

american hunk of junk heh. if I knew what I know now, I would've told her to get a 4runner.
We haven't had problems that are that big, just a bunch of little ones that are expensive to fix and seem to pop up frequently. I wish the car would just do what it's supposed to and run. But apparently that's too much to ask from a Ford.

[IceManFX]

yeah they goto arbitration aka 3rd party... u can always request a new person to arbirate what is going on if u feel its not in the best interest of both parties...

its much cheaper than hiring a lawyer