2004 Sienna - door problems

copy of letter sent to Toyota on 25-Jan-2012:

Over the years, we have owned 5 Toyota vehicles, the last three being purchased new. The quality and reliability of Toyota is what kept us purchasing your vehicles.

The last purchase was a 2004 Sienna van which was purchased to be a vehicle to use into my retirement. Because of this, we kept the mileage low in the first few years, knowing that we would be doing considerably more travel in retirement. The Sienna now has about 39,000 miles.

Several years ago, Toyota had issued a ZTE notice that the ‘front door check mounting panel’ had been found to be failing, making a ‘popping’ noise, and warranty was extended to 5 years / 100,000 miles because of that known defect. Per the notice sent out, this was done “to assure you that we stand behind our product”.

My Sienna did not have ‘popping’ noise until mid-December, 2011 when it was a loud ‘bang’ when opening and closing the drivers’ door. This was at 36,000 miles. I took the vehicle to the dealer (Magnussen’s Toyota of Palo Alto) and was told by the service adviser that because it was over the 5-year period, the warranty repair had expired.

An appeal for an exception was made to the Customer Relations manager at the dealership, as well as to Customer Relations at Toyota USA. File # 1112142277 was opened with Toyota USA, but was denied.

The price quote from the Magnussen’s body shop was for some $ 3,200.00 for this repair. I believe that if Toyota had acknowledged the problem and acknowledged it could happen in up to 100,000 miles, I should not have to bear this cost just because I had kept the mileage low in the first few years of owning the vehicle.  This does not “assure me” that Toyota stands behind their product.

I look forward to your response that Toyota will stand behind your product and that we can continue to be happy Toyota owners.  It will definitely affect our next car-buying thinking.