Nathan S

Poor customer service with car problems

Purchased a brand new Black Edition Rav4, but have had the car in repair garage for nearly 8 out of the 30 months owned due to repairs for theft damage due to the poor quality of Toyota Rav4 model sold which was stolen twice even with a Steering Wheel Lock attached as recommended by Toyota GB. According to the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods must be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose. For an expensive £34,000 car which was the top trim, advertised in the owner's manual with double locking systems and intrusion alarms, allowing thieves to access to the CAN bus via headlights and steal the car within 60 seconds in of unsatisfactory quality. The fact Toyota have encrypted the CAN bus in later models, as well as issued a theft statement after the BBC One Watchdog report is Toyota admitting a fault. Toyota were knowingly selling cars with a security issue as they were aware of the issue from 2017 onwards. I contacted John Roe to resolve the matter reasonably. I spoke with Daniel Bird, the general manager, to discuss. He told me that if his car was stolen, he would never like to see the car again, implying to not use Toyota's tracking in MyToyota app, and to push the costs onto insurers as 'that is what I pay them for'. He was saying this was Toyota's problem to deal with theft. The Consumer Rights Act clearly states the buyer's rights are against the retailer, not the manufacturer, but he kept saying he would ask Toyota and I should talk to Toyota. I asked for a reasonable price for John Roe to buy the car from me as an amicable way to resolve the matter, and to contact me on Monday the next week. I received no call or message, so I rang on Wednesday to inquire on what the price would be. Daniel gave me HPI prices of £24,000, as he could only 'put the car onto the forecourt at £29,000', even though John Roe was listing similar cars at £30,000 - £31,000. John Roe Group in their latest annual statement on Company House made a before-tax profit of £1.7 million. After making a profit selling me a new car, the greed of making another £5,000 worth of profit for a car that has been sitting in a repair shop for 8 months where I cannot use it is appalling. Daniel said that my car was a lower spec car, so maybe thats why its a low price, even though when I bought it, the black edition trim was the most expensive trim I could purchase! The customer service of John Roe as well of Toyota is non-existent. The annual statement of John Roe says a key risk is the quality of new vehicle products. The fact that Toyota/Lexus is now spoken of in the same conversation as Land Rover due to security and theft says a lot about the loss of reputation in Toyota as a brand. John Roe proudly says they are a family-run business, and rather than inviting customers to buy a car from us, instead ask you to be part of the family, is just clearly wrong!