Does Toyota honor their warranty

nope. what did they say when you asked? welcome to priuschat!

 

So I take it the dealership is saying the failure was a result of wear, or abuse and NOT faulty assembly?

The key to getting warranty coverage is determining what caused the plastic under the bumper to come off.

On that new of a vehicle? Yeah, I'd hope Toyota would just cover it with goodwill, and side with the customer.

But they should be communicating some reason to you WHY they aren't covering it under warranty. Then you can politely and calmly debate it with them.

If this happened spontaneously without any provocation? I might call Toyota Customer care and plead your case.

 

Your coverage covers engine parts transmission a battery not body work or undercarriage I think even if you would have got an extended warranty it doesn't not cover body work undercarriage issues tires or brakes or oil changes none of that that's your responsibility sorry to say

 

lol do you want them to cover stone chips and worn tires too?

 

Your GF must have driven through a big puddle or something at a pretty good speed to have the impact rip off underbody panels and wheel well liners.

Tell your GF to slow down when it rains, and to avoid puddles, because you never know how deep they are. Could be inches, or a water filled sink hole.

She's lucky she didn't hydroplane and lose control of the vehicle. An accident or impact with something could've been far worse than what happened.

 

of course i do, don't you?

 

They must have a corporate semanticist (maybe Toyota Jan was a closet English major?) who is insisting on the fine but crucial distinction between a “bumper to bumper” warranty and a “bumper through bumper” warranty. They should just have used interval notation from math....

On the other side of the coin, they figured out an expensive steering part on Gen 1 was a problem and did a warranty extension years after the last one expired ... I got mine replaced something like 7 years and 140,000 miles beyond the (original) end of the warranty, which I thought was a pretty impressive example of standing behind a product.

I'm guessing they have some reason they don't think your bumper failed because of a factory defect.

-Chap

 

Got to be more to the story.........this stuff doesn't just fall/off without reason

 

If you struck something and the plastic panel comes off, Toyota would not warranty that. But for $200 damage, I think you got off easy. Spend the $200 and move on

 

Yep, that's kind of the key to whether it's reasonable to expect warranty coverage or not.
If it was damaged or broken as a result of improper usage...an accident, then Toyota is not responsible.

I have to ask, and I would ask the girlfriend if you're getting the whole story.

I drive through "rain" a lot. That is no reason for parts to fall off the Prius.
If there is no tangible event connected to this failure? Then I think you can argue that perhaps something wasn't connected right since delivery. Why this would take 9 months to manifest? Who knows.

I'll admit I'm suspicious.

As a consumer, I kind of think if what caused the damage is unprovable one way or the other, I'd give the customer the benefit of the doubt. That is fix it under warranty. Even if a percentage of those repairs become freebies.

Because like in this case, it promotes the Toyota product, and instead of a Toyota isn't honoring their warranty thread, you get a Toyota went ahead and fixed my new Prius thread, and I'm buying another. Which IMO is worth more to Toyota than $195.00 repair.

But sure. I buy a new vehicle and drive up on curb, or through a deep puddle at high speed and I do damage to my vehicle? I don't expect Toyota to fix it.

2 weeks after I bought my brand new Honda Fit I was literally driving to the dealership to have some aftermarket extra's installed and a big rock flew up from the highway and chipped my brand new pristine windshield. I was bummed, upset, but did not expect Honda to replace it. Wasn't damage due to defect or negligence...it was just life.

 

Do I have this right?

There is an underpanel forward of the one that has the door for the oil filter. That forward panel also covers the front wheel wells. After 9 months the pushpins or screws that hold the underpanel in place fell out causing the underpanel to drop down & break.

We know the door for the oil filter can drop down & break off. We know a pin can become worn & fall out.

I'd like to know what the car hit & how fast was it going. Is there damage to the bottom edge of the front bumper cover?

 

Just a visual reference, I think these are the pieces: