Platinum Warranty Issue

[Sawdust]

Hi folks! This is my first post on here and sorry to start it off on a negative note, but would like some feedback.

Have a 2007 with 62,000 miles on it. Bought the car new with the Toyota factory "Platinum" warranty. Last week the airbag light came on and would not go off. As a result, the passenger side airbag was disabled. Took it to the dealer and was informed that Toyota would not cover it under the extended warranty. After some friendly discussion, the dealer service department agreed to eat the cost of fixing it, but Toyota would not budge.

Perhaps I should have been satisfied with that, but it caused me to wonder that if Toyota would deny coverage of this malfunction, what else would they deny and what did my warranty actually cover? (and what did I pay and extra thousand bucks for?) Don't get me wrong, it's been a great car and this is the ONLY warranty claim I've had.

I left the service department and went straight to the business manager who sold me the warranty. He read through the brochure and agreed with me that Toyota SHOULD cover it. When they pursued it further, Toyota's explanation was that the service tech found no defective parts, therefore it was not considered "defective" and not covered. My argument is that the entire system was defective, or I would have had a functioning airbag.

Am I missing something here? Why would Toyota risk alienating a customer by applying such warped logic to deny what amounted to a half-hour of labor charge? Has anyone else had a similar experience with their Toyota warranty?

[firepa63]

Need a little more info. What did the service department do in that half hour to fix the problem?

[Sawdust]

Originally Posted by firepa63

Need a little more info. What did the service department do in that half hour to fix the problem?

Did diagnostics and found a loose connection.

[firepa63]

I have to agree with Toyota that it is not a failed part. However, as a good will gesture, they could have just done what the dealer did and agree to fix it for free.

[Boo]

It would not surprise me if your dealer lied to you or improperly reported the issue to Toyota. I think it's more likely that this happened than for Toyota to deny a claim that's clearly warrantied.

Remember, from my understanding of the Toyota Extended Care Platinum Plan, unless the malfunctioning or broken component is specifically excluded, then it's covered.

If you ever have trouble again during the extended warranty period, you should look over the list of specific exclusions -- and note there's also a list of specific inclusions that you should check out -- and be prepared to argue and press your case. There are some surprises in these lists of exclusions and inclusions. For instance, it's surprising to me that struts and shocks are not specifically excluded and therefore should be covered by the extended warranty.

Sometimes preparing to argue your case will require a little digging on your part. For instance, one PriusChatter reported that his glove box was broken and that his dealer refused to fix it under the extended warranty because the dealer said that the broken part was specifically excluded. But the PriusChatter went back home, checked the list of specific inclusions, which included "glove box assembly", went to a Toyota parts site and saw a diagram of all the parts making up the glove box assembly -- including his broken part -- and went back to his dealer and successfully argued his case.

You might also ask why a dealer might lie to you about warranty coverage if the dealer will get reimbursed from Toyota. However, it is my understanding that a dealer gets reimbursed a lot less from Toyota for warranty work than the dealer could charge the customer if the work was being paid by the customer outside of the warranty. In other words, there is incentive for the dealer to deny that it's covered by the warranty and thereby get paid more money for the repair than he otherwise would under a warranty claim.

[Sawdust]

Originally Posted by Boo

It would not surprise me if your dealer lied to you or improperly reported the issue to Toyota. I think it's more likely that this happened than for Toyota to deny a claim that's clearly warrantied.

Remember, from my understanding of the Toyota Extended Care Platinum Plan, unless the malfunctioning or broken component is specifically excluded, then it's covered.

If you ever have trouble again during the extended warranty period, you should look over the list of specific exclusions -- and note there's also a list of specific inclusions that you should check out -- and be prepared to argue and press your case. There are some surprises in these lists of exclusions and inclusions. For instance, it's surprising to me that struts and shocks are not specifically excluded and therefore should be covered by the extended warranty.

Sometimes preparing to argue your case will require a little digging on your part. For instance, one PriusChatter reported that his glove box was broken and that his dealer refused to fix it under the extended warranty because the dealer said that the broken part was specifically excluded. But the PriusChatter went back home, checked the list of specific inclusions, which included "glove box assembly", went to a Toyota parts site and saw a diagram of all the parts making up the glove box assembly -- including his broken part -- and went back to his dealer and successfully argued his case.

You might also ask why a dealer might lie to you about warranty coverage if the dealer will get reimbursed from Toyota. However, it is my understanding that a dealer gets reimbursed a lot less from Toyota for warranty work than the dealer could charge the customer if the work was being paid by the customer outside of the warranty. In other words, there is incentive for the dealer to deny that it's covered by the warranty and thereby get paid more money for the repair than he otherwise would under a warranty claim.

My question would be why would the dealer service writer lie to me and then agree to eat the cost of the repair? Like I said at the outset, my main concern isn't the few dollars of labor this repair might have cost me, but what Toyota might deny down the road if something more serious goes wrong.

This particular dealer handles both Chrysler and GM as well as Toyota. Both the service writer and the business manager told me emphatically that Toyota is waaay better than the norm for dealing with warranty issues. This one had them scratching their heads as well.

[Sawdust]

Originally Posted by firepa63

I have to agree with Toyota that it is not a failed part. However, as a good will gesture, they could have just done what the dealer did and agree to fix it for free.

Obviously something DID fail or I would have had a working passenger side airbag. Whether it is a part that fails or a system that fails, the result is the same. Unfortunately, it happened to fail on a Saturday when I had to drive home 950 miles with two passengers and all of our luggage. This meant that the front seat passenger was without the benefit of an airbag. When you have a safety restraint system that isn't functioning, the last thing you need is a factory rep quibbling over semantics.