Bizarre request from my Toyota dealership

huh? I never heard of this. Please keep us updated on this.

 

um, that's fishy. distrbingly so.

toyota wants the failed parts back, not the good parts that were used to replace the failed parts...

call up the customer service number. or ask the dealer to provide you a number for you to call to verify the situation. you want to know exactly why and who is asking and everything. every detail.

edit: actually, we would recommend not going in until you verify what's going on.

 

I, too, would ask a lot more questions before I give them the car.

 

There was an issue with 2000 MY Honda Odysseys and their door latches. After a trio of recalls, they wanted some of the customers who got their door latches replaced early on to bring the vans back so they could replace the latches again, just to be sure.

I guess there was some quality control issue with how the supposed-good latches were assembled. Peace of mind, maybe?

 

No way I'd hand the car over with that kind of vague request. How can they justify the inconvenience to you, if nothing else? This makes no sense at all. Please get back to the service guy who contacted you and let him know that you'd like to know *exactly* what the hell is going on before you bring the car in.

Did they put some faulty part in your car that they desperately want back out?
Did they mistakenly put a 24k gold-plated part in there instead of the plastic one?
Do you live in Bermuda?

All too crazy!

 

One more vote to DEMAND FULL DETAILS. Specifics: Exactly what parts. Written verification from Toyota direct to you. Full reasons for the request. This sounds suspicious to me.

Alternative: Swap you even for a new Prius, same specifications and options as you have now, then do whatever they wish with yours.

 

still doesn't make sense. sounds like he told you the same thing you posted in the original post, worded a little differently. there are no serial numbers on parts, and no way of tracking if one defective part was made where it is and what car it's in so that's not the case. further, california doesn't just have dealers call up customers and ask for parts out of their cars. something's still sounding suspicious. maybe the dealer's trying to cover their own butt for something shady? who knows.

i'd ask to talk to "them" in california to get the straight story.

 

Could this have anything to do with the brake light recall? Maybe they put the wrong part in by mistake, and increased your risk and their liability.

 

The request does sound kind of weird, but as an engineer for a Japanese firm (in the US), I actually think it is pretty normal, for engineers back in Japan, to request the US counterparts (US engineers, technicians, customers) to furnish more tangiable, physical evidence, so the guys in Japan needn't try to duplicate the problems or make any assumptions. It's simply good engineering, but probably awful marketing. And we all know, Japanese are not the smoothest marketers out there. They haven't call hybrid a "Real American Revolution" yet. Imagine what Ford, GM and DC would call their hybrid if they ever get serious with it.

If I am in your shoes, I would ask the tech to put me in touch with the Toyota engineers who made the request, so I can better understand what their interest is in your car/parts. Moreover, it's a great way to get to know Toyota and what's coming. Just like the guy in CA who Honda invited to test the fuel cell Civic. He was invited becasue he gave Honda a lot of feedback, and of all the American Honda drivers, he was the one chosen to drive the fuel cell Civic. Wouldn't you want to be the test driver/case study for the new plugin Prius?