On May 20th 2015 I experienced a sudden engine revving. While stopped at the intersection of Skibo and Louise St. I heard a sudden revving from my engine. My foot was firmly on the brake. I looked in the side view mirror when I noticed smoke coming from the spinning left rear tire. I shifted the transmission into neutral and the rpms revved even more. I turned off the engine. When I restarted the engine it ran normally.
I was aware that there had been reported cases of sudden acceleration in some Toyota models. I tried to rationalize how it might have been my fault since I did have two layers of floor mats on the front floor. I removed the carpet mat leaving only the rubber Weather Tech mat. I continued driving the vehicle without a re-occurrence until June 13th 2015.
After leaving home that afternoon I stopped at the intersection of Shadow St. and Bailey Lake Road when I experienced a second revving event. I immediately shifted the transmission to neutral and turned the vehicle off. When I restarted the truck it ran normally. This time I knew there was no way I was responsible for the events so I immediately drove to Rick Hendrick Toyota. When I arrived, Nelson Rodriguez and service advisor Jonathan Felix greeted me. I described the events. They both were very attentive and concerned. I scheduled an appointment for 7am Monday June 15, 2015. I left the truck. The service department was unable to recreate the problem. When I called Jonathan, he told me they had called Toyota Corporation. Toyota is sending a trouble shooter to examine my truck.
*120 similar occurrences for Tacoma reported
The technicians at Rick Hendrick Toyota under the instructions of the Toyota Service Trouble Shooter performed an extensive test drive that involved electronic monitoring. Toyota’s response to my problem was that since they could not reproduce the problem the vehicle is fine and ready for pick-up. I begged to differ. They removed my Weather Tech floor mats and reinstalled the original carpet mats. I know that the floor mats had nothing to do with either of the events. The Weather Tech mats have been in my truck four rears. If the floor mats somehow were responsible I would have had an occurrence before now. When the second event occurred I immediately inspected the position of the floor mat and it was in place and not in contact with the accelerator.
Jonathan Felix called me back and gave me the Toyota Corporate Office phone number 1-800-331-4331. Jonathan told me that Randy recommended that I call in person. I placed a call to Toyota Corporate and described my situation to a customer service representative named Miyuki. Miyuki took copious notes about the incident. I fully described both instances as written above. I was assigned the following case number (1506160486). Miyuki told me that I would be contacted by a case worker within one business day. When Miyuki asked me what I wanted the outcome of this to be; I told her I wanted my truck issue addressed and remedied and that in the mean time I wanted the use of a comparable vehicle.
I just got off the phone from a very heated conversation with Corporate Toyota (800-331-4331). The representative (John Ashby) told me that this is totally in the hands of the dealer (Rick Hendrick Toyota). He had called and left Randy Niebold (Rick Hendrick Toyota Service Manager) a message to that effect. The corporate representative told me that since there was no formal recall for my truck dealing with this problem they would take no action. I told him if I wanted to trade the truck in would Toyota in good faith sell it to someone else knowing what they know about my vehicle. I do not remember him responding. He told me my only option was to go pick up the vehicle. I asked him if this was a member of his family that he knew was telling the truth would he give the same advice? He responded yes. At that I point I told him he was lying and that our conversation was over and I hung up.
I next went to Rick Hendrick Toyota to further discuss the situation with them. My conversation began with a very respectful and sympathetic Jonathan Felix. I related to him my conversation with John Ashby. I then related the same information to Nelson Rodriguez. Jonathan or Nelson called Randy to get involved in the conversation with me. I told him of my experience with John Ashby and he regretted it had been so unproductive on my behalf. Randy was quite disappointed in John’s lack of interest in helping me resolve the problem and telling me my only recourse was through the dealer. We agreed that this would throw the bad guy hat on the dealership. I told Randy I had no animosity towards Rick Hendrick Toyota but that I was very disappointed in the corporate response. Randy expressed great concern for my safety. Randy told me that they had been somewhat scolded for doing as much for me as they had. The technicians at Rick Hendrick Toyota under the instruction and consultation of the Toyota Service Trouble Shooter performed an extensive test drive that involved electronic monitoring. They were told that if they couldn’t reproduce the problem in house that they should simply return the vehicle to me.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
On May 20th 2015 I experienced a sudden engine revving. While stopped at the intersection of Skibo and Louise St. I heard a sudden revving from my engine. My foot was firmly on the brake. I looked in the side view mirror when I noticed smoke coming from the spinning left rear tire. I shifted the transmission into neutral and the rpms revved even more. I turned off the engine. When I restarted the engine it ran normally.
I was aware that there had been reported cases of sudden acceleration in some Toyota models. I tried to rationalize how it might have been my fault since I did have two layers of floor mats on the front floor. I removed the carpet mat leaving only the rubber Weather Tech mat. I continued driving the vehicle without a re-occurrence until June 13th 2015.
After leaving home that afternoon I stopped at the intersection of Shadow St. and Bailey Lake Road when I experienced a second revving event. I immediately shifted the transmission to neutral and turned the vehicle off. When I restarted the truck it ran normally. This time I knew there was no way I was responsible for the events so I immediately drove to Rick Hendrick Toyota. When I arrived, Nelson Rodriguez and service advisor Jonathan Felix greeted me. I described the events. They both were very attentive and concerned. I scheduled an appointment for 7am Monday June 15, 2015. I left the truck. The service department was unable to recreate the problem. When I called Jonathan, he told me they had called Toyota Corporation. Toyota is sending a trouble shooter to examine my truck.
*120 similar occurrences for Tacoma reported
The technicians at Rick Hendrick Toyota under the instructions of the Toyota Service Trouble Shooter performed an extensive test drive that involved electronic monitoring. Toyota’s response to my problem was that since they could not reproduce the problem the vehicle is fine and ready for pick-up. I begged to differ. They removed my Weather Tech floor mats and reinstalled the original carpet mats. I know that the floor mats had nothing to do with either of the events. The Weather Tech mats have been in my truck four rears. If the floor mats somehow were responsible I would have had an occurrence before now. When the second event occurred I immediately inspected the position of the floor mat and it was in place and not in contact with the accelerator.
Jonathan Felix called me back and gave me the Toyota Corporate Office phone number 1-800-331-4331. Jonathan told me that Randy recommended that I call in person. I placed a call to Toyota Corporate and described my situation to a customer service representative named Miyuki. Miyuki took copious notes about the incident. I fully described both instances as written above. I was assigned the following case number (1506160486). Miyuki told me that I would be contacted by a case worker within one business day. When Miyuki asked me what I wanted the outcome of this to be; I told her I wanted my truck issue addressed and remedied and that in the mean time I wanted the use of a comparable vehicle.
I just got off the phone from a very heated conversation with Corporate Toyota (800-331-4331). The representative (John Ashby) told me that this is totally in the hands of the dealer (Rick Hendrick Toyota). He had called and left Randy Niebold (Rick Hendrick Toyota Service Manager) a message to that effect. The corporate representative told me that since there was no formal recall for my truck dealing with this problem they would take no action. I told him if I wanted to trade the truck in would Toyota in good faith sell it to someone else knowing what they know about my vehicle. I do not remember him responding. He told me my only option was to go pick up the vehicle. I asked him if this was a member of his family that he knew was telling the truth would he give the same advice? He responded yes. At that I point I told him he was lying and that our conversation was over and I hung up.
I next went to Rick Hendrick Toyota to further discuss the situation with them. My conversation began with a very respectful and sympathetic Jonathan Felix. I related to him my conversation with John Ashby. I then related the same information to Nelson Rodriguez. Jonathan or Nelson called Randy to get involved in the conversation with me. I told him of my experience with John Ashby and he regretted it had been so unproductive on my behalf. Randy was quite disappointed in John’s lack of interest in helping me resolve the problem and telling me my only recourse was through the dealer. We agreed that this would throw the bad guy hat on the dealership. I told Randy I had no animosity towards Rick Hendrick Toyota but that I was very disappointed in the corporate response. Randy expressed great concern for my safety. Randy told me that they had been somewhat scolded for doing as much for me as they had. The technicians at Rick Hendrick Toyota under the instruction and consultation of the Toyota Service Trouble Shooter performed an extensive test drive that involved electronic monitoring. They were told that if they couldn’t reproduce the problem in house that they should simply return the vehicle to me.
- Gerald I., Fayetteville, NC, US