Dear Mr CEO of Auckland City Toyota,

Dear Mr CEO of Auckland City Toyota,

Small people matter too

I know cars, particularly second hand cars, more particularly Japanese imported second hand cars will always have the possibility of problems.  But having previously owned five Japanese imported second hand vehicles before I considered my purchasing one more would be as safe a purchase as any motor vehicle purchase can be.

So earlier this year I purchased a 2007 Japanese imported second-hand Toyota motor vehicle, not from an Auckland City Toyota yard but from a general, well known Auckland City car dealership.  A 2007 Toyota Mark 4 Zio.  A fairly standard 5 door sedan.

I chose to purchase a Toyota import as not only is the brand Toyota is seen as reliable and trustworthy but because I had owned 5 other Toyota vehicles over the past 20 years and never had a problem with them.  Choosing a reliable vehicle was critical as I am widowed, a pensioner and had recently moved from Auckland to Taupo and needed the mental reassurance that owning a good, standard and reliable car was imperative.

For a number of years I had utilised the Grey Lynn branch (Giltraps then) as my regular service provider for my Toyota vehicles and had was always totally happy and satisfied with all the workshop servicing over the years.

Was in Auckland on Saturday 5 August when dashboard warning lights in my Toyota flashed on, along with an audible warning beep. First thought was brake fluid as light looked similar to break warning lights I had seen on other vehicles. Checked brake fluid, it was fine. This concerned me greatly as not only was it one light, but 3 different light messages, some in Japanese script - and seemed to only occur when the vehicle was turn to the left or right.

I was due to return to Taupo the following day but did not wish to do so with these warning lights, so I did what I thought was a most sensible thing - immediately drove to your Grey Lynn branch.  The 'experts' in Toyota.

The service person, Janette, was friendly and professional and asked the Saturday mechanics to look at the vehicle.  The first thought the mechanic had was to check the brake fluid - told him I had but he rechecked to make sure it was fine.  It was. So he took it into the workshop to investigate further.

It took them some time to come to a conclusion as to what the problem was and had Janette inform me the warning lights and sound was the Vehicle Stability Control warning, which made sense as one of the lights was showing VSC; they did not have the manpower or resources to remedy the problem at the time and suggested I booked it in for an official repair during the week, and suggested it was not taken on any long drives until it was remedied. 

I was due to return to Taupo the next day but was certainly going to take the advice of the professionals so with much juggling among family members managed to organise another vehicle to use to return to my home in Taupo and booked my vehicle in for 9 a.m. the following Thursday.

At 5 a.m. that Thursday I left Taupo, drove to where I had left the Toyota then battled the Auckland peak hour traffic to have it at the mechanical shop at 9 a.m.

Janette informed me she would telephone me as soon as the job was completed.  I was on foot, had no alternative transport so relied on my feet to fill in the day until I was able to pick the vehicle up and return to Taupo that evening.

An hour later received a phone call from Janette - the mechanics would need it for 2 days to repair the problem.

I enquired, why for 2 days?  Was told the mechanics had not worked on this particular model before and need to source a manual to read up what was wrong.  I asked if they were waiting to download a manual from Toyota why would that take 2 days and, if it was going to take overnight to download this information why could I not use the car overnight while they did that.  I confess to being somewhat intrigued they would have to do this.  After all, whilst there are not many Toyota Mark 4 Zio around, it still seemed like a fairly standard Toyota.

Then I couldn't help but think, hang on, this is Toyota, dealers who sell new and second hand imported Japanese vehicles and have done for decades, yet it would take them overnight to source a manual, via a website?  For they brand of vehicle they specialise in? 

Another problem for me was that the vehicle is in Grey Lynn, my only Auckland accommodation was in Conifer Grove in Takanini, in South Auckland - mega miles away and I was on foot literally wandering the streets of Auckland to fill in time while the vehicle was repaired.  Walking to Conifer Grove was going to be one long walk. 

Janette's response was to go talk to the mechanics.  I kept walking around the city, for a few more hours, waiting, merely filling in the time.  Mid afternoon, I receive a call that the car was fixed and ready to collect, that the Vehicle Stability Control problem was all fixed.  Hurrah!

I walked the many kilometres back to the garage, paid the account, thanked Janette, got in car all reassured and headed onto the Southern Motorway in the peak hour traffic. 

Within minutes the warning light comes up.  Same light.  As does the same Japanese script.  Same audible beeps.  Get to my Takanini destination safely, but worried and had to wait until the next day to ring service office, again, to tell Janette the vehicle stability control light, the Japanese script and the audible beep still coming on.

I could not return the vehicle that day as had to return to Taupo.  As there now seemed no urgency regarding what was inferred to as a computer glitch, I booked the vehicle in for 2 weeks ahead, Thursday 31 August.  And the next day returned to my Taupo home, with the light still going, but the audible beep had stopped.

I returned to Auckland early on the 31st and took the vehicle back into the shop.  Then yet again walked the city all day whilst awaiting word for when I could return to pick it up. 

At 3 p.m. received a phone call - they have yet to fix the car as were waiting for a Japanese interpreter to come and decipher what the warning message is.

My first thought, again, was - you've had 2 weeks' notice this vehicle was coming back for the same problem, why could you have not done the research or 'Japanese interpreter' organising before today?

Then, you're a Japanese motor vehicle importing company.  Yet have no one in your company who can read Japanese?  Really?  

And it's now 3 p.m. and you are only ringing me now to let me know that you've just got onto it?

Next thought was - why do you need a Japanese interpreter to 'go in'?  Why could you not take a photo of the message and send to someone who reads Japanese?  Again, you are an importer of Japanese vehicles after all.  I bite the tongue.  I am hamstrung and vulnerable being in Auckland and on foot. I tell Janette I am on foot, filling in time waiting for the vehicle to be fixed. 

She says she will keep me updated. 15 minutes later get another phone call from Janette - the mechanics have fixed warning light problem but inform me that after all this time they learnt that the Japanese message says it needs oil. Really?  In all the many vehicles I have owned, mostly Japanese models, whenever there is a problem with oil the warning light shows up with a picture of an oil can.  This light had no oil can.  Was this particular model the only model Toyota make that does not have the basic oil can picture for the oil warning system?

And, you mean for the three times the vehicle had now been in the shop no one had checked something so basic as the oil? I hadn't checked it myself as it was newly serviced when purchased in January so never considered that oil would be the issue. Plus, there was no picture warning showing an oil can.

Janette's question, 'would I like them to oil service it .... ? .... for $260?

Did I have a choice? No I didn't.  I had driven up from Taupo twice to have this 'Vehicle Stability Control' problem fixed, now I am being told that it wasn't Vehicle Stability Control at all that I had paid to have fixed on the previous occasion;  that the warning was for low, or no oil.  I feel annoyed that I had driven it to Taupo and back when an oil warning was up. Yet no one had checked the oil.

Am now concerned, very concerned, re any possible long term damage of driving with little, or maybe no oil?

And, am being told to do an oil service it will cost $260 - but what about the Vehicle Stability problem?  Is that still a problem?  Was that merely a computer glitch, despite the light showing VSC?   Am I now expected to be charged to fix the vehicle stability light which they said they'd fixed before. Yet wasn't?  But was it? 

I'm stranded in Auckland, for the second time.  I have no one to seek further advice from.  I am hamstrung.  Of course I need oil.  Of course I realise I have to pay for the oil change?  But what happens now to the car if it has been driving oil-less due to no one knowing or understanding what the warning lights were, even though they were the 'experts' on Toyotas?  And as a motorist I had done the right thing as soon as the warning lights came on - took it to the experts.

There was some subdued, and natural frustration vented on my part.  Yes, please do the oil and let me know when I can walk the kilometres back to the dealership to pick up the vehicle. 

5 minutes later a mechanic calls me, and repeats the same story about the vehicle having no oil.  I inform him I have already been told this.  He apologises and gets off phone fairly quickly.

I walk back to the service centre at 5.30 p.m.  Your service manager then begins to educate me on the possible long term damage that running a car on no oil can cause.  I let him show me all the pictures and he explains it very well.  I did not need the explanation, I have owned and driven many cars in my 65 years - I used to own my own vehicle fleet for my own business of tour guiding business.  My deceased father was a mechanic.  I know what driving a car with no oil does. 

But he thought he was being helpful, I appreciated that.  When he had finished I asked the obvious questions.  "This is the third time this vehicle has been in the workshop for this warning light problem - I was told it was Vehicle Stability Control - I paid to have that fixed - and it apparently wasn't because the same warning lights came up - and now told it wasn't that after all but low or no oil; therefore during these visits why is it that no mechanic did the most basic thing and check the oil?"  Surely that would be one of the first things to check?  The mechanic originally checked for brake fluid but not for oil.

There was no answer to that.  He did offer for me to return the vehicle after a thousand kilometers and they would check it for me to see if there was any obvious damage.  I did ask him to explain how they would do that and what signs would they be looking for.  I needed to know myself.  It would mean having to call into the workshop on another visit to Auckland, which would be well over 1,000 kilometres.

I paid the account, got into my car somewhat flummoxed, irritated, annoyed and sadly disappointed.  Yes, every business has one customer a week whose job they've maybe not handled too well.  When one is a female, 65 years old one feels somewhat vulnerable and possibly 'taken for a ride'. 

I drive back to Taupo the next day.  Still somewhat disappointed and disgruntled after sharing the story with a number of friends who, as friends do, come up with wise words of post-event wisdom that really are of no help whatsoever.

All was fine with the vehicle on the drive back, no warning lights, no beeps, not engine seizure from running it on lack of oil.  Heart in mouth I arrived back without incident.  Once in Taupo I use the vehicle very little, but keep checking the oil level to make sure it is OK.  I had to return to Auckland three days ago.  All was fine until my return journey on Sunday when I was half way home - guess what? - the warning lights and audible beep comes on again.

Same lights.  With less beeps.  How come?  I was told by the experts those lights were for oil, yet I'd just spent $260 to have new oil put in - so was my engine finally seizing?  I stopped the vehicle at my earliest and safest pull off area and checked the oil again.  It was fine.  I had no option but to keep driving, and hoping, and praying that this really was just a computer glitch and there was nothing major going to happen to me.  I drove very modestly.  I arrive home safely.  Next morning start the car, no warning lights.  At all. 

So - what do I do now?  I like the car.  I cannot see I should get rid of it if the problem with the lights in merely a glitch.  But I need to know whether it is just a glitch or not.  For the 3 trips to the workshop I paid for what? 

If I had been told at the outset that no one can fathom what the problem was, I would have happily been patient and waited until someone actually did analyse correctly exactly what these warning signs were - rather than have the 'professionals' guess that it must be Vehicle Stability Control, then, when that didn't work, guess it must be no oil. 

What do I now do?

I write to the CEO - so that I have this lodged now - not as a complaint, but as a form of enlightenment of a problem so that if something major, or dangerous does occur, I know I have done the right thing and written a full report on what has happened;  thereby the onus is back on the workshop.