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Date: November 9, 2004
I took the Tacoma truck - mine - in for warranty repairs. And a lube and oil. 36,000 miles already.
It needed the blower motor (which had whistled at me for a year, the passenger headrest (gouged when they did a detail) and a weather-strip by the gas tank (done twice before).
I also asked them about the missing paint on the nose of the truck. The hood and some at the top above the windshield.
They tried to tell me it was rock chips.
Like I off-road or follow trucks on the city streets I live on. Or the slow freeway I commute on - where I avoid trucks like the plague. Rock chips? Only things I hit are bug swarms in the morning runs to Stanford Hospital over the Dunbarton bridge.
My other cars never had this loss of paint. I've been driving since 1959.
"Oh, you probably didn't notice."
Right. Drove them 100,000 miles and never washed them.
Uh huh.
So I asked, knowing that my older son's Tacoma, beaten to death in years of off-roading activities, shows no such paint damage, (he said he did a clear-coat), if there was anything I could do to prevent worse peeling.
Because no way in hell would they say "cheap paint" or that they would fix it. One guy said his Tacoma lost paint too. (Like that makes me feel any better.)
They said I could put a bra on the truck. They said a clear coat would not help. (Hmmmmm.)
I have put bras on the other truck and the '87 van. The van is merrily growing moss on its "bra". I was told not to "store it on the street" because it had "cobwebs". Right. Park a car for five minutes in Fremont and it will have cobwebs and a yellow jacket nest. I put the van in the driveway - drive it once a week.
Well, it seems that the fancy rounded nose of the 2002 Tacoma truck is such that Toyota has no "bra" made for it. (Don't recommend a third-party bra either.)
The service manager said that the hood deflector I had been eyeing would cause rocks to break my windshield. So did the service advisor.
The parts guy said BS - he used them on his.
This is cute - they can't even agree. They did agree that a clear coat at this late stage was not going to help. (Hmmmm again.)
So I bought one (deflector - $89) and then found out it would be another 30 minutes labor to install (6 clips and 6 screws). I bought one because a windshield is cheaper ($480) than a full body paint job (couple of grand). Because you cannot just paint part of a car. It never matches.
I had them put the deflector in the truck bed. In the $3,000 camper shell. After I read the installation instructions.
My kids and I can, baring any emergency with my younger son (whose counts have dropped yet again), put it on ourselves. (His counts went back up. The deflector is still in the truck, not on it.)
And it will not interfere with the brush-catcher my younger son wants to add. Someday.
I was denied a gratis rental car this time so I waited (I miss Marcus). First of all of course Marcus has left and the service guys don't know me and the new advisors have no recollection of the history of the trucks and van.
Second, I now work walking distance from Piercy Toyota - the first dealer I went to when I was working in San Jose on 1st street back in 1995. I am right down the street from IMP (about 10-12 blocks) and 1 1/2 blocks from Piercy - right behind eBay - who is hiring. Funny - my resume has been in there about 2 years and I never heard a peep.
I had ordered the parts before I started work so --- I had to go back to Sunnyvale.
I asked about moving the repair records to Piercy and was told that the dealers "were not connected" and they "had no way to do that". As a computer scientist, computer programmer, designer, chip person, computer applications user, I find that offensive.
Why on Earth are these guys incapable of transferring the files around if they are all official Toyota dealers?
I am left with no recourse but to print out all my web stories and carry them in with me when I take the car back in for service at the new dealership. Ho ha.
Because, if you are not providing a loaner, I need to be able to walk to work.
I wonder if Toyota has any idea how many stories I have??? Or how bad they can be???? (Them, not the stories.)
Of course, while I was there for 90 minutes and counting, I went to look at the Highlander and got its spec sheet (the woman gave it to me - men usually hand me color swatches).
The hybrid (Prius engine in the SUV) is now scheduled for Feb.
So salesmen came and showed me the 2005 Tacoma (bigger and fancier and not a truck anymore - I can't see this out on a dirt road back at the farm). And then the Sienna (a van that does tricks with its seats and almost replaces the old 87 van - except for the $40,000 price tag). And a few other things (one made the rash remark that "buy the big red Tacoma truck in the showroom and the motorcycle they had strapped into it as a demo comes free" ---- I could have called him on that). The truck bed has a built-in liner - it's the one on TV where they hit it with a sledge hammer.
Funny that. My older son did that to his truck when it was new so he wouldn't have to worry about it. Banged the bejeebers out of the truck bed. Me, I have walked on eggs shells and have only recently picked up a couple of dings and 2-3 scratches - in 2 years. And the peeling paint chips.
And then there is a pad you can add to further protect the truck bed - they had this thick rubber thing under the motorbike. Hmmmm. Could add that to my truck and protect my knees from the liner. Nope. The 2005 truck bed is 3" longer (egad) than my current Tacoma, which was bigger than the one my older son has. (He sulked for 2 days.).
I bring that home and both boys would sulk.
Then another sales guy was getting specs - I said I wanted an extended cab (for when my younger son gets well and takes my current Truck out of my hands). They said, "Access cab" - and then I took a hard look at the big red truck.
It has four doors (no choice) and the back two open with the wind instead of pushing against it. This means, if improperly latched, one could fly open on the freeway and rip itself merrily off. I thought car manufacturers had learned not to do this years ago. Back in the 1950s and 60s. I remember some old cars with that design. They were not successful.
They said, "Oh, all of the cabs are done this way now."
Then I will wait for 2006. When one or two lawsuits remind people that one does not buck the wind in a big truck that can get up to 100 MPH going down the foothills outside LA in the slow lane five minutes out of a McDonald's.
Repaired and operational, I can now wing back and forth to Stanford and the office and home on 1 1/2 tanks of gas a week ($35 a pop). And the bridge toll is now $3 a day. Unless we have early appointments and he is in the car.
My pay cut to go back on salary does not look so hot under the current prices. Must get busy on some other project.
Need the money.
I am still thinking about that van with the magic seats.
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