I would def get TMC involved, and demand a replacement vehicle, you shouldn't have to go to a body shop so soon for a defect that came from the factory.

Ok, here is today's update:

I took the car to the Toyota recommended body shop for an estimate. They told me that they would want to replace the entire piece and not try fixing the existing crumpled part.

Here is their list of what the car would need for proper repair:

Replace- Package Tray Reinforcement (so it is in fact structural not aesthetic)
R&I (remove and install)- Trunk Trim/ Weather Stripping
R&I- Package Tray trim and inner quarter trim
R&I- Rear Seat Back
Refn- Rt Quarter/ Trunk Through
Add for Three Stage (not sure what this means)
R&I- Trunk Lid
R&I- Rt Tail Lamp
Color Tint

So basically the shop wants to remove everything in the rear of the car in order to replace the part. They said they have to drill the welds and that they will have to repaint the rain gutter above the trunk as well because they are changing the weld type and that the welds will burn through the bottom of the gutter.

From here, the information will go to the dealer, regional rep, and corporate scion rep. Seeing as this is the only option the body shop offered, I am not excited about this at all. To me, there is a huge difference between factory installed and body shop installed parts. I do not want to have every piece of the trunk removed for this then reinstalled.

I will let everyone know what I hear from Toyota. It sounds like it will be Monday before I hear anything from them, so I am anxious to see what happens.

I feel bad for you man. If they don't follow through on that replacement it would really be a shame. I've had a couple hundred miles added by service techs on mine as they've tried to repair it in the last week. Strangest new car experience I've had.

New car, this is ridiculous. Sheet metal should not be disfigured from the factory.

I have read through the UTAH Lemon Laws now as well. If Toyota doesn't offer vehicle replacement, the car still falls under the Lemon Law because it is in fact a structural defect.

Once again, I will wait for Toyota because I feel like the will do the right thing, BUT I do have my back covered in case for whatever reason this gets ugly.

http://www.carlemon.com/lemon/UT_law.html

If things do get ugly (hopefully not), remember to keep track of the days and hours that the car was disabled. Time is money, as they say. This will help a lot if you end up having to go through an arbitration hearing to take advantage of the lemon law.

I am a bit nervous about the time restraints because the process has been really drawn out by TOYOTA so far (reported on day one, here we are 16 days after purchase or so).

I would get a new car.

No way I am having them tear the rear apart for the issue that you have IMO.

Or do not get it fixed and get free accessories/ upgrade to the car.

I had a friend who had his nearly brand new Mazda 3 wrecked in the rear left quarter panel while it was parked in the snow. Delivery guy was in a Civic or something and couldn't keep traction on the ice, totally ruined the body in that area of the car.

Somehow they were able to replace the entire panel, re-weld it, and even used high heat to re-cure the paint in that section of the car, essentially baking it somehow. The frame was undamaged and there was nothing serious back there (being a FWD car). Basically looked like new again.

I wonder, if they are able to replace the panel on yours and keep the structural integrity while doing a hell of a paint job, you might be alright. I'd definitely leverage the whole situation for some compensation (TRD parts, body kit maybe?). Under most lemon laws they have to have a "reasonable number of attempts" to repair the car before its a total loss.

Yeah I could see if it was an accident that occurred while in my possession, but where this is an OEM defect, I feel strongly that it is a different story. Even with a brand new car in your possession, if you get hit like your friend did, you can usually get diminished value and also get the car totaled out.

Monday I will hear from them and hopefully start getting this taken care of. Definitely feel like I am in limbo here.

Keep in mind body shops can write up a work order and estimate that would best guarantee them a job. They may intentionally leave items out of the work order to keep a car from being total loss and/or set the estimate to be just under total loss, etc. I'm not saying your body shop is like this but I'd be weary. Returning a car to factory condition isn't necessarily their top priority; they are out to make money and can cut corners in such a way that the customer (be it a major Toyota dealership) would never be able to tell from the surface. Mistakes get covered up by liner on the inside and body filler and paint on the outside.

And the adjuster may sound very honest and thorough and sound like they genuinely care. They're not the ones who will work on your car, though. They sell you their repair service and make the customer feel taken care of before, during, and after the (sometimes hacked) job.

Another note: More people nowadays have keen abilities in inspecting a used car when shopping/appraising. They can see if a car has been repainted by looking for distinguishing features in the finish or using a paint thickness gauge. They pry back trunk liners to see signs of panel cutting/welding. If you repair it now and later on down the line have to make a distressed sale at Carmax or something, they'll appraise it as thousands less than if you were to leave it alone. If it were my newly purchased car, cutting it up would not even be an option.

That sounds like they need to repaint as in three stage paint process (base coat, mid coat, clear coat). They likely need to cut a section out from the body and weld in an identical section that does not have the defect. They'll need to paint/blend that section of the body surrounding and including the newly welded in body piece.

Also seems like the adjuster might have used vague terminology so as to not raise a red flag and scare you away. :sigh:

Of course when/if you ever try to sell the car have fun trying to explain this defect to the prospective buyer. Sheeesh. This makes me really concerned about the factory inspection process. In this day and age this type of screw-up should be rare and unacceptable.

Unless I've missed something, I'd consider only one person reporting this problem as rare...