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Originally Posted by JesseG
This is a ton of good info on a very early build twin. [emoji106] And big props to you for replacing some things on your own because you knew you were putting your car through some extra stress. That to me is exactly what an owner of a sports car should expect to do. [emoji106][emoji106]
The way you talked about the J02 recall makes me think a little differently about it. You are exactly right, it put owners in that VIN range in an extremely difficult position. Don’t get it done, and if you had any engine related issues, it likely wouldn’t be covered by warranty. Get it done, and you ran the risk of something going wrong because of sloppy work. I know some guys/gals had their engine die from oil starvation after the recall was done. That is completely unacceptable, and Toyota/Subaru should have stepped up and taken care of those people. Even if it meant putting them in a newer model year car. I miss the days of real customer service and care. What would Lexus do in that situation? Most likely bend over backwards to help the customer. Toyota should do the same. It’s almost like a bunch of people were punished for supporting this car from the very beginning.
Your attitude about all of it is awesome, seriously. I can tell you love the car’s merits enough to move past all of those issues. And most of the issues weren’t anything too bad at all. The valve spring recall fiasco is the one big blemish on the early twins. From what I understand it was due to faulty parts provided to Toyota and Subaru, but they should have taken care of their customers better.
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Thanks! I do think people need to step up and take responsibility for their actions. If you go to the track and stuff breaks as a result, that's on you.
But it goes both ways. If you're a huge corporation like Toyota or Subaru and you know that owners' engines have oil starved due to poor sealant application from your recall campaign (which you knew would be mandated in one state that's one of your largest markets), you should step up and fully cover the affected owners.
1. It was Subaru's supplier issues that caused the valve springs to fail. They chose and vetted that supplier. Subaru likely received a huge monetary settlement or judgment against that supplier as well, which is being used to cover this recall campaign.
2. As large global corporations, Subaru/Toyota are in a better position to replace an engine (even with a used one) than any individual owner.
3. From a marketing perspective, the 86/BRZ was supposed to be Toyota/Subaru's passion project. The first adopters are the ones who took the risk to buy the car early on (and it was a commercial success that first year). Would be bad form IMO to leave those same owners out to dry.
4. This car may be majority Subaru built, but Toyota has a reputation for quality/longevity and put their name on the car. They should take (or have taken) the necessary steps to make sure the car met their quality standards.
For those reasons I think in any case where an engine fails within a year or two (or 10-20k miles) after getting the recall done, Toyota/Subaru should at the very least give the owner the benefit of the doubt and either partially cover the repair or offer a used engine replacement. I've already seen a few instances on this forum where the dealership and Toyota corporate have told the owner to pound sand which leaves a bad taste in my mouth about buying another Toyota product, to say the least.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tcoat
Let's clarify some points on the valve springs.
The cars were recalled after most were already out of warranty due to miles or time. If anything except a spring broke they would not have been covered anyway.
The recall does not have an expiry date so if you broke a valve spring even years later THAT part of the repair and associated damage would have been covered under the recall warranty. The only place forced into the work was California so everybody else could have just left things alone and had repairs done if they actually broke a spring. I know of 2 people reporting broken springs on here and one of them had a story that was dubious at best.
The failures after the repairs were most certainly caused by bad application of the sealant, that is indisputable.
The number of people that were affected however is debatable.
There was a sheet here that showed about 60 people that had failures. For the sake of argument let's say the total was someplace around 10 times that number as that would seem realistic.
The majority of the people reporting here did indeed have the dealership take responsibility and have the repairs done at no cost. It was a relatively small number that had dealerships decline the repairs.
The class action suit that so many screamed for has a grand total of 6 (yes, six) names on it so the numbers are not near as bad as reading all the posts would seem. It is a classic case of hearing the bad news over and over until it seems like that was all there was when reality showed that the good news stories were actually more common. People with no problems rarely scream it around the internet.
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I agree with the above, but will add that Toyota/Subaru shouldn't be leaving any individual owners out to dry. You never know if that's going to be you next.