Dealer tore the leather on my steering wheel!!

[El Loco VG]

I dropped off my 07 Camry SE at the dealer last week to finally have the recalls and some other stuff done. I picked her up on Friday and they locked my key's in the car so I had to wait a half hour for them to cut a spare, screwed up my plans but what are you going to do at least I got a free spare cut I guess. I'm happy car feels the same with the cut pedal so I park it and don't drive it again until Monday morning. I go to make a U-turn and on the bottom left hand corner I feel some crap on my wheel, when I looked down there where little tiny rip marks in my leather!! I immediatly called the service adviser which holds the title of assistant service manager get his V.M. leave a long detailed message at around 5PM Monday. No reply so I call him today Tuesday at 9AM and get a "Ohh Yeah I heard your V.M. but funny thing is we put a cover over the whee!l" I then E-mailed him 2 pictures from my phone immediately after I got off the phone with him and no reply at all no call back no reply to the e-mail and honestly I think the guy is sort of a dick. I mean I understand that they are busy but he pretty much blew me off and then when I got him on the call pretty much called me a liar. So what do you guy's think I should do? should I try calling him again? should I contact his boss? or just call corporate? The car has less than 20K and the inside except for tints and a dealer installed alarm is purely stock, the steering wheel was definitely not ripped before I gave it to them because I have a steering wheel peeve! My first mod to my 00 Accord back in 02 was to put a perforated leather Acura CL steering wheel on it, and when I first got the wives Rav-4 I sent the steering wheel to that guy in Texas to get it covered so yeah I'm anal about them.

LOOK AT THE SCUFF THAT I JUST DISCOVERED ON MY STEERING WHEEL

[gdanaher]

You can call the national gripe line on Wednesday and explain about what has happened. The steering wheel is expensive to replace and the dealer wants no part of it, but they might fix it to keep you happy and coming back. Failing that, there is likely an upholstery place in your city that can patch it up with vinyl filler material. I once had a Corolla whose steering wheel material separated from the frame well outside of warranty but they replaced it anyway for goodwill.

[Pawel062]

wow pics look pretty bad. i can attest that u didnt have a rip there. we were looking at ur car just a few days ago. was prestige right? call the 1800 number and try to go up the chain there and the dealership.

[JohnGD]

You might want to call the service manager too. That's probably the person controlling the good-will budget.

Then give the Toyota 1-800 line a call.

[El Loco VG]

Yeah at Prestige Toyota Chris Budd is the name of the service guy I dealt with.

[Pawel062]

no connections really. prestige lexus a few.

[SE_Toy]

I work at a toyota dealership. You need to talk to the GM at the dealership or the GSM. Griping to them should get you what you want...

[DrewsCam]

wow thats pretty funny cause i have that exact same problem on my wheel.
Is it at the top of the wheel to the left hand side?

I showed my dealer and they said they would look into it, they took pictures and submitted it to corporate but still no word back so i guess they arent going to do anything

[El Loco VG]

No it's actually on the bottom left hand corner, obviously the tech was squeezing in under the steering wheel to remove the pedal or cut up the floor and rubbed the wheel with a sharp object. Unfortunately the leather on the wheel is stretched out so tight and it's probably not the best quality leather in the world so it easily split.

Originally Posted by DrewsCam

wow thats pretty funny cause i have that exact same problem on my wheel.
Is it at the top of the wheel to the left hand side?

I showed my dealer and they said they would look into it, they took pictures and submitted it to corporate but still no word back so i guess they aren't going to do anything

[DrewsCam]

Originally Posted by El Loco VG

No it's actually on the bottom left hand corner, obviously the tech was squeezing in under the steering wheel to remove the pedal or cut up the floor and rubbed the wheel with a sharp object. Unfortunately the leather on the wheel is stretched out so tight and it's probably not the best quality leather in the world so it easily split.

ahh, well mine looks almost exactly the same just in a different spot
Ill try to take a pic to show you

[Drizzt]

Same thing happened to me last year, think i might have to go with this , the red one http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyot...Q5fAccessories

unless i find something better quality for around the same $$ or cheaper

[GT-R]

Is that the one that u sew it yourself? Pepboys has similar cover for like 10-20 bucks (not slip on).

[Drizzt]

not sure what it is really, i just looked real quick on ebay, but now ill have to check out pep boys tomorrow