I am looking to the forum members to get some feedback on my dilemma.
In early November 2016 I purchased a 2013 Toyota Venza V6 Limited edition from a Honda dealership, which received the car as a trade in for a Honda Odyssey.
At time of purchase the car had 63,000km or 40k miles, the 3 year warranty had just expired, however it still has a 5 year powertrain warranty. Now for some context, we’ve had a 2005 Toyota Matrix XR in our family since brand new, and it has been by far the most reliable vehicle we’ve ever owned. It was my wife’s car originally, but with a newborn we decided to get something that would hopefully be as reliable as the matrix, but with a little more space, here comes the Venza and I now drive the Matrix.
The dealership did the rotors/pads for it pass safety, I bought the car and took it home. There were no issues, however on the same drive back I drove through a bumpy backroad and the venza felt like crap. I drive this same stretch of road with our Matrix and our other cars and nothing felt as loose as the venza. I thought to myself it may be the 20” wheels as that’s a common complaint I read by reviewers of the Venza.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I put my winter tires on, since my wife drives the car I didn’t realize that the looseness continued. The same stretch of road with now 17” wheels felt exactly the same.
Last weekend I decided to deep dive into the front suspension while doing the oil change and swapping over to the summer wheels and I noticed the struts were leaking on both front sides. The top part of the strut was fully rusted and while fully extended the dust cover doesn’t even protect it.
I went on to read on this same forum that this was a common issue with the Camry, which makes no sense. A strut shouldn’t fail within 3-4 years of production. We’ve put 4,000km since we bought the car so it’s not even that much driving.
I’ve contacted the Honda dealer and told them the issue, I truly believe they certified the car with leaking strusts, maybe they didn’t notice, maybe they knew and were hoping I wouldn’t realize it. I really hope it's not the latter. Regardless it’s now almost 5 months since purchase and I highly doubt they will help me out in any way. The sales person said they would look into it and get back to me (this was today).
The bigger underlying issue is that as a long time Toyota customer this is unacceptable, not for a leaking strut on a 3 year old car that’s out of warranty.
Before getting emotionally invested in bringing this up with Toyota Canada, is this even worth the time and effort? I know it’s one of those things where you never know until you try, but with a newborn and everything that comes with that I am ready to just replace all four struts and call it a day. However that leaves a really bad taste in my mouth after having a fantastic Matrix for over a decade.
Do you think this is worth bringing up to Toyota Canada? If so, how would you go about it?
In early November 2016 I purchased a 2013 Toyota Venza V6 Limited edition from a Honda dealership, which received the car as a trade in for a Honda Odyssey.
At time of purchase the car had 63,000km or 40k miles, the 3 year warranty had just expired, however it still has a 5 year powertrain warranty. Now for some context, we’ve had a 2005 Toyota Matrix XR in our family since brand new, and it has been by far the most reliable vehicle we’ve ever owned. It was my wife’s car originally, but with a newborn we decided to get something that would hopefully be as reliable as the matrix, but with a little more space, here comes the Venza and I now drive the Matrix.
The dealership did the rotors/pads for it pass safety, I bought the car and took it home. There were no issues, however on the same drive back I drove through a bumpy backroad and the venza felt like crap. I drive this same stretch of road with our Matrix and our other cars and nothing felt as loose as the venza. I thought to myself it may be the 20” wheels as that’s a common complaint I read by reviewers of the Venza.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I put my winter tires on, since my wife drives the car I didn’t realize that the looseness continued. The same stretch of road with now 17” wheels felt exactly the same.
Last weekend I decided to deep dive into the front suspension while doing the oil change and swapping over to the summer wheels and I noticed the struts were leaking on both front sides. The top part of the strut was fully rusted and while fully extended the dust cover doesn’t even protect it.
I went on to read on this same forum that this was a common issue with the Camry, which makes no sense. A strut shouldn’t fail within 3-4 years of production. We’ve put 4,000km since we bought the car so it’s not even that much driving.
I’ve contacted the Honda dealer and told them the issue, I truly believe they certified the car with leaking strusts, maybe they didn’t notice, maybe they knew and were hoping I wouldn’t realize it. I really hope it's not the latter. Regardless it’s now almost 5 months since purchase and I highly doubt they will help me out in any way. The sales person said they would look into it and get back to me (this was today).
The bigger underlying issue is that as a long time Toyota customer this is unacceptable, not for a leaking strut on a 3 year old car that’s out of warranty.
Before getting emotionally invested in bringing this up with Toyota Canada, is this even worth the time and effort? I know it’s one of those things where you never know until you try, but with a newborn and everything that comes with that I am ready to just replace all four struts and call it a day. However that leaves a really bad taste in my mouth after having a fantastic Matrix for over a decade.
Do you think this is worth bringing up to Toyota Canada? If so, how would you go about it?