[patelike]

An open letter to Toyota & Darcars
I am the embarrassed owner of one of your fine vehicles. In fact it is suppose to be the most reliable car made the Corolla. When I went shopping in 2006 for a new car, I used this knowledge and your reputation of building a quality product to make the purchase of this car. I have owned well over a dozen cars in the past 40 years and have had repeated experience with cars that have been very reliable and lasting. On service and accommodation, I find the staff at Darcars of Frederick very helpful and friendly. For the first three years of owning my Corolla it performed as well as any car I have owned. I drive a lot of highway miles and it appeared to be living up to its reputation as reliable and a quality purchase.

Over the last ten months, I have had to replace the transmission, clutch, the onboard computer and today I am told the exhaust system/converter needs replacing. When looking at the cost estimate for that replacement, I would be looking at expenses totaling $7,000 for the last 10 months plus the monthly car payment of $340.00. This car cost $17K+/- at purchase. I have never had to put so much money into a car that is still being paid off. As I told the service people, if I did not still owe money on it, I would junk it.

I have owned several cars considered below the quality standards of Toyota that performed much better and were not nearly as costly. When looking at this car, I had been thinking about buying a VW Jetta Turbo-Diesel based on my daughter’s good experience with her Jetta. However, I thought the cost of that car made the Corolla a better more prudent purchase. Well the past 10 months has proven that wrong. Her Jetta is really out performing the Corolla. Speaking of that, the Jetta fuel mileage makes this Corolla look like an SUV. I had a good experience with a Mazda Product that gave me 200K on the same clutch and transmission. I should have looked at the Mazda 3; I believe that is comparable to your Corolla.

As you can imagine, I am completely disguised with this Corolla. I am in disbelief that the worst car I have ever owned is this Toyota Corolla. This idea is really incredible when you realize I owned a Ford Pinto. Finally, this letter is not the first one to Toyota on my dissatisfaction with this car. The corporate reply on my dissatisfaction is that it met the warranty standards of Toyota. Well that tells me that my standards exceed Toyota’s or at least my experience with other cars has set higher standards. Based on that notion you have problems far beyond sticking gas pedals and floor mats.