2004 Toyota Sienna LE from North America
Summary:
Don't get a Sienna, unless you have money to burn
Faults:
After taking ownership of our van, we noticed a loud squealing sound from one of the belts. I took it to the Toyota dealership and was charged $160, just to look under the hood. The mechanic said that it was the air conditioner belt and that it needed to be changed. I had the belt changed and still had the same noise problem persist.
I took it back and was told that they sprayed it with a lubricant to take noise away. Of course the noise came back, and I then again went back and was not helped at all in quieting the noise. I gave up on having a quiet car.
Then I had the ultimate problem happen... my engine had sludged. My car had only 37000 miles on it and was still under the 50,000 warranty. I contacted the warranty department and was told that my warranty was not going to be honored, due to me not having the oil changed at their "Toyota" facility. I had receipts for timely oil changes at Jiffy Lube, but they would not honor it because I did not take it to them. I was truly disappointed with Toyota and the warranty company. I had no choice but to have them clean the sludge and to charge me $3,000 for it.
Now my air conditioner is not working and was told that it is the compressor. What's next?
General Comments:
I am currently looking for a Honda.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 8th December, 2008
10th Jul 2011, 12:13
Sadly many people are still deceived by what probably was never a true view of imports. Billions in ad hype has created an urban myth in the U.S. that anything made by foreign industry is better. My experience with older imports was all bad, and I refuse to waste my money on newer, even more poorly built ones.
I was very happy this week to see that in comparisons, a leading automotive magazine known for being blatantly biased against domestic vehicles, rated the Ford Focus above the Honda Civic, and recommended it above all import competition. In another comparison, the Chevy Volt was recommended over the Lexus Corolla-based hybrid, in spite of the fact that the Lexus was 10 grand cheaper.
Americans are waking up to the fact that newer domestics are more sophisticated, more reliable, safer and have better build quality than Japanese brands. I've known this all along. None of my domestics has ever required a single repair before 100,000 miles.
8th Jul 2011, 22:33
Our A/C compressor also went out on our 2004 Toyota Sienna at 50k miles. $1500 to repair. Dealer recommended replacing the entire A/C system for $6000, which I declined. Irony; I paid more for the "Toyota" name for false reliability.