Hello, I have a 2018 Toyota Camry SE with 70,000 miles, with an 8-Speed Automatic Transmission. I bought this vehicle from my local Toyota Dealership at 30,000 miles, test drove it, and everything seemed fine. Ever since then, the transmission has been a nightmare. It will randomly lunge forward, jerk the car back and forth repeatedly, and sometimes I will have 3 to 4 seconds of dead acceleration. It does this especially when driving through town, with stop signs or lights. (Example - Light is red, I slow 10-15 miles and it turns green. I accelerate, and the car lunges forward harshly, and proceeds to shift very rough). I have taken the car to my Toyota dealership, and have received answers such as "We have installed new software, hopefully that helps" and "They just shift a little bit rough, it's something you will get used too". My main question would be, is there ANYTHING else I can do at this point? I probably won't be able to trade it in, due to the high milage, as I have to drive a long distance (about 60 miles a day) to work. Do you believe contacting Toyota directly might help me? Or do you believe that would be a waste of time? I appreciate any help you might can offer.
No not a waste of time! Contact Toyota customer service and tell them how unhappy you are with your purchase. Say that you were really excited about owning a Toyota, and that you feel really let down by this car.
The dealer will just try to get rid of you. But the corporate folks are a little more concerned with customer appreciation. Don't let the 1st agent talk you down either. Get a manager if you need to.
Just to set your expectation, there may not BE a fix. So before you call , come up with an idea of what you might want as compensation. (maybe free service for a while?)
You: "[I]test drove it, and everything seemed fine. Ever since then, the transmission has been a nightmare."
Ah, … I bet your car has a sport mode, … and you tested it in sport mode! Yes? I tested recently a ‘21 RAV 4 - 8 speed transmission: … sales guy kept switching the mode to sport as he was sitting in passenger seat while I was driving. (Test car had only 35 km on the clock when turned over the, … er, pushed a start button, btw.) Finally, … finally I ordered him to just stop it. He did. And guess what? Transmission started to act like crap being set to a normal mode, …
Anyway, it appears Toyota has a big, big problem with that no longer so new UA80E (2wd) / UA80F (AWD/4WD), et.al. transmission, … since it ain’t fixed yet in most current Toyota model crop. Pity, …
F.S.
Watch Scotty's latest Toyota video from today. Very relevant.
I don't think contacting Toyota directly will help you. It will probably drive a long time like that. They make these sacrifices to increase fuel economy and such. 8 speeds means the engine is more efficient more often so yeah. It will probably run forever doing those hard shifts, but those 8 speeds are still too new to know. If it becomes too bad they will probably start a service campaign and offer free repairs, and if that's the case you will get a letter in the mail telling you to take your car to the dealership.
@cjbman
THEIR reasons for the problem don't interest me. When I pay a large sum of money, I expect a car that shifts smoothly. The company needs to know when they make crap.
You are right I was just saying that they likely wouldn't be able to fix the problem.
@cjbman
well they need to do something. I wouldn't let them just take my money and run.