califteacher
Member
My wife and I purchased a 10-year, 125,000 mile Platinum extended warranty from Toyota for our Rav4 EV. While I am sure that it will "save our bacon" at a given point, it certainly fell short in terms of towing our disabled vehicle.
Last week, our Rav4EV began shuddering and vibrating when put into forward or reverse--definitely not driveable. We bought the EV new at Tustin Toyota, which unfortunately is 54 miles from our home. When I called Toyota Roadside Service to arrange towing of the vehicle to the dealer for repair, I was told that they would only tow the vehicle ten miles--the distance to Temecula Toyota, which doesn't work on EV's. That wouldn't do us any good. Although I explained the situation, and one agent even tried to override the system, nothing worked. We don't fit into Toyota's "formula." I also tried the regular roadside service through Service Connect, and was told the same thing. I was told that the 3rd party towing service would likely charge $9-11 per mile after the ten-mile point, and a charge for the truck to return to its home base, empty. In other workds, it would cost us several hundred dollars to get our EV to the dealer, for something that is likely a warrenty issue.
(I did ask at AAA, and found that we are only covered for 7 miles of towing. We have since upgraded our membership to the next level, which will cover 100 miles of towing, but have to wait seven days for that to kick in.)
Someone at Toyota corporate is working on this for us, but this should have been taken care of sooner. The fact that Toyota Roadside will tow you to the nearest Totota dealer doesn't do EV owners any good if the nearest dealer does not work on EV's.
Any thoughts on the towing issue? The mechanical problem is a whole other issue to be addressed--Jeez!
Brian
Last week, our Rav4EV began shuddering and vibrating when put into forward or reverse--definitely not driveable. We bought the EV new at Tustin Toyota, which unfortunately is 54 miles from our home. When I called Toyota Roadside Service to arrange towing of the vehicle to the dealer for repair, I was told that they would only tow the vehicle ten miles--the distance to Temecula Toyota, which doesn't work on EV's. That wouldn't do us any good. Although I explained the situation, and one agent even tried to override the system, nothing worked. We don't fit into Toyota's "formula." I also tried the regular roadside service through Service Connect, and was told the same thing. I was told that the 3rd party towing service would likely charge $9-11 per mile after the ten-mile point, and a charge for the truck to return to its home base, empty. In other workds, it would cost us several hundred dollars to get our EV to the dealer, for something that is likely a warrenty issue.
(I did ask at AAA, and found that we are only covered for 7 miles of towing. We have since upgraded our membership to the next level, which will cover 100 miles of towing, but have to wait seven days for that to kick in.)
Someone at Toyota corporate is working on this for us, but this should have been taken care of sooner. The fact that Toyota Roadside will tow you to the nearest Totota dealer doesn't do EV owners any good if the nearest dealer does not work on EV's.
Any thoughts on the towing issue? The mechanical problem is a whole other issue to be addressed--Jeez!
Brian
