I would like to start this letter on a positive note. We purchased another new 2012 Toyota Sienna in December of 2011. This is my 5th new Toyota and I have always loved your product. Still do. I have convinced many friends and family to purchase Toyotas. I even had to convince my husband not to buy another brand and stick with Toyota on this purchase. Toyotas retain their resale value, they have been so reliable, and were well worth the extra cost.

I am writing this letter regarding my recent experience at your dealership, Reliable Toyota in Springfield, Mo.

In January of this year my husband hit a deer with our like new Sienna into Reliable Toyota for repair. They replaced the front bumper and grill and numerous other items and the vehicle looked brand new again, as far as we could tell. We had started to notice a rattle in the front and then one night while coming home, I ran over a Raccoon and the whole underside plastic piece came loose and was dragging under the car. I pulled the piece loose from under the car and needless to say it was quite mangled. We took the vehicle back to Reliable Toyota for the estimate and Lee drove off with it do the estimate. Upon his return with the car, he gave us the estimate and said that the bumper would need to be painted as there was also a scratch when we had hit a curb. My husband and I were perplexed as we have no curbs and had totally inspected the car before taking it in checking for any damage from the piece that had fallen off. I said I didn’t want to paint the bumper because that was the only damage to it and Lee said he would take care of it. I explained that I really thought the piece was loose before I ran over the Raccoon, but Lee said the pieces were made to break away upon the smallest impact and it would happen anytime we ran over or hit something. We took the car in to be repaired with an estimate of a couple of hours to put on the new pieces. Upon completion, I asked Brian who had helped with the original repair if there was any way I could look underneath the car and see how the piece was installed so that I could understand how it came off so easily. He put the car (which was ready for me to take home) up on a rack to show me and guess what, no piece installed. I asked him where the piece was and he said he had no idea. He started checking and the wrong piece came in and so the installer didn’t even tell him, just gave him the car as completed. I would have left there and never known if I hadn’t asked to see it. They said they had ordered the new piece and it would be there the next day. I live over an hour and a half from the dealership and had company coming and could not come back the next day. They ended up taking the piece off another Sienna and put it on for me (while I watched) which took about 10 minutes once they found the piece. I was there for over 5 hours for a 15 minute job. They did touch up the paint on the scratch on the bumper. The scratch was on the opposite side of the bumper than where I ran over the Raccoon. The touch up job looks like a kid did it with fingernail polish. Very shabby.

Now, here’s my complaint. I had had the vehicle in to the dealership 3 times in Fayetteville (which I highly recommend) and have been complaining about the headlights not projecting far enough and there is a complete black out line at the top and very hard to spot Deer in the distance when it is dark. So, my husband hits a deer, we get the car repaired and then the whole piece underneath the bumper falls off upon running over a small Raccoon. There was little to no impact felt upon hitting the Raccoon, only the sound of the plastic piece dragging under the car. I explained all this to Lee when we took it in for the estimate. There was not a scratch on any of the bumper and after he drove it, a very large scratch where Lee hit the curb. He even said you’ll have to paint the bumper where you hit the curb. We know he must have done it and would not admit it. Also, now there are small scratches on the driver’s side door like where the air tool hose or someone’s belt buckle rubbed on the vehicle. Our Sienna was in perfect condition prior to the repair. We paid for the repair and should have had it returned to us without scratches and with the parts we paid for installed correctly. Reliable Toyota’s repair department is anything but Reliable.

I feel we should have the vehicle’s bumper painted or replaced and the side door painted to put it back in the good shape it was before it went to that dealership. I will never go there again or recommend Reliable to anyone.

We had visited Reliable numerous times in our search for a new vehicle and they did not put any effort into finding the vehicle we were looking for. We contacted Fayetteville and they promptly found the vehicle and we purchased it there. It is a bit further from our house, so that is why we went to Reliable for the repair. I had my misgivings about their repair department as numerous years ago I had my Toyota Previa in for service and they charged me for 6 spark plugs. My Previa was a 4 cylinder and it wasn’t even made in a 6 cylinder at the time of the service. What the heck is wrong with this dealership? I have dealt with so many Toyota dealerships in the past as I have had nothing but Toyota and Lexus’s for the past 35 years, and NEVER had problems except at Reliable. I will drive to Fayetteville for all my future service and repair needs.

At this point, I would be hard pressed to convince my husband to ever buy another Toyota and can’t recommend them to my family and friends, if this is the kind of service we/they can expect. It’s so wrong for the dealership to actually cause damage to your vehicle and then not own up to it. I must say that Brian Goans, who handled our original claim, went above and beyond to try to make the situation right.

Please let me know how you can help me. I am so disappointed after all these years of being such a loyal customer.