Kaptein Caprivi blogs…

from Rohan Strydom
to fdevos@tsb.toyota.co.za
date Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 10:47 AM
subject Fortuner handling problem

Good day Ferdi

I am the owner of a 2006 Fortuner 4.0l petrol. My car is one of the
unsafe cars, and I have been waiting for a few weeks for my replacement
tires.

For the sake of openness, would you please note that I
have been blogging about the Fortuner roll-over problem for quite a
while. My website is available at http://www.kapteincaprivi.com.

If you do a search for “toyota fortuner handling” or “toyota
fortuner rollover” or even “toyota fortuner problem“, my website always
appear in the top 2 of the results returned by Google.

My unhappiness stems from the well known fact that some Toyota
Fortuners are unsafe. Toyota even admitted to the problem, by offering
to replace tires on certain cars. I would be happy if Toyota takes
responsibility for an inherit problem in a car sold to me, by doing the
following:

1. Replace all 5 tires on my car at Toyota’s cost, and not expect me to pay for one of the tires.
2. Allow
   me to put proper 4×4 tires on my car. The fact that Toyota market the
   car as a 4×4, and even display a 4×4 badge on the car, means that you
   must know that this car will be taken on 4×4 trips. I was even willing
   to pay in the extra money to upgrade from the replacement Continental
   Grabbers to Bridgestone AT tires, but was told “Grabbers or nothing”. I
   find it unacceptable that I am forced by Toyota to take tar road
   orientated tires for a car that is clearly a 4×4. I was told my tires
   will be replaced, but then I have to wait 6 weeks for replacement
   tires? How on earth can Toyota admit there is a safety problem with one
   of their products, only to tell me that I should continue driving the
   deadly car for another 6 weeks?
3. Toyota should replace the standard suspension with suspension
   that’s capable of keeping the car’s tires on the road. To say that OME
   suspension is not covered by Toyota, and that 4×4 suspension is not
   Toyota’s problem, is incorrect. In my opinion you have a responsibility
   to sell me a car that is capable of driving on roads which it was
   designed for. Even on a normal bumpy tar road the car wobbles all over
   the place.

By continuing to place my family’s lives in danger by insisting
that there is a problem, but that I have to sort it out, Toyota is
opening itself up to big trouble. I am not the only person affected by
this. As a huge company, I cannot see the logic in Toyota playing down
a serious problem in your products. Surely you must realise that with
the power of the Internet, there are more options available to
consumers than just taking this lying down.

Please sort this problem out once and for all, before anyone gets
seriously hurt. I do believe the Fortuner is a fantastic vehicle with 1
big safety issue, which can be sorted out by Toyota quickly if you so
wish.

Regards
Rohan Strydom
www.kapteincaprivi.com