Toyota Van - Aftersale issue

confused.com2

Morning,

Bit of a funny one and not sure it's even a consumer right!

Bought an EV van from a Toyota dealership last year, it was a demo van, 2 years old. We were looking at a few brands but the warranty and customer service swung Toyota for us.

Van was sold with the app being a feature, the app can allow the van to be preheated, check the battery health/level, track the location of the van amongst other things, all worked fine.

Van bought in April and all good. Fast forward to October and suddenly the Toyota app stopped working, contacted Toyota and they said they were upgrading to a new system and it shouldn't take too long. Another month passed and still no app. Contacted them again and they told me the team who migrated all the vehicles over to the new app had forgotten our van (not just our van, that model for all owners!) Bit annoyed now, they couldn't give a timeframe for when it would be sorted.

So another month passes and still no app! Call again and I'm told nope, our van will never work with the new app and that's that. Taken all support away and features away, I was absolutely livid. Fella at Toyota said he was trying to organise some sort of compensation and would call me back, that was 3 weeks ago and no phone call, truly awful customer service. I don't want any compensation anyway, I want the van on the app as it was sold with.

No idea what my next step should be? Toyota are a massive company, I imagine it's all about the cost to sort as the van worked fine with the last app so clearly can be done.

Do I have any rights here?

Thanks for reading!

TELLIT01

If the van was a commercial purchase, Consumer Rights don't apply.  Even if it's a private purchase these features don't seem to be guaranteed.  I have a car from a different manufacturer and they discontinued various apps not long after I bought the car.  They even stopped providing updates for the in-car satnav!

daveyjp

Aren't all Toyota vans actually rebadged Stellantis products (Citroen/Peugeot/Fiat)?  If so it may be worth a call to one of their van dealerships to ask about the app and whether its installed across all the brands.

Keep_pedalling

daveyjp said:

Aren't all Toyota vans actually rebadged Stellantis products (Citroen/Peugeot/Fiat)?  If so it may be worth a call to one of their van dealerships to ask about the app and whether it’s installed across all the brands.

No, that is Nissan. To loose the app on such a new vehicle is disgraceful but Toyota have long since lost the plot with regards to service and reliability. 

confused.com2

Sorry it's not allowing me to quote individual posts. This was a private sale financed by cash. I've genuinely no idea how they can sell the van 11 months ago with those features and then to be able to remove them with no warning doesn't seem right but I'm guessing they technically aren't doing anything wrong in legal terms. To lose the preheat feature and battery health and tracking on a very new van is a massive blow. No idea if they lied from the start about it being missed or it was always the plan. The van is their flagship EV van, seems a madness decision.

Aylesbury_Duck

confused.com2 said:

Sorry it's not allowing me to quote individual posts. This was a private sale financed by cash. I've genuinely no idea how they can sell the van 11 months ago with those features and then to be able to remove them with no warning doesn't seem right but I'm guessing they technically aren't doing anything wrong in legal terms. To lose the preheat feature and battery health and tracking on a very new van is a massive blow. No idea if they lied from the start about it being missed or it was always the plan. The van is their flagship EV van, seems a madness decision.

That may be the case, but what did you buy the van for?  If it's for commercial use, it's that that determines whether the rights you have are consumer rights or contractual ones. 

You're not going to be able to force them to make the van and app compatible, so that leaves some sort of monetary compensation.  You need to put a price on the lack of the app and ask them for that amount.

confused.com2

Van is for private use, nothing relating to commercial! We have large dogs and often go camping with them.

Aylesbury_Duck

confused.com2 said:

Van is for private use, nothing relating to commercial! We have large dogs and often go camping with them.

That's helpful.

How much compensation would make this right?  That's the figure you need to write to them and ask for.  They may engage and begin negotiating.  

sheslookinhot

Ask the dealer to change the van to one that does have the app you crave. 

Keep_pedalling

sheslookinhot said:

Ask the dealer to change the van to one that does have the app you crave. 

It’s not a craving, it a basic facility that comes with nearly all modern electric vehicles. 

daveyjp

Keep_pedalling said:

daveyjp said:

Aren't all Toyota vans actually rebadged Stellantis products (Citroen/Peugeot/Fiat)?  If so it may be worth a call to one of their van dealerships to ask about the app and whether it’s installed across all the brands.

No, that is Nissan. To loose the app on such a new vehicle is disgraceful but Toyota have long since lost the plot with regards to service and reliability. 

Nissan vans are rebadged Renaults.