If you’ve been keeping up with my content, you’d know that I recently purchased a 2019 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport. This was supposed to be the purchase of my obtainable dream car but the entire experience turned out to be a disaster. In short, I was scammed by the dealership. They sold me a damaged truck as new. But we’re not going to go too deep into that. I’ve already made a video dedicated to the situation and I’ll link that for you to check out for yourself if you’re interested.
Today, I’d like to give you an update on the situation. Well, if you’ve read the title then it’s pretty obvious. I was successfully able to get rid of the TRD sport and I am now in a brand new, off the delivery truck 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD PRO.
Now, this is not a review post for the 2020 TRD Pro. That will be coming very soon so make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for that! Today, let’s just talk about how I got here.
First, let’s do a quick recap. Within days of ownership of the TRD Sport, the driver window had malfunctioned and didn’t roll up all the way, there was rust on the frame, there was damage to the bumper, along with a number of other things that dealt with false advertisements in terms of what the original dealership was selling. After discovering all of the various problems that my TRD Sport had, I immediately contacted the dealership where I purchased it from. The dealership fixed the window but did not want to be accountable for anything else. They actually told me that they had not inspected the vehicle prior to selling it to me, so they can’t verify were the damages came from. Well, you would think that that is a major red flag right there and that alone would be enough for them to step up and admit some fault. But no, this dealership put all the blame on me.
After this, I took advantage of my platform and made a YouTube video. Many of you commented with various suggestions. One of the more popular suggestions was to contact the corporate offices of Toyota USA. Long story short, they were not going to do anything. All corporate could do was tell the dealership to contact me in an attempt to try and resolve the situation. But the way that this works is that corporate files a claim, the dealership gets the claim and has to respond. Well, the dealership replied to corporate and said that they contacted me and the situation was resolved when in fact, they did no such thing. At the end of the day, all corporate can do is suggest to the dealership that they should do something about it, but they don’t force them to do anything. Many of you commented that corporate was very helpful in fixing your situations but I cannot say that for myself. I don’t know if this is just how it is now, but corporate had no power over a situation like mine and that’s a big shame. They are giving way too much power over to the dealerships and some bad dealerships are just out here ruining the Toyota name.
Another popular recommendation from you guys was to utilize my state’s Lemon Law. It seems like most of the people who recommended this just misinterpreted my situation or Lemon Law itself. I felt that Lemon Law didn’t apply but I contacted some of the biggest Lemon Law lawyers in the state anyways just to cover my basis. Of course, they also believed that this case would not apply so they weren’t going to take it on. If multiple people who do this for a living aren’t willing to take the case then that’s pretty much a wash. The next option was to contact some contract lawyers to possibly claim breach of contract or just get a general lawyer and sue them in any way possible. I also looked into this but didn’t fully commit myself to this route because I knew that it would’ve dragged this situation out even longer. It took weeks to even find the right lawyers and then it would likely take months to get anything resolved. I just didn’t want to invest the time with this, I had a life to live outside of this problem.
At this point, I had largely given up on the situation. Then one morning, I woke up to a few different emails. One was from a representative of Toyota USA and the other from a representative of Toyota of Olympia, another local dealership. Both parties had seen my video and wanted to do whatever they can to help. I spent the entire day working with these people and ultimately got what I needed from Toyota of Olympia.
They straight up asked me what they could do to help. I told them that I didn’t want the TRD Sport anymore. I originally wanted a 2020 Tacoma but didn’t get it because my original salesman told me that they wouldn’t even be available until January 2020 so there’s no point in waiting and if I bought the 2019, they’d give me a deal on it. Not wanting to wait another half a year, I jumped on the offer. But wouldn’t you know it, right after I bought the 2019, the 2020s started rolling into their dealership. I’m pretty sure now that this was a blatant lie and wasn’t a misunderstanding on the salesman’s part because I was later briefly shown the dealership’s inventory system and they know months ahead about incoming cars. They know when a vehicle will be built and are given an estimated arrival time. The salesman either does not know how his own dealership operates or straight up lied to me. You be the judge.
Anyways, I was given the opportunity to get a new truck. For this new one, I knew that I wanted a 2020 Tacoma. But since I had to go through this entire ordeal, I wanted to see what Toyota of Olympia could do to sweeten the deal a bit and how can you sweeten a Tacoma up any more than getting a TRD Pro? The top dog of the Tacoma line.
I spent a few days communicating with Toyota of Olympia working out all the small details and I now own this, the 2020 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro. I love this thing. I know I said that the TRD Sport was my dream truck, but I more so meant the Tacoma in general. I have a strong connection to it because this is the vehicle that I most associate with my dad. Being able to own one myself is just another way of remembering him. That being said, this TRD Pro blows the TRD Sport out of the water. It is an insane upgrade.
Funny enough, at the time when my original video hit about 130k views, other parties started to contact me. The vice president of Cilajet contacted me to apologize for what happened and to see how he could help. I want to make it clear that although I mentioned Cilajet in my original video, they did nothing wrong in this situation. It was just a matter of the finance manager falsely advertising the product to get me to buy it. He sold Cilajet as something completely different than what it is. I just wanted the people of Cilajet to be aware of this in order to possibly prevent a similar situation from happening again.
Surprisingly, I even got a call from the dealership that I purchased the TRD Sport from. One of the managers called to see how they could fix this situation. I told them that another dealership was already getting me in a 2020 TRD Pro and the only way that they’d be able to solve the problem was to get me in the same vehicle at an even exchange. If I had to spend any extra money, I was not going to be giving it to the people who scammed me in the first place. I’d rather give it to the people at Toyota of Olympia who wasn’t even involved and went out of their way to make sure that I was happy. After explaining my wants, the manager told me that he had to ask his higher-ups. Then there was a lot of waiting. Every day I had to check-in and ask if there was an update. Day after day, nothing. Then a week later, they wanted me to come in for a meeting. I thought that this was it, we’re finally going to end all of this. It turned out to be the complete opposite. I met up with the dealership’s general manager and it was like this guy had no common sense or the ability to read the situation. He came off the bat confrontational and stayed there the entire time. This shouldn’t have been surprising at all because I’ve actually seen this guy at the dealership before. The last time that I was there, he got into a screaming match with another customer. The customer was saying how the dealership owed him a bunch of money. One of you guys actually commented that you had a terrible experience with this general manager too and I completely understand it. Clearly the general manager has a history of bad customer service and from my personal experience, it’s because he’s just not a people person. So to have someone like this lead your dealership is quite troubling.
At the end of the day, their offer was just insulting. This along with the bad service that I had received and continue to receive, there was no way that I was doing business with them. The general manager actually told me to get the f*ck out of his dealership so that kind of tells you how things are run there.
I was going to give them a chance but this just turned out to be a huge waste of time. Since immigrating to the US, my family has been doing business with this dealership for about 20 years and bought a number of cars. If things could be saved, then that’s great. But I can tell you now, I will never do business with this particular dealership again.
I left the lot and called Toyota of Olympia right away and told them we were on. The Super White TRD Pro came to their dealership the following week and I picked it up.
I’m loving this vehicle right now. It’s not only everything that I could ask for in a Tacoma but it also represents closure. It’s a symbol that this entire ordeal is over. I can now move forward and enjoy my truck.
However, not everything is perfect with this transaction. Being that I had the TRD Sport for some time and really didn’t think that the situation was ever going to be resolved, I bought some accessories for it. Accessories that do not work with the TRD Pro. I originally wanted a Tacoma with a 6ft long bed and that’s what I got with the Sport, but the Pro only comes with a 5ft short bed. This, of course, means that the Sport’s tonneau cover (Fold-a-Cover G4 Elite) will not fit. So, it is now for sale. If anyone is in Washington state and want to buy this cover, hit me up and we’ll work something out. Use the included contact form to reach me.
Aside from that, I can’t tell you how happy I am that this entire ordeal is over. I no longer have to look at the TRD Sport and am reminded of the bad experience but can look at the TRD Pro and remember everything that went into getting this truck.
And for this, I have a few people to thank.
First, to all the employees of Toyota of Olympia who got involved (there are a few) and took the time to contact me and ultimately resolved this entire situation. Based on the comments of my last video, there’s quite a few of you out there who think that all dealerships are the epitome of evil and I’m telling you, if you’re in the area, give Toyota of Olympia a chance. They’ve exhibited above and beyond customer service and provided me with the best overall experience that I’ve ever had with a dealership. They contacted me and tried to help even though it had nothing to do with them. They actually took a loss in helping me when they bought my TRD Sport back at full price. Above all, they told me that they weren’t helping in hopes of getting anything out of it. They didn’t ask me to promote their dealership or anything like that but I will because I had that good of an experience with them. If you are looking to buy a Toyota on this side of Washington, definitely check out Toyota of Olympia. The best customer service provided by some of the best workers, bar none.
Lastly, I want to thank every one of you guys who watched my original video, liked it, shared it, and commented. You guys brought a lot of attention to the video and helped me get it to the appropriate people. Thank you, thank you so, so much. Words cannot explain how grateful I am for what you guys have helped to accomplish because, without you, there is no way that anything would’ve been done. No one even contacted me before the video hit 100k views. That in itself is a problem. Looking at some of the comments that you guys left, it would seem that this is not a singular event. Similar things and even worst has happened to you guys when working with a dealership. This is a major problem. People are being ripped off and there’s little that they can do about it.
If I’ve learned anything from this situation, it’s to make yourself be heard. Spread the word as far and wide as possible. Let everyone know what happened and bring attention to the people who have wronged you. It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going to be quick. It took me months to get the attention of anyone. There were a lot of unanswered emails, a lot of disregarded phone calls, a lot of time spent sharing my experience wherever I can. Be relentless. Remember, this is your money on the line. You worked hard for it and you deserve to get what was advertised and what you paid for.
Thank you, again, for all the help. Now that this is over, I hope to bring you a lot of great future content, especially those with the new TRD Pro.
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