Poor customer service

We bought a Toyota Cross 2 years ago and have been having issues with the alarm system. It keeps going off at any time and this happens multiple times a day. So whether you go to the mall or the shops or a meeting or to the gym or are at home, the alarm goes off and then resets only to go off again. In extreme cases the vehicle has to be parked without it being locked / alarm activated to avoid creating a disturbance.

The vehicle has been taken to Toyota several times and in the latest instance it has been at Toyota for a month. That is a whole month without vehicle that is critically needed transport in our household. There was a suggestion that a courtesy vehicle will be provided which has not materialised.

We have had a Toyota vehicle including 3 Corolla’s, a RAV and Corolla Cross (3 of these vehicles were purchased brand new from Toyota) in the family for over 30 years and it has always been considered a reliable, caring and trusted brand. We bought the Cross in the first few months of it being newly launched. It seems like the build was rushed to meet the launch date and the high initial demand. For example the glue of the back mat did not stick (from day one) which shows shoddy work and we had the alarm problem which indicates that the electrical system was not done properly as well. The fuel consumption has never been close to what Toyota indicated it would be since the beginning.

This vehicle was defective from day one and sold to us as a defective vehicle. Production was rushed to maximise sales and to meet demand rather than providing a good vehicle. Two years later, we are still struggling. I cannot even explain the difficulty with trying to manage without a vehicle for a month especially with two school going kids (one is in matric) and one at higher learning as well as needing to do some work and getting to meetings. There are multiple people at Toyota that are aware of this current situation including two dealerships (apart from the dealership where the vehicle was purchased), the service advisors and service managers as well as the regional manager, yet the situation continues.