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The tint also showed considerable amount of scratches,
specially the side windows. We’ve managed to complain to Toyota
regarding the problem as well, and their answer seems to provide a
riddle harder than what the sphinx could throw at those Egyptians—the
Echo lacked a felt lining the windows that prevents tint scratching.
They said that they are willing to add this missing lining and
replace the tint as well, unsurprisingly six months later and they
forgot all about the felt (is Peewee Herman listening?) The transmission shock (the shock caused by shifting an
automatic from neutral to drive or reverse) seems to be more pronounced
lately. In fact, in some cases, it becomes unbearable. Again, a quick
stop at the service center cured the problem—but only temporarily. The air conditioning unit, provided excellent power to
overcome midday Manila heat. Unfortunately, it started to sound like a
vintage Tora-Tora from World War II: the fan emits an awful
mechanical noise (not to mention a fart-like smell) whenever the fan
speed is set at the highest. It’s a shame because you’d have a
choice of listening to Don’t Say You Love Me inside a Pan-Am
DC3 or melt in the summer heat. Again, the problem was fixed by Toyota,
and so far, it hasn’t returned since. Okay, now for the really bad news—Toyota service. During the course of the Echo’s 5,000-plus kilometer trek to date, it was smashed twice (first, because of squatters who threw bricks at the car; and second due to a late-breaking Nissan Sentra). The first occasion proved to be the worse of the two, requiring a change for the front and rear windshields, the hood, the tailgate, the right-hand headlamp as well as some dents on the driver’s door. We knew it would take a while for this egg to be
patched up, but what we didn’t know is that the cause of the delay was
something that’s completely absurd: in-house insurance and parts
delivery. The first delay
is actually what irritated us the most.
The reason for the Echo’s long delay in repairs was because the
first week was spent on hunting down and calculating and re-calculating
the cost of the car’s repairs. What’s
so stupid here is that the insurance company is an in-house agency at
Toyota Otis, which you are FORCED to get (or else you won’t get the
car). The insurance fiasco took four days to fix, and was hard to
follow up. There were several delays in signing of paperwork mainly
because the insurance people played hard to get. All the more, this
in-house agency is making us pay the month dues for this long-term
vehicle for a rate that’s almost double that of the insurance for the
Honda Accord VTi-L but the price is half that. |
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