The Story
This story is long, but it details exactly what happened during the entire fiasco with my car. If you have plenty of time, such as reading this while at work, I would recommend you read the entire thing. If you are too busy and don't want to read the entire thing you can always visit it later or just skip it and head over to the process section which will show you what I did and how I did it.
In September 2006 I purchased my Scion xB from Superstition Springs Toyota located in Mesa, Arizona. Nigel, the internet manager and salesman I dealt with to purchase my car, was easy going and the entire process was basically hassle-free since there is no haggling on Scions, as I am sure you are aware. I got the Scion pretty much fully loaded with all sorts of upgrades such as: Spoiler, upgraded tires/wheels, tinted windows, sport exhaust with chrome tip, upgraded sound system with subwoofer, interior illumination, chrome accelerator/brake pedals, armrest, carbon fiber appliqué on the dash and door pillars, security system, panoramic sunroof, and probably a few others I can't remember.
In the Scion manual it tells you not to race the engine and go easy on the car during the break-in period which is 1,000 miles. I decided to try and put 1,000 miles on the car before I had to go to work on the following Monday, so we picked the car up on Friday evening and hit the road. On Saturday as I was driving I noticed a crack suddenly appear on the windshield. This was a little to the left of the rearview mirror and traveled straight down. Needless to say I was pissed because the car was less than 24 hours old.
I bet voltron wouldn't put up with Scion's crap.
I called Nigel, at Superstition Springs Toyota, and he informed me that the warranty does not handle glass cracking or chipping and that I would need to have my insurance handle it. I explained to him how I never had an impact occur on the windshield while I was driving, but he insisted it was an impact crack and my insurance and a 3rd party glass vendor would need to take care of it. On Monday, after achieving my 1,000 miles during the weekend, I called my insurance agent and she said I could use any glass vendor I would like to have the windshield replaced. I settled on Safelite Auto Glass since they would come to my work and replace the windshield. I really didn't want to miss work on account of this.
Tuesday comes along and Safelite arrives to put in a new windshield. They noticed how new the car is and informed me that they had third-party glass, but they were going to get OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) Toyota glass to put in the xB. I agreed and they said they should have the glass delivered later that day and I would be getting the windshield replaced on Wednesday. Wednesday arrived and the windshield was replaced. All was happy in my little blissful world of new car joy.
About one month passes with the new windshield in the car and all is still happy and fine. I get out of my car and head into work on a Tuesday morning. I close my door on my car and hear an odd noise. I peek my head around the front of the car, to look in through the windshield, and I see an ENORMOUS crack coming from the top by the driver's side of the rearview mirror coming straight down and then taking a 90 degree angle towards the driver's side. This crack is easily 12 inches long and occurred from me shutting my door. I call Nigel at Superstition Springs Toyota again and he says to contact my insurance company. I explain that the only thing I did was close the door and he tells me that it is an impact crack and he gets them all the time on the interstate. I don't know what else to do so I contact my insurance company and Safelite.
If my Scion were a Transformer it would transform into a pile of dog crap.
Safelite replaces the windshield of the xB on Wednesday. I drive home Wednesday night and there is my friend, the lovely crack again. It appeared out of no where as I was pulling into my driveway. I gave up on contacting the dealership because they could obviously care less, so I contact Safelite and they come out and replace the glass with third-party glass on Thursday. I keep my fingers crossed and for the next 4 months, as we come into the winter season, was quiet.
All hell breaks loose in February and my peace is broken, much like the windshield. Driving into work on a Monday I get a crack in the lower driver's side corner of my windshield traveling up, turning a 90 degree angle and shooting towards the passenger's side. I know the routine by heart at this point and actually have Safelite Auto Glass on the speed dial of my cell phone. I call them up and they come out on Tuesday to replace the glass. They put in third-party glass and it really didn't matter to me by this point. I asked the two installers if they have a lot of calls about the xB's and they told me that the Scion xB is their most replaced windshield with the next in line being the Jeep. I asked them why this was the case and they said it was due to the fact that the xB's sit SO LOW and have such a steep windshield. I agreed and went back to work.
Driving home on Tuesday evening I get on the freeway entrance ramp and there she goes again, another nice crack. I pickup my cell phone and call Safelite, who was there not 6 hours prior, and setup an appointment. They told me they were just going to put third-party glass in the car but by this point I was pissed and told them they were going to put in OEM Toyota glass. I didn't know what was causing the glass to break, but if it was cheap glass I was tired of it. They had to call my insurance company and it was approved.
I called Nigel at Superstition Springs Toyota/Scion when I got home on Tuesday evening and asked him how much he will take on a trade-in for a 2006 Scion xB. He sort of stammers around and doesn't know what to say. I tell him I am tired of dealing with the glass issue and I have never seen anything like it before in my life. He blames it all on impacts and tells me to bring the car in and he will appraise it.
I was SO sad even the Shirt Tales couldn't cheer me up with their antics.
My glass gets replaced on that Thursday and on Friday I drive my car to a Chevrolet dealership in Phoenix to see how much they will give me on a trade-in for a Chevy HHR. I was really concerned driving it because I figured the glass would crack on the drive over, but it didn't and we made it safe-and-sound. I was willing to take a $6,000 loss on the car if I could just get out of it, because my dream car was now turning into my worst nightmare. The dealership ran the numbers, checked my credit, and were willing to give me $13,000 for the trade-in. Since I purchased the car for $25,000 there was no way in hell I was taking a $10,000 loss on the car. I said never mind and drove away disappointed and frustrated.
The next week on Thursday night I am driving home and get another crack. That is like 3 windshields in 2 weeks, which is just ridiculous. I call Safelite and have them come out to my house on Friday while I drive my wife's car to work. I figured I would let another installer try his hand at the windshield to see what the results were. They installed third-party glass, but I figured I would be changing it next week anyway when it broke, so it didn't really matter anymore.
The car's windshield was replaced on Friday and the car sat in the driveway until Monday and was not driven at all that weekend. I walked out Monday, looked at the car, and see a 16"-19" crack on the xB windshield running straight down from the rearview mirror and hanging a 90-degree angle to the passenger's side. I had enough and someone was going to answer for it.
I called Nigel at Superstition Springs Toyota/Scion and asked him if there was a design defect in the car. He played stupid and asked what I was talking about. I explained to him that yet again I had another crack in my windshield and he tried to play up the whole song-and-dance of it being an impact crack. I stopped him and told him I was through playing games. The car wasn't driven and the crack occurred while it sat in the driveway for 3 days. He didn't know what to say and I told him I wanted them to replace the windshield or get me a new car because this was insane. He told me to bring the car into the dealership's service department so they could take a look at the windshield. I agreed and took off work on Wednesday to do this.
By this point I know this is going to get nasty. The dealership will not want to take a loss on the car and neither will Toyota. I figured this might have been taken to court as a lemon law case, so I broke out my digital audio recorder and took it with me. I decided that if they wanted to play games, then I would play them as well and I knew if I was going to have any chance of winning a case I would need all of the documentation and evidence I could get my hands on.
I stayed up late on Tuesday night researching the internet and printing out any sort of documentation I could find on the Scion xB stress crack issue with the windshields. This was actually the first time I realized that stress was actually cracking the windshield and not impacts. To my surprise there was a ton of complaints out there and a lot of upset people. This astonished me because when I researched the car about one-and-a-half years ago these complaints were non-existent. I printed out around 20 pages of documentation and loaded them into my leather portfolio, along with my digital recorder. I knew there was going to be a fight tomorrow.
When Toyota makes me mad I sprout fur and can play basketball really well.
I woke up in the mid-afternoon on Wednesday and called the Scion Customer Experience, which is basically their customer care center. I went ahead and filed a complaint about my car and they informed me that a customer representative who would handle my case would be contacting me in 24 hours. I then headed to the dealership and waited for about 10 minutes twiddling my thumbs. Someone finally came out to help me and I informed them that I was bringing the car to be inspected because the windshield kept getting stress cracks. They sort of stared blankly at me and then went to get someone above them to look at the car.
I got some jackass in his mid-to-late 30's who walked out like he owned the place. I explained to him that I have had eight windshields in six months because my windshield kept cracking due to stress. He looked at it about five seconds, got a smirk on his face, wheeled around and told me that unfortunately since I had a third-party windshield in the car there was nothing they could do about it. I informed him that his sales associate told me to let the insurance handle it and that is the reason it has third-party glass in it. He shrugged his shoulders and said he has never heard of the Scion xB's having a stress crack issue. That is when I really wiped that smirk off his face. I whip out 20+ pages of documentation stating other wise. He refused to even touch the papers and I told him I wasn't leaving and was going to need to speak with someone above him because this issue was getting resolved. He scampered back into the service department to find the service manager with his tail between his legs.
I met the service manager, Henry, and he was a pretty nice guy. He sat me down and had me explain what was going on with the car. He told me he had never heard of the stress crack issue on the windshield of Scion xB's. I whipped out my documentation and he actually took the time to read it and look it over. He was surprised at the amount of complaints I was able to find on the internet using Google. He asked me what I would like done. I explained to him I would first like my windshield replaced. He agreed and said that wouldn't really fix the problem since it would happen again. I agreed. I then told him I would like a gasket or some sort of fix for the windshield so it would stop cracking. I told him since it has to do with the frame flexing that is probably not going to work. I then told him I would either like to have another Scion, not an xB, instead of my car or for them to buy back my car and relieve me of the contract since this car is obviously defective.
Henry said that I would have to bring my car back in to let the Toyota Corporation Technician for our region look at it and he would have to make the call on what should/could be done. I agreed to that and Henry informed me that the Toyota Corporation Technician's name was Scott and he was only at the dealership once per month and that he was actually going to be there that Friday. I agreed to meet Scott at the dealership at 9am on Friday morning.
I get a call on Thursday from John, my case manager, at Scion Customer Experience. He asked what had been going on and I told him about my dealership visit and the problem I was having with stress cracks on the windshield. He said he would speak with Scott on Friday to see what he had found out and he also asked me what I would like done. I told him about getting the windshield replaced, getting a work around for the windshield and if they couldn't do that either a new Scion, not an xB, or to be released from my contract. He said that seemed fair and we ended the call.
I wished that Jambi would would fix my windshield cracks, but my plea went unanswered.
I took off from work on Friday and headed to the dealership. I got there and waited for 5 hours and Scott was no where to be found. He hadn't called in, he hadn't been there, and they had no idea where he was at. They finally came and told me that Scott was sick and wouldn't be in. I asked them if I am going to have to wait another month to have my car inspected and they said possibly. I called John to inform him that Scott was a no-call-no-show and he contacted Scott and found out he was actually sick and said when he knew Scott would be in the dealership next he would contact me, but they were guessing it will be within the next week.
Well, I took the day off so I decided to put it to good use. I researched the lemon law here in Arizona. I then read through the Scion Warranty and Lemon Law guide they provided me. The Scion booklet said I would first have to write them a letter and send it via registered mail that I was considering taking the case to court via the Lemon Law. They then said before I took the case to court I would HAVE to use their third-party arbitration firm to work out a deal. I read online that these were a joke and the rules on what is a defect and what is not slant in favor of the corporation who hires them because they pay them. So I fired off my letter about the whole issue, what had been done up to this point, all of my invoices for the windshield replacements, and all of the documentation I had gathered about the Scion xB windshield stress crack issue and mailed them to the Scion Customer Experience. The first step of taking my case to court was now started.
Superstition Springs Toyota contacted me on Monday and informed me that Scott would be in the dealership on Tuesday. I asked them what time Scott would be there because I didn't really want to show up and sit around for an endless amount of time while I was missing work. They said they couldn't give me a time, but he should be there between 9:30am and 2:30pm. I said it was ridiculous that I would have to sit there for 5 hours. They said they couldn't even guarantee he would be there, but that is when he was "supposed" to be there. I hung up and was pretty pissed by that point. John, from Scion Customer Experience, called me not three minutes later and informed me Scott would be at the dealership 9:30am on Tuesday morning. I explained to him that Superstition Springs Toyota would not confirm a time I would actually see Scott or if he would actually even be there. John called Scott and Scott confirmed my appointment.
I showed up at 9:30am on Tuesday morning and Scott looked at my car. We walked out together to let him inspect it and he said he couldn't prove it was cracked from a impact and said that he wanted to have the glass replaced while he supervised. He asked me when I planned on replacing the glass and I informed him I was not going to have the glass replaced again unless Toyota did it for free because it is like $500 on my insurance each time Safelite does it. He said that Toyota would not replace the glass but he could supervise the Safelite installer who did the replacement to insure there was nothing wrong with their installation and to inspect the frame welds under the glass. I told him I was not interested in replacing the glass unless they were doing it for free. He explained to me that since it was third-party glass Toyota wasn't responsible for it. I informed him that the salesperson at Superstition Springs Toyota told me to get it replaced by my insurance.
He asked me what I was wanting done about the issue. I told him I wanted the windshield replaced and a fix so it won't crack again. I told him if they did not have a fix I would either like to be put into another Scion or to be released from my contract and have Toyota repurchase my car. He said he would speak with everyone and see what sort of deal they could work out. He said that he thought Scion might foot the bill if I were to lose money on the xB trade-in and to put me into a tC. I told him that would be fair. They then took about an hour to appraise my car and then sent me on my way. They said Nigel, the salesman at Superstition Springs Toyota, would be contacting Henry the Service Manager with the deal. Henry would then contact Scott and Scott would contact John at the Scion Customer Experience who would relay the final deal to me.
I gave them about a week and I called Nigel and he said he had sent his paper work to Henry as requested and he was waiting to hear back from John to find out if Scion was going to foot the bill on the loss on the xB. I called John and spoke with him and he said that Scion could not foot the bill on the loss because they would be assuming responsibility on the windshield. I asked him what my options were and he said that the case had been moved over to the Lemon Law department because I had sent in that letter stating I was going to pursue the lemon law. I told him I was just making sure everything was ready incase I wanted to pursue the Lemon Law and he said I should go ahead and pursue it. He also mentioned the arbitration service they provide and I asked him to explain how that was fair. He told me that it was a third-party, but when I asked him who paid for the service he refused to answer and I told him Toyota paid for the service so in 90% of the cases Toyota would win. He had no comment to this. He said I should wait to get a decision from the Toyota Lemon Law department on what they were going to do about my car. I decided they weren't taking control of this issue, since it was mine to begin with, and they weren't going to tell me what they were going to do with the car unless I took them to court about it, because I would have no one representing me other than myself and I am no law guru.
My attorney was like Neo and those bullets were like Toyota. Talk to the hand bitches.
I then contacted a local attorney dealing with Lemon Laws here in Arizona and explained my issue. I also explained I had taken photos of the cracked windshield, I had audio recordings of Toyota telling me that even if I replace my windshield it would still crack and that the dealership told me to take it to my insurance. I also explained all of the research and documentation I had done on the issue and he said he would have no problem taking the case.
Before signing the contract I called John at the Scion Customer Experience again and had him tell me on tape that the windshield stress cracking is an issue Toyota knows about, but that they are no officially recognizing it. I also had him inform me that the 2008 Scion xB was redesigned with a 4" shorter windshield and a longs slope to remedy this cracking issue. Then I called my dealership and have them on the phone stating that they think it might be because of the panoramic sunroof they installed in the car, that they told me to take it to my insurance when it first happened, and that they weren't going to do anything about it because it wasn't their problem.
After I signed the contract I had another really nice audio clip I got when I took my car in to be serviced at another dealership. I have a service technician tell me that the xB's have windshield cracking issue due to the flexing of their frame in the heat. He then went on to tell me that his manager had told him that and had told him a story of how the manager was standing next to an xB when this happened to it.
I sent out an entire portfolio of documentation to my attorney. He looked at it and said he wished more clients were like me because it would make his job so much easier. The attorney sent Toyota/Scion a letter stating they were to contact him about my case since I had hired him to represent me, that we had audio recordings of them stating various things that would look really bad on their part if this went to court, and that we had all sorts of documentation about this known issue.
Toyota/Scion caved at this letter. They didn't even want to hear the audio recordings or see any of the evidence. My attorney didn't even have to file a complaint with a court. They agreed to purchase the car and put this whole matter behind them. Want to know how I made them cave on the first attorney letter? Read the rest of the site!
After getting the letter stating I won, I felt happier than Jabba with Leia in a golden bikini.
