A warranty claim for a Toyota GR86 sports-car has been honoured, after initially being denied when a social media post showed the vehicle drifting and performing skids.
Japanese car giant Toyota has backflipped on its decision to deny a US customer’s warranty claim after the company faced backlash online for using his social media posts against him.
Toyota had denied GR86 owner Blake Alvardo’s warranty claim for an engine failure when it discovered a photo of the car “drifting” and performing skids at a closed-course event.
However, coverage by multiple US automotive publications – such as Jalopnik, Road & Track and The Drive – led to Toyota reversing its decision, now offering to repair the GR86’s engine under warranty.
Last month, a warranty claim lodged by Alvardo for his GR86’s engine failure was denied by Toyota when one of the car maker’s technicians discovered a photo of the car being driven at a non-competitive track event.
Toyota argued the photo of him “drifting” in the car was evidence of mistreatment, despite Alvardo’s own inspection of the engine finding a manufacturing fault caused the failure.
Having completed a tear-down of the Toyota GR86’s 2.4-litre petrol engine, Alvardo discovered the oil pick up in the sump had been blocked, causing the engine to seize.
Alvardo found the silicone which Toyota uses as an engine sealant had leaked into the oil, causing the blockage and engine failure.
Multiple owners of the Toyota GR86 have documented similar failures on online forums and YouTube.
In a Facebook post exposing the warranty denial, Alvardo claims the Toyota technician who was sent to investigate the cause of the engine failure did not inspect the vehicle in person.
Instead, the Toyota technician uncovered the photo of Alvardo “drifting” his car and said the engine failure was caused by the owner’s driving.
The technician also used a YouTube video of a white GR86 competing in an autocross event – titled “Blake’s Run” – as evidence against the customer, despite his vehicle being black.
However, Alvardo now says Toyota USA will honour his warranty claim in the wake of the Facebook post attracting media coverage and online backlash.
Toyota’s backflip occurred at the right time for Alvardo, as the GR86 was set to be worked on by a local Subaru specialist which provided a quote of $US7000 ($10,100) to fit a used engine – far less than the $US11,000 ($AU15,850) Toyota had quoted him.
The decision to process the failure as a warranty claim could lead to changes in how Toyota markets the GR86 in the US.
Buyers of the Toyota GR86 in the US are offered a complimentary one-year membership and track days through the National Auto Sport Association (NASA).
However, the fine-print in NASA’s offer states: “Participation in high performance driving creates a risk of personal injury or death and may cause damage to your vehicle that is not covered by your insurance or warranty.”
Ahead of the GR86’s arrival in local showrooms this September, Toyota Australia told Drive it will continue to handle warranty claims for all vehicles on a case-by-case basis.
“Warranty support for vehicles that are used for non-competitive track use are handled on a case-by-case basis,” said a Toyota Australia spokesperson.
“Generally speaking warranty support for components that have failed as a direct result of track use are not covered.”
In Australia, Hyundai is the only car maker which allows non-competition events at race tracks to be covered by its standard warranty, applying to its range of ‘N’ cars such as the i20 N, Kona N, i30 N Hatch and i30 Sedan N.
The post Toyota honours ‘drifting’ warranty claim after online backlash appeared first on Drive.