Could I Sue Toyota Dealer for this? Possible Negligence in Free Recall Service

When car maker warranties and NHTSA recall rules are in conflict, I'd think the later would be more likely to prevail in court.

 

See post #14. Neither "car maker warranties" nor "NHTSA recall rules" control in this case. The deal is in the official Toyota documents laying out the customer support programs 23TE02 and 23TE03, which were initially created by Toyota (with 15 years of coverage) and revised into their current form (with 20 years of coverage) as part of settling a class-action lawsuit brought by a 2010 Prius owner and a 2013 Prius v owner.

 

My experience with official automobile dealers is to always contact their headquarters. Toyota Motor North America is headquartered in Piano Texas. A phone call might help you. Press them on the recall and what is covered and what is not. I have always gotten a fair deal with this approach. Good luck.

 

See posts #14 and #22. This is not a recall.

 

Calling the Prius Chat Law Club ! Does @Roadie_ have a case?

 

There's an appeal form already provided for Roadie_ to fill out. Only has to be a 'case' if that doesn't work.

 

This is not a piece of legal advice. Just so you know, when making your decision, although a year has elapsed since your request.

In law, there are two concepts: lex generalis and lex specialis. While NHTSA generally requires disregarding the type of title a vehicle may have, each specific case may be different. In this particular case, Toyota was smart enough to limit its warranty to failures caused by thermal reasons. I assume (and have no special expertise in) that in case of salvage or rebuild cars it is impossible to prove what caused that transistors overheat (99% of invertors problem).

If you are still willing to file a lawsuit, please consider small claims court in the dealership's location. In this case you will have $50 expense for fees, some postal and/or travel costs. And will save on lawyers.

PS I took my old Prius to a local dealership today for that invertor fix. Mine has a clean title albeit bought from Copart. Will see how they like it

PPS Dealers are happy to do the work and to bill that to Toyota in Texas. They receive parts for free and charge full rates for work which is way better than arguing with random handy guys like you (and in some smaller extent me). Sorry that you could not make that fix at their costs