Toyota Extends Sienna Minivan Warranty

After 34 complaints regarding liftgates failing to stay in the open position, Toyota has extended the warranty of its Sienna minivan. The warranty is now six years with unlimited miles on 2004-06 Siennas, up from three years or 36,000 miles. The extension is explicitly to fix issues with the liftgate, so if your glove box breaks off, it won’t be covered.

Toyota is making the move because the company says there is no defective part; the problem stems from degradation over time. That means there’s no recall to replace struts that have since been upgraded on new Siennas. Owners will only be able to get their minivans fixed after a problem arises. Toyota says there is no safety hazard with the liftgates.

Owners will receive a letter informing them of the warranty upgrades. Customers with questions can call Toyota at 800-331-4331.

Toyota to Extend Warranty on Minivans (BusinessWeek via Autoblog)

Comments

Good job, Toyota, for being pro-active on quality issues, instead of deny, deny, deny.

Haha, its NOT defected its just wears out with time. Yeah they are being proactive, by not redesinging the components but by replacing them with the same ones and after 6 years you are on your own.

they have redesigned the struts as the story says. The real "story" is the fact that they're not replacing them all UNTIL there is a problem with each vehicle. Obviously new models have the redesigned struts.

So what will we expect next? Our engines to be replaced when they wear out after 200k miles?

Well ok, struts wearing out after 2-3 years is a bit much, but still. They don't have to do anything, so good for them to do this. Those things are pretty inexpensive anyway.

This is just a clever PR move. They really aren't being all that proactive by replacing the part only after you are your kid has been knocked in the head with the hatch. Plus, there are at least 34 comments about the hatches failing in the sienna blog on this site alone- I find it hard to believe that there have ONLY been 34 complaints. I know parts wear out- and this doens't tarnish the Sienna in my eyes at all- but this sounds like it should be a recall and they all should be replaced.

Broq

Here we go again...

Toyota does this so out come the posters to praise Toyota for being such a wonderful proactive car company.

Had it been a Ford Winstar everyone would be on here saying what a big piece of crap Ford vehicles are and this just proves it!

If there is an issue with the hatch that has made them come out and say they will replace them then they need to go ahead and issue a recall. People shouldn't have to wait for a problem like this that will probably occur - especially if Toyota even thinks it will occur.

If it was Ford they'd have 2 deaths, 5 injuries and a recall of 2M vehicles.

perhaps, but then they would be honest and not playing a pr game.

We all know that Toyota is facing big problems in the quality department. Big in the sense that there is a lot of small problems. This is the price for growing big. Would be interesting to see how company can handle this.
I just read "Car And Driver" comparisson of Camry and Optima. They say that fit and finish of the optima is better.
Here we go. Toyota has not much time to spend on all that park of cars they have. And now Venza will come. We'll see.

I own a 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan, and the airconditioner just self-destructed. Apparently the compressor blew, sending metal filings throughout the whole system. Fixing it will involve replacing the whole system, tubing, compressor and all, to the tune of around $3000. Anyone know about this problem? My car guy says it is a problem with the Sienna that Toyota has "fixed" by changing the compressor, so once repaired it won't happen again. But I'm pretty unhappy about having to shell out $3000 for a 3 year old car. Seems like something Toyota should be fixing.

I found very competitive extended warranty prices for my Toyota at http://warranty.actontoyota.com.