Seriously?!

I took the Money Pit--my new nickname for our 2009 Toyota Sienna--to Andy Mohr Toyota in Avon last night and left it for them to repair a couple of problems. Recall, something hit the back of the van a couple of months ago, and Andy Mohr Toyota "fixed" the damage for $440.00.

Turns out, though, that they didn't fix it right.

The tailpipe rattles against the bumper sometimes when the van idles, or when I'm decelerating to stop at a traffic signal or something. Simply looking at the tailpipe, I can tell that it's not centered in the cut-out of the back bumper where it's supposed to be. I told them about this problem in November, but they apparently forgot about it or something because it didn't get fixed.

Andy Mohr Toyota also claimed to have fixed a heater line that, for unknown reasons, runs through the back wheel well / bumper area and was leaking fluid after the November damage. No one I've described it to has any guess as to why there is a heater line back there, but Andy Mohr Toyota claims there is. At any rate, we thought that problem had been repaired in November, but we discovered a few weeks ago--the first time we had an adult, and not just Olivia and June, sitting back there--that while the vents blew air out, it was cold air. No heat in the back of the van.

So Andy Mohr Toyota just called and left me a voice mail message. There was an air bubble in the heating line that had to be burped out. I guess that was a real tough task, but much to their relief, they finally got that air bubble burped out, and there's heat in the back of the van again. That part of the message made me chuckle. Are we driving a van or a newborn baby? I had visions of the mechanic, with a burp rag on his shoulder, holding the van in his arms, rocking back and forth, patting and rubbing the roof, until the van burped and spit up a little bit. I was still giggling at that part of the message when I got to the part that REALLY made me laugh out loud.

They claim that the entire exhaust assembly needs to be replaced to solve the rattling problem. It'll take three to five days for the parts to come in, and then it will cost.........this is the best part..........wait for it...........wait for it............ready?............FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS to fix!!

I'm still laughing!!

Seriously?! To move the tailpipe over about a half-inch, so that it doesn't vibrate against the bumper, it's going to require an entirely new exhaust assembly?!

I don't know much about cars, but I do know that with very minimal effort, I can move the tailpipe a half-inch by hand. I bet Olivia could move it with her hand, too. That's how easy it is to move. I'm thinking that the installation of a simple bracket to hold it in place after moving the tailpipe to where it should be would solve the problem. And for substantially less than $500.00.

Now, that may not be the "official" Toyota solution, but I don't care anymore. These people at Andy Mohr Toyota are crooks. The van will be going to the mechanic we use for our six-year-old Chevy Malibu. I'm VERY confident that they can find a fix for for the tailpipe issue for less than $500.00.

And Toyota can keep their stupid warranty. What a joke.