GR86 Some Perspective...

gooly

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Hello everyone - the mood here has changed significantly after the recent announcements. I can understand that given for early orders, the delivery time has basically doubled and subsequently screwed up people's schedules when it comes to selling cars, leases ending etc. Toyota haven't given us a specific reason for the delay either, which is also frustrating.

However...

Those with early orders will be getting their brand new, new-model sports car within a year of ordering. In the current manufacturing / car buying climate, that in itself is impressive.

Toyota are honouring the 4.9% APR finance deal beyond what they have been contractually obliged to do. With current inflation projections, they are effectively losing money on their finance deal.

Toyota sold us the car at 30k. With the car market as it is, and the unique, limited release proposition of the GR86, they could have easily charged more.

Toyota are (eventually) actually calling and updating people with their orders, and have been lovely during that process. Order a brand new Porsche or Lotus and see if you get the same treatment. Order a brand new VW Golf right now even, and see if you get the same treatment.

We are being offered demo cars alongside our refundable order deposit so that we can try before we buy.

We're getting a 10 year warranty, which isn't written off wholesale by modifications or track use. Try getting that in America at the moment.

The experiences that everyone has had are frustrating. They are not however, unique to Toyota - everyone I know who has had a new car delivered in the last 12-18 months has had an identical, if not worse experience, from huge delays announced last minute, to terrible customer service, to the wrong specs being delivered as components weren't available. The difference is, those people aren't getting a lovely last of the line, critically acclaimed analogue RWD sports coupe. They aren't getting a 10 year warranty, and they aren't getting fantastic residuals.

I'm not saying nobody should complain, but take the opportunity to remind yourself that you are one of the lucky ones. Bring on October :)
 
I’ve not heard of another manufacturer bringing a car to market and telling people they’re weeks away from taking delivery only to realise they don’t conform to regulations? The only recent change I can guess at it being is ISA at which point I’d be flipping the car when it arrives.
I hope I’m overthinking it.

I’d also say the fact that other manufacturers are worse than Toyota shouldn’t excuse them, it’s not a race to the bottom and our standards shouldn’t slip due to other manufacturers lack of customer care. I will say my experience has been excellent with the dealership I chose but a little transparency from Toyota UK about the environmental issues the cars are having to be modified to conform with would be nice.

Either way my car hasn’t even gone into build yet and was due in October so a delay doesn’t bother me in the slightest, I’d actually rather take delivery in spring.. with no ISA system onboard! 😂
 
Toyota are (eventually) actually calling and updating people with their orders, and have been lovely during that process. Order a brand new Porsche or Lotus and see if you get the same treatment. Order a brand new VW Golf right now even, and see if you get the same treatment.

Others are worse than a generic email and a phone call to confirm your colour, a survey and a "you might get your car at some point between now and 2024"? Can it really be worse than that? lol

I'm still cross

Bring on 2023 for most of us
.... And 2024 for the chosen few 🤣
 
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This popped up in my feed and made me smile, same scenario but different product (snazzy phone case). This company's CMO gets it! Maybe he should have a word..


Screenshot_20220725-200130.webp
 
For some of us, a new car is something of a special occasion and not done on a whim. Up until now I've never PCP'd a car and been in that loop of new metal every 3 years. Only ever bought one car brand new in 2011 and only had another 2 used cars since, with my current car being owned for over 7 years. Main reason was because my main goal was first house and due to several factors, that only happened 2 years ago. I was also brought up with the mentality of saving up to buy stuff, something even now I struggle to let go of.

Getting the GR86 is a big thing for me. It's also pretty much the only option I could justify and ticks almost all my boxes. The biggest ones being NA and RWD. I was getting anxious that if I didn't do it soon, it would be electric and I want one of the last, pure petrol sports car to keep forever. That is the GR86.

It's easy to get bent out of shape but the perspective to keep is this is the last of the breed. That's it after this. Nitpicking when it's this close to being the end of these sorts of cars is exactly what some want to happen. It's not useful and if you're willing to drop it for something else because of fairly minor reasons in the grand scheme of things then that's up to you.. To get anything similar new it's £50k+ and guess what. It's also a long wait for those too.

I agree comms could be better but whenever I've spoken to Toyota GB it's been great. Dealers don't want to know yet but that's no surprise and more a group issue. In comparison to other manufacturers they are better than most. We all have order numbers and an app to track progress. Think a lot of this tension will go once more of us actually get to build. But until then, chill out. Life is too short stressing over it. It is what it is.
 
Hmm. All valid points.

However. My experience with another manufacturer was exceptionally better in Autumn last year.

Wife got invited to the new Honda HRV event. She loved it and ordered one then and there. Pretty sure it was early September.

Honda told her that delivery would be December of that year, Potentially January.

She was told the demo car would be available in October for a test drive.

They also promised to honour the price at the launch event. They also promised to honour the trade in price of her old HRV as it was on the day of her order.

There was no tracking with the Honda, and I don’t believe there is now? (Happy to be corrected). If you don’t want people to fixate on exactly where there car or or when it could be made. Don’t give them an option to track it.

The demo car arrived in October. She was offered a test drive at a convenient time with around 2 weeks notice (the car was on tour.

The dealer updated her in late October telling her it was in build and should arrive in December.

Call in December saying that it had arrived in the country but she wouldn’t be able to get it until January as Honda has put a hold on anymore being released before Christmas. Apologised profusely. It was out of his control, but they would like to compensate her with a full tank of fuel by way of the inconvenience (bare in mind she was still driving around in her current HRV at the time.

She picked up her new car the first week of Jan. they honoured the price in her trade in despite her putting another thousand miles on it.

They honoured the price of the car (which went up slightly).

An absolutely pleasant experience all around.

So. From my experience. It can be done. And the key to it all, people just being straight up about what is going on.

Not trying to rock the boat. Good points have been made. But to imply this is universal isn’t correct.
 
Everybody understands, that the current marked situation is difficult.
The problem is that they just should tell us where the problem is and how the car will be changed.


But on the one hand, they provide us the myToyota website with a tracker, where you can see your progress and then, when you get exited because IT IS HERE, they dont tell you why it's delayed.
So they build up huge expectations and then completely drop you.

If they would not have this tracker and we would not know, that cars are already there, there would be less rage...
 
It’s difficult to imagine how Toyota could be handling the whole ordering and delivery process worse than they are.

And I thought the GR Yaris palaver was bad!
 
Maybe this bloke has already got a job with TUK and has been working for them for months on the sly before he leaves his current one 🤔

View attachment 6564
I'm not a fan of the man, but he has proven himself to be quite forceful when it comes to UK/Japan relations, so I'm pretty sure it cant be him :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:


2D6DF6A200000578-3273710-The_moment_of_impact_looked_painful_as_the_mayor_ran_into_the_yo-a-1...webp
 
They could be doing a lot worse, hence this is a perspective thread. Sure, there are good cases but I know of plenty of worse ones too. I know people who've ordered Kia, VW and Dacia recently and it's appalling. The Dacia case I'd have cancelled it was that bad. We're nowhere near that point with Toyota.

Perhaps less is more? The info we're getting is more than I've ever had but then because of it, we also expect more info too and we're over analysing it. How much info is too much info? At this point a monthly email like what was agreed would be good and I'd be fine with that. Think that if there was no app, none of us would know they were even in port.

Customer service isn't hard but these days I don't expect it from anyone. Since there's no dealer involved there's no rapport building and you are an order number like everything else. Rapport is an illusion anyway. Some really want that warm fuzzy feeling of having a good time with the dealer but in my experience it's a waste of time and most are crap, especially when they do wrong.

So what can we do about it? Nothing. The only options are to cancel, order something else or buy something used that's already overpriced. There are things that could make me cancel but we're nowhere near that point. I've been off these 2 weeks as it's 12 weeks since order. if it turned up, great but if not it didn't really matter. In hindsight it's a good thing it didn't as my car is still having work done before I trade it in.
 
Hmm. All valid points.

However. My experience with another manufacturer was exceptionally better in Autumn last year.

Wife got invited to the new Honda HRV event. She loved it and ordered one then and there. Pretty sure it was early September.

Honda told her that delivery would be December of that year, Potentially January.

She was told the demo car would be available in October for a test drive.

They also promised to honour the price at the launch event. They also promised to honour the trade in price of her old HRV as it was on the day of her order.

There was no tracking with the Honda, and I don’t believe there is now? (Happy to be corrected). If you don’t want people to fixate on exactly where there car or or when it could be made. Don’t give them an option to track it.

The demo car arrived in October. She was offered a test drive at a convenient time with around 2 weeks notice (the car was on tour.

The dealer updated her in late October telling her it was in build and should arrive in December.

Call in December saying that it had arrived in the country but she wouldn’t be able to get it until January as Honda has put a hold on anymore being released before Christmas. Apologised profusely. It was out of his control, but they would like to compensate her with a full tank of fuel by way of the inconvenience (bare in mind she was still driving around in her current HRV at the time.

She picked up her new car the first week of Jan. they honoured the price in her trade in despite her putting another thousand miles on it.

They honoured the price of the car (which went up slightly).

An absolutely pleasant experience all around.

So. From my experience. It can be done. And the key to it all, people just being straight up about what is going on.

Not trying to rock the boat. Good points have been made. But to imply this is universal isn’t correct.
That's the kind of attitude I would expect from a Japanese conglomerate. It is customer-oriented. I'm very surprised by my Toyota UK experience.
 
So. From my experience. It can be done. And the key to it all, people just being straight up about what is going on.
This is my only criticism of the process, really. I was told "monthly updates". But since then the only updates I've had have been second hand via posts on this forum, and even then, it's from posters who have had to chase those updates, or when I've sent emails myself.

This October delay for instance. I was initially told to expect the car in early September. I recently sent an email to see if that was still realistic and was told it does still seem to be. Then a week or so later, I read on here that someone phoned up and got told no cars until October at the earliest. Fine...but if that's the case, could we not have a quick mail shot to let us know?

Also, my app says "Processing". Now, I know that other people have been told that once it's "In Build", it will be at least another 3 months until delivery. But I only know that second hand. So if I had not been a member of this forum, then I'd still be expecting te car in September, none the wiser.

Every interaction with the TUK staff has been great. No issues with that service. But it feels like perhaps they aren't being kept informed. For me, I'm just buying a toy, so its just a bit annoying. But I feel for others, like that chap on here who was given every indication that his car would be with him in July, so he sold his old one...then they said "lol, October now" at the last minute. That must grate.
 
...

Every interaction with the TUK staff has been great. No issues with that service. But it feels like perhaps they aren't being kept informed. For me, I'm just buying a toy, so its just a bit annoying. But I feel for others, like that chap on here who was given every indication that his car would be with him in July, so he sold his old one...then they said "lol, October now" at the last minute. That must grate.

If you want the real GR-expirience, try to interact with the German online team ;)
 
If you want the real GR-expirience, try to interact with the German online team ;)

@Kosh I’M guessing the word “try” is a clue 🕵️‍♀️ , tell us more of what the 🇩🇪 GR experience feels like , fast , efficient, reliable , accurate, friendly 🤔
 
@Kosh I’M guessing the word “try” is a clue 🕵️‍♀️ , tell us more of what the 🇩🇪 GR experience feels like , fast , efficient, reliable , accurate, friendly 🤔

You can ask them anything and the reply is always: "We have no idea. Please ask your dealer. Bye"

so you are right: fast , efficient, reliable and accurate. But without any outcome ;)
 
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