Well, having spent a significant amount of my time yesterday and today carefully reading the various articles about the engine failure on Blake Alvarado's Toyota GR86 published online by the likes of
Motor Trend,
Road & Track and
The Drive last week as well as the relevant threads on the
FT86Club.com and
GR86.org Forums, I trust that - in addition to answering the questions raised in
my Post # 4,031 on the GR86 Order List thread - Toyota (GB) PLC (TGB) will also provide us with answers to the following additional questions at some point in the not-too-distant future :
1) How many GR86s are believed to be at risk of being affected by the RTV sealant issue which currently appears to have caused the engine failure on Blake Alvarado's car and when were they built?
2) How many, if any, of the GR86s identified in 1) above are destined for delivery to the reportedly circa. 430 UK-based customers?
3) Will and, if so, when is a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) likely to be issued by Toyota Motor Corporation and/or TGB addressing the issue?
4) What steps will TGB take to mitigate the risk of any UK-based GR86s sustaining an engine failure of the type sustained by Blake Alvarado's car
irrespective of whether or not a TSB has been issued and will that work be undertaken by TGB or by the Toyota Dealer responsible for the handover
before delivery?
5) Will TGB confirm that - provided a GR86 is maintained and serviced by a Toyota Dealer every year until the car has either covered 100,000 miles or is ten-years old - the
Relax Warranty will cover any work rectifying an engine failure attributable to the RTV sealant issue
at any time during that ten-year period?
Finally, here are a couple of additional points:
- The GR86 is targeted at the enthusiast Gazoo Racing community - most of whom will already be aware of Blake Alvarado's unfortunate experience. I, for one, do not want the GR86's reputation and - just as importantly - residual values to be forever tainted by the engine failure issue.
- There is a distinction to be made between Blake Alvarado's case and the situation here in the UK - we have all contracted
directly with TGB for the purchase of our GR86s so, in other words, no Dealers or Regional Distributors are involved as in the US.
Interestingly, I see that
Autocar has
today published this article about the issue with the wheel hub bolts working loose on the new Toyota bZ4X - I wonder when the UK-based motoring media will pick up and run with the GR86 issue...