Dear Toyota

Sorry Toyota. I’m handing in my fan club membership and calling it a day.

I’ve been a Toyota owner for the last 11 years. I’ve owned three cars. My first car was a 1999 Corolla. Before trading it into the dealership, I wracked 217,000 kilometres on the odometer and received $3,400 from the dealership as trade-in value. Plus, the car didn’t even have air conditioning. The only thing I had to fix on that car was the brakes and that was at the 120,000 kilometre point. (I did a lot of highway driving with that car and I didn’t “ride the brake” as my father calls it. When I was a teenager learning to drive, my father drilled it into me that you whatever you do, don’t “ride the brake.”

My second Toyota was a 2005 Echo Hatchback. I absolutely loved that car. Loved it! Soon after purchasing that car, I wrote a thank you letter to the dealership, gushing how much I loved my car and my Toyota experience. They even posted my letter on the bulletin board in the service department waiting room for everyone to read. It was a great little commuter car. The only drawback was due to its small size it didn’t fare well on windy days, especially on the highway. It’s nickname was “the sissy car.“ It was christened the sissy car by my friend’s uncle who declared, “that is one sissy car,” when he spotted parked in her driveway. Yes, it was a sissy car. Yes, a lot of people snickered at it and poked fun at its size. But it got me where I had to go and I got good gas mileage.

Before darling daughter arrived, dear husband and I decided to downsize to one vehicle. My little hatchback seemed to small to be a main family car and his Saturn needed replacing. I sold my car and he traded in his vehicle and we bought a 2009 Matrix.

At that point, I was so in love with Toyota. I was a proud Toyota owner. I had completely bought into the Toyota’s reputation of quality and reliability. And why would I not? I had no problem with the past two Toyota’s I owned. There was no question in my mind we’d buy a Toyota. We visited three Toyota dealerships before we cut a deal. Over the years I’d recommend Toyota to my family and friends. “You won’t regret your decision,” I’d tell them.

Recently, we have experienced problems with our Matrix. We had to take the car into the dealership to get the brakes fixed. No big deal. Then in late December, the ABS brake sensor started acting up. I took the car to the dealership and they diagnosed the problem as a speed senor failure. A new senor was needed, they told me and I was assured my car was safe to drive. It is now February 19. The senor still hasn’t replaced. We were first told that it would come in at the end of January. But apparently since other Toyota owners are having senor problems the part is on back order.

Then the massive recall to fix sticky accelerator pedals was announced. I still had confidence, but as I started to think more about our issues with our Matrix, my faith started to slowly erode. And yesterday was the last straw. I had problems braking. Luckily we were almost home. So we had to make another call to the dealership and once again the car went back into the garage for an inspection. According to the dealership, my brakes are fine. But really, how can I have confidence in a product that seems to be having problem after problem?

Sorry Toyota, you can run all the commercials you want on television and radio to secure customer loyalty, but you can’t restore my confidence or faith in your product. I've got no more brand loyalty for you. My grandfather was a Buick man and for the longest time my father only drove Ford trucks. But I have learned that money talks. And the next time this repeat customer has to purchase a new car, she‘ll be driving past a Toyota dealership and looking elsewhere.