The paint on the roof started blistering about a year ago, then got worse about 2-3 months ago. This is only the roof, there are some very small spots on the hood and passenger side that might be the same, but they are not well developed, while the roof looks like it has leprosy. I took it to Toyota since it was under warranty and looked like a paint problem. The guys there agreed it could be, and said they had never seen anything like it, but when the regional manager saw it she felt that it was some environmental problem. The paint person at the Toyota body shop also said so, although her evidence limited to one spot where the blister seemed to slightly affect the adjacent rubber seal. They said it should be covered by my insurance.
I went through my insurance company, USAA, and they sent me to a collision place that thought that it could be due to a liquid hitting it, although they could not imagine how it could have happened. They suggested maybe someone put the wrong fluid in the windshield wipers, when the oil was changed, but this really doesn't seem to make sense when I experiment. The insurance company sat on it for a month and a half, then gave me a one line reply that it was "normal wear and tear" and not covered. They said it could not have been a liquid since that would have just dried (no, that does not make sense to me either - vandalism, spraying with acid of some sort, would have dried and affected paint - but it does not have a spray pattern)
Given where the car was parked, adjacent unaffected cars, and so forth we can rule out acid rain, leaves, tree sap and bird poop.
So, I am left with Toyota telling me it is not a paint problem, USAA telling me it could not be a single incident, must be long term normal wear and tear, so therefor one must conclude that it is normal for Toyota paint to blister after only three years. It is to be expected, apparently, and it is up to me to repair it.
I am not sure exactly who is really blowing me off, so I am changing my insurance company, and will hesitate to ever get a Toyota again, although me and my immediate family have purchased 5 of them in the past decade.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
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The paint on the roof started blistering about a year ago, then got worse about 2-3 months ago. This is only the roof, there are some very small spots on the hood and passenger side that might be the same, but they are not well developed, while the roof looks like it has leprosy. I took it to Toyota since it was under warranty and looked like a paint problem. The guys there agreed it could be, and said they had never seen anything like it, but when the regional manager saw it she felt that it was some environmental problem. The paint person at the Toyota body shop also said so, although her evidence limited to one spot where the blister seemed to slightly affect the adjacent rubber seal. They said it should be covered by my insurance.
I went through my insurance company, USAA, and they sent me to a collision place that thought that it could be due to a liquid hitting it, although they could not imagine how it could have happened. They suggested maybe someone put the wrong fluid in the windshield wipers, when the oil was changed, but this really doesn't seem to make sense when I experiment. The insurance company sat on it for a month and a half, then gave me a one line reply that it was "normal wear and tear" and not covered. They said it could not have been a liquid since that would have just dried (no, that does not make sense to me either - vandalism, spraying with acid of some sort, would have dried and affected paint - but it does not have a spray pattern)
Given where the car was parked, adjacent unaffected cars, and so forth we can rule out acid rain, leaves, tree sap and bird poop.
So, I am left with Toyota telling me it is not a paint problem, USAA telling me it could not be a single incident, must be long term normal wear and tear, so therefor one must conclude that it is normal for Toyota paint to blister after only three years. It is to be expected, apparently, and it is up to me to repair it.
I am not sure exactly who is really blowing me off, so I am changing my insurance company, and will hesitate to ever get a Toyota again, although me and my immediate family have purchased 5 of them in the past decade.
- Margaret V., Lincolnton, NC, US