Cardwell Day 7 (Car Progress)

Sorry to all the readers who may start to find this a little boring. We are finding the Blog will be useful for recording details of our Toyota Claim also (see below) as today it all got a little complicated.
Hopefully when we get back on the road the news and views will improve.

Below is a very interesting tangle....

We started this morning filling up the petrol on the rental car, and returning the car. We had done 400kms. I was having a chat about our whole predicament to the local petrol station guy, and he informed me that the RACQ guy seems to be quick to render cars unfixable and then offers to buy them cheap. 

He also is the main car seller in the area. It may just be co-incidence, but it seems to be a money printing scheme to me.

Got back to the Caravan and called Toyota (Paul) to see what progress had been made and got a very blunt "We are busy and will simply get to it when we can - cant tell you how many days that will be!".

Anyway, they (Paul) rang back 15 mins later to ask our address (it seems my call got things moving), so that was weird. I am thinking it was good I rang now lol. Remembering our car is sitting at the mechanics place (Rick) with an engine beside it (which has been shipped up from Brisbane - at our request - and under pressure from Rick - not knowing that Toyota may be able to help).

Paul (Toyota) rang again after another 15mins to say they have had this problem in other Prado IKD's it looks like they would do an 'out of warranty claim' for us.
We would need to submit a 'preclaim', but it looks positive.
Basically they need a photo of the car with the engine head off. 

We called Rick - it's about $600-$800 work to get those photos. Mechanic Rick said he may not be able to even do this for 1-2 weeks - and was very terse and aggressive, and really does not want us to use Toyota.

We agree to it, but hen following a further call from Toyota (Paul) only a few moments later where Toyota suggested we just ship the car to them for the same 'head' investigation - else it would turn up as a pile of bolts.

We then call the Mechanic Rick back to let him know.

So our options are $13.5k with the mechanic (we feel very uneasy with this guy), or to ship the Car North to Tully where Toyota are trying to help us.

A call to "RACQ Roadside Assist", and they agree to ship the car north (about 30 mins) at their cost. Yay - a small win finally. Dont think we will ever travel without RACQ Ultimate again !

We call Rick - He goes off his tree that the work is now going to Toyota and insists they "will just rip us off".  He also says "RACQ wont ship the car to Tully" - this despite Toyota already saying to us that they will. Even tho he will be doing the towing (as he is the local RACQ guy), we think he wants us to pay for a private tow as opposed to Roadside Assist - where he probably gets only a smaller fee for doing the tow.

Rick also said "The car wont leave until I have the cash for the freight". Which we have been agreeing to cover all the way through. This will be a cost of $600.

He will email us an Invoice, and Im happy to pay for that. He is still really bloody aggressive. Ive really had to put my calm hat on - thanks Allie for settling "angry Darren" down, as Im ready to tear this guy apart by now.

All of the above is before 10:30am.

Breaking down is one thing - dealing with money hungry arseholes who are trying to do whats wrong for you is just next level.  It is what I would call a tangle of arseholes quite frankly.

Honestly, its been real hell experience - but there is a bit of sun breaking through.

Looks like at best its another couple of weeks in this campground - while Toyota do their thing.
Still no guarantee they will cover it. But we do feel more comfy having it there.

If it is 2-3 weeks, we'll come back home - the long way - camping on the way to try and get some form of pleasurable holiday from it all. We need to be back at Bribie for Allies Mums 80th and her sister coming over (by 1st week Sept)- so we may not be able to do the Cape in that timeframe.
If thats the case -We'll come up again another time.
Our Roadside Assist has prepaid our camp fees at $49 a night up until 1st August.

As promised, we paid Rick the $600 for the freight "so that the car will be released".
And they have since confirmed that the tow will happen within the hour.

Frankly, Im just glad to get it the hell out of there and to Toyota