| Issue ID | 771399 |
| Internal NHTSA # | 10315134 |
| Manufacurer | TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION |
| Brand | TOYOTA |
| Model | CAMRY |
| Model Year | 2007 |
| File date | 20/05/09 |
| Component | STRUCTURE:BODY |
| Product type code | VEHICLE |
| Description of the problem | The exterior paint on my 2007 toyota camry is so defective that it simply washed right off while it was being washed at a car wash. While using the car wash sprayer, i approached the front of my car and noticed the paint wash off about a 2"x3" spot. It flew off with hardly any force from the car wash as though it was not even attached. One could now see the grey primer that was below the black paint, as the primer remained intact. The black exterior paint peeled right off the car. Because the car was still under bumper-to-bumper warranty, i took the car to dennison toyota to be repaired. Their employee said to bring the car back when the toyota's regional paint warranty expert was in town, so they could look at it. After doing this, i was very saddened to learn that toyota would not repair the faulty paint because they said that the car had been repainted already and they would only warrant, their own paint. They determined that the car had been repainted because they said that the now visible primer color was not the color they used. They said they used a black primer but this was a lighter grey. I bought the car with only 22k miles, so i knew it had not been repainted as the carfax was clean, and the grey primer was visible under various scratches in the paint on all sides of the car. Why on earth would someone strip and reprime the entire car? Disgruntled, i emailed the toyota customer service dept. Today, they got back to me and confirmed the primer color should be a light grey, not black indicated by the regional paint expert. They apologized for not training their people better. So i called my dealer again and he is still very squirmy saying that he doesn't know what he can do. I told him that since the premise of the regional paint experts refusal to repair the paint was false, the car should be covered by the warranty since it was the manufacturer's paint that failed before the warranty expired. We shall see what they say. |
| Vehicle Mileage at Failure | 32000 |
| Number of Occurences | 1 |
| Source of the issue | NHTSA WEB SITE |
| City and State | NORMAL, IL |
| VIN pattern | 4T1BK46K67UXXXXXX |
| Was vehicle invloved in a crash? | N |
| Was vehicle involved in a fire? | N |
| Was incedent reported to police? | N |
| Was medical attention required? | |
| Was part original equipment? | |
| No. of injured persons | |
| No. of fatalities | |
| Date of purchase | 07/08/26 |
| Was original owner? | N |
| Anti-lock brakes | N |
| Cruise control | N |
| Number of cylinders | |
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| Transmission type | |
| Vehicle speed | 0 |
| DoT tire identifier | |
| Tire size | |
| Location of tire code | |
| Type of tire failure code | |
| Was defective tire repaired? | |
| Date of manufacture | |
| Type of child seat code | |
| Type of restraint | |
| Dealer's name | |
| Dealer's telephone number | |
| Dealer's city | |
| Dealer's state code | |
| Dealer's ZIP code |