My 2009 Toyota Corolla

[bonniejeanne]

which I have only had for about eight months, wouldn't start. I called my sister who came over with her battery charger and tried to charge it. We had it on there for several hours and it wouldn't do anything. So we took the battery to autozone where they had it on their charger for 1 1/2 hours and I was told that it was dead, it would not hold a charge. They told me that there was something wrong with the battery or something else in the car that killed the battery. So I called the Toyota people and they told me that I needed to bring the whole car in. I told them again that the battery was dead and I could not drive it. He told me to jump start it and drive it there. There is no way I was going to try to drive that thing down the main highway in town (on which there are a ton of traffic lights) and get stalled stopping all traffic. He told me that I could have it towed and if there was something wrong with the battery that they would pay towing charges. A couple hours later, I get a call saying that they charged my battery and that there is nothing wrong with it. That I will have to pay the towing charges. Now how is it that my sister's charger wouldn't work, autozone's charger wouldn't work on it, and even the tow truck guy (who's a friend of mine) said that the battery was dead, yet, there is nothing wrong with the battery? How can that possibly be? Now, I'm wondering if they switched the battery out on me just to avoid towing charges, or if they charged a dead battery and it's going to die on me in the middle of the highway. ARGH!

[dv8grl]

Did auto zone give you a little paper with the battery readings? At PepBoys we'd give the reading to the customer to prove the battery was dead or there was a full charge.

We have a 05 Corolla, never had a problem, I think the current battery thats in it is the original.

[mosdata1]

do you by asny chance have the serial # from your first battery written down anywhere? If so, compare the numbers & make sure they didn't switch out the battery on you.

One other thing you can check is what date os on the battery in your car right now. If, and this is a BIG if, the date is less than 9 months old, you know that they switched out the battery on you.

[bonniejeanne]

The autozone guy didn't give me any paper. I never wrote down the serial number of the battery. Would it be written anywhere in my original papers when I bought the car? I should have thought to do that. I even thought afterwards that I should have made some kind of mark on the battery so that I would know if they switched it. Too little, too late. My son is bringing me to pick my car up tomorrow. It was too late today to get it by the time he called me back.

[Quaker_Parrots]

Maybe you will luck out, and when you pick it up it wont start.

[Lori63]

Toyotas are usually VERY reliable. We have a 1994, 2000, 2004 and have never had any trouble. Hope you won't anymore :)

[bonniejeanne]

Well, I went in today to get my car and immediately asked to speak to a manager. I told him everything that happened and he was very nice. He went out and checked my car to make sure that it would start, and it did. He told me that he would arrange it so that my warranty would cover the towing charges. I wasn't charged anything and he told me if there were any more problems to call them immediately and they would have it towed themselves. He gave me his card and told me to call him personally if the car should fail again. :)

[SLance68]

Glad that you asked for the Manager. From what I have seen Toyota always has great customer service.

[mosdata1]

Great, I'm so happy to hear that the manager did the right thing.

[OkeDoke]

which I have only had for about eight months, wouldn't start. I called my sister who came over with her battery charger and tried to charge it. We had it on there for several hours and it wouldn't do anything. So we took the battery to autozone where they had it on their charger for 1 1/2 hours and I was told that it was dead, it would not hold a charge. They told me that there was something wrong with the battery or something else in the car that killed the battery. So I called the Toyota people and they told me that I needed to bring the whole car in. I told them again that the battery was dead and I could not drive it. He told me to jump start it and drive it there. There is no way I was going to try to drive that thing down the main highway in town (on which there are a ton of traffic lights) and get stalled stopping all traffic. He told me that I could have it towed and if there was something wrong with the battery that they would pay towing charges. A couple hours later, I get a call saying that they charged my battery and that there is nothing wrong with it. That I will have to pay the towing charges. Now how is it that my sister's charger wouldn't work, autozone's charger wouldn't work on it, and even the tow truck guy (who's a friend of mine) said that the battery was dead, yet, there is nothing wrong with the battery? How can that possibly be? Now, I'm wondering if they switched the battery out on me just to avoid towing charges, or if they charged a dead battery and it's going to die on me in the middle of the highway. ARGH!

We had a Ford that had that same problem, it also was the starter too!



Toyotas are usually VERY reliable. We have a 1994, 2000, 2004 and have never had any trouble. Hope you won't anymore :)

I'm with you, I haven't had any trouble with any of my Toyotas either. They are dependable cars or trucks.