Steeps

Well my car thought it was a good excuse for a holiday... it refused to start

Not sure if it's of any use/insensitive but on the other side an owner has had their white written off due to a front impact, the door and the whole of the rear look to be in good condition. Is it possible to contact insurers to salvage parts or find out where they're going?

Can you book mine in too if it's heavily discounted? Wouldn't mind DAB as there's only BBC/Heart/Classic here

I would have loved to have used this to reject my car for a faulty radio that took them 4 attempts to fix!, would have saved the headache of getting the "non faulty" gearbox sorted

Those shoes any good for heel-toeing? I have fat feet and struggle with control

I recommend keeping change in the cupholders, the 12V cover and an old pair of sunglasses in the empty glovebox, then an old boxfile full of stolen stationery in the boot... More than enough rattles to stop you worrying about seat poppers

Car doesn't have USB3, but from the specs of the USB stick the read speed of the drive is 140MB/s compared to 60MB/s that USB2 supports... but the write speed of the drive is only 10MB/s which is way below the USB2 maximum. It is possible to buy a USB2 stick that only has 10MB/s read speed. Older sticks could be even slower which will cause jumping/skipping.

When I first got mine I had a freebie stick with low quality MP3's on and it would take a few seconds to change track, upgraded to a small fast high capacity stick and I no longer have that issue. Currently have one of these connected 24/7 and it's fantastic: http://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash-Drives/Integral/Integral-Fusion-32GB-USB-3.0-Flash-Drive

Looks fantastic in yellow! If you don't mind me asking how much was it to get a full wrap?

As someone who isn't involved so much with both forums and used to moderate a few myself, I thought this was handled quite well given the circumstances and if anything I'm more surprised with the attitude and response from this "community". I don't know the full ins and outs as to why individuals are banned, but to go back to the forum to ask for fundraising for a banned member is a bit like one company asking for donations from a competitor's employees to help one of its own, yes some people would be willing to help out but it's not in management's interest to promote another group. I'm not trying to say one forum is better than the other etc, but the way Stu has handled the thread from an outsider's point of view looks a lot more mature than the reaction given on this forum. I'm sure the thread would have stayed open if it wasn't for a banned member, even if they didn't post much, but all this negativity/witch-hunt doesn't really paint a welcoming picture about this place if someone might have a different view to the way things are run/discussed, which is what has caused this split in the first place.

Not working here either

I see more potential for a rat forum than I would for a specialist car forum especially if generating ad revenue is your main goal. A much wider range of ages, affordability and general running costs of a rat make it a larger target who want help and advice (and approval) from fellow rat owners.

Is it fairly simple to do? I've got a stone chip on my rear wheel arch which has taken some of the blue off. Looking at getting it corrected but wanted to source the paint first.

I agree it sucks that the only solution offered was a pre-loved gearbox, but it also highlights that Toyota themselves don't have any confidence in the product when they wouldn't issue a new one because it might be better or worse than mine. Again back to the radio situation, this should have been done straight away instead of being fobbed off with excuses, that's what annoys me more than it being second hand. There is a clear difference between the gearboxes and it should have been replaced from the start. When working in retail we used to issue warranty replacements using DSR stock because quite often we couldn't sell the DSR stock as new due to boxes/packaging being opened. In fairness the GT86 that donated its gearbox they would struggle to sell anyway in its current condition due to the really strong smoker smell, hopefully for any future customer they will find a suitable adjustment for the gearbox while airing it out themselves. I'm going to try and get a copy of all the reports, videos that they have made and keep a complete file of the issue so I have both sides, rather than just my own evidence.

Instead of spamming the other thread I thought it would be better to have its own. Gearbox in my GT86 was always a bit crunchy from new but I was assured at the time of purchase (1st follow up) that this would settle down and get smoother once broken in. About November time while having issues with the radio (another long post) I mentioned it again but the dealer once again dismissed any issues and assured me the car was within spec and it wasn't a fault. In February the car went back in for the 4th attempt to get the radio replaced and they supposedly replaced the gearbox oil and adjusted the clutch (but later denied the clutch)... This made it worse. Instead of being very crunchy it is now not possible to downshift to 2nd (and 1st) unless approaching a complete stop or until the engine had warmed up. Car went back in to have its linkages adjusted but again it made no improvement. At least I had the joys of borrowing an Aygo for this session. Towards the end of February I got Toyota Finance involved who according to the dealer when selling me the car were supposed to be on "my side" if there were any issues and warranty work, as it is in their interest to have a fully working car on their books. Emails started going between TGB, Toyota Finance and the dealer. I noticed talking between all of them that they kept leaving details out in their communication with eachother, be it works attempted, suggestive approaches or just ignoring what had been said. At this time their approach was to loan me another GT86 to test to see if I got on better with another car, to create a benchmark. It was suggested that I should contact another dealer to see how they would handle this situation but when I mentioned another dealer was involved they refused to look at my car unless TGB gave them permission. What was really frustrating at this point is the dealer had told TGB that my car was within factory tolerances and there was no fault, so more emails had to be fired off that I was not happy with the condition or the communication. At the end of March another GT86 was finally sourced, and it was night and day the difference. From cold the gearbox felt firm and there was only a hint of a notch a couple of times, no crunching, no blocked gears and it felt just right. Once warmed up it was smooth all the way through. If it wasn't for the fact the car was previously owned by a heavy smoker I would have considered taking a hit on the age (5 months older), mine still has the new car smell at 9 months old. 2 Weeks later (now) my car is back in for someone from TGB to give it a test, with such a difference between the stock cars it must be possible to adjust or replace components to make the experience better while still keeping the warranty. Unfortunately the weather is now a lot warmer than the previous times it was in the garage so I don't have much faith in the Toyota engineer to describe it as a fault, as it clears up quicker than before. I am not willing to accept this being a "characteristic of the car" because the one I borrowed over a long weekend didn't have these issues. Will keep on pushing until mine is fixed, a replacement provided or a refund. This thread is only a summary of what's happened, with a huge trail of emails, call logs and dealer trips in between.

Got the car back from the dealer last night, left it 12 hours to cool down. Instantly there's a difference, this morning just 200 yards I had to stop at a crossing, straight into second and straight into first. It had the usual stiffness I would expect with the gearbox being cold however it didn't fail to select/block me changing which the issue was with the last one. No crunching either. The real test will be when the weather is cold again, but as the last one crunched even when warm I can't see it being an issue.

Bad news for all those suffering from dodgy gearboxes. TGB have confirmed that my car is "within specification" and there is no fix or adjustment that they are willing to provide to fix a non-issue which I think is very poor service considering the varying levels and issues others are having with this, especially when just a couple of weeks ago they loaned me a car which had none of those issues. However because of how long this has gone on for and "to keep the customer happy", as I was fortunate enough to find a car with a suitable gearbox still owned by the dealer they have offered to swap my gearbox for the one from that car. If I still have issues after the swapout I will be rejecting the car. I can't believe that being unable to select a gear fairly critical for town driving is considered acceptable.

Half the problem is Toyota UK, I've sent them emails about work being done and they're only passing on half messages then believing the dealer when they say work is being done... then forget to relay messages back to me. Should hopefully hear back about their latest findings today, luckily it was cold overnight so I hope they get to test it this morning. As for this week's courtesy car, it felt really tail happy on the dualcarriageway last night and I nearly lost it on a roundabout. On the way to work this morning the TC was constantly working around the sweeping corners on a NSL road. There's a pair of Nexen N8000's on the back!

Mileage is just under 9k, but the one I borrowed that had no issues had only 12k on it. Each day I have between 4-8 places depending on traffic within the first 4 miles where 2nd is the best gear (parked cars, mini roundabouts, blind junctions, crossings etc) and over the "winter" it struggled at all of them, I'm concerned that if we had a real winter it would be far worse.

I am livid, but shouting and yelling at people who rarely have the power to take action doesn't usually help diffuse a situation. Having the post on the forum detailing exactly what has happened at each step as it happens has been a fantastic log and they are supposedly taking my issue more seriously than if I was to sit inside their showroom ranting at them. It is annoying that it's taken months to look into these issues. At least now I'm getting GT86 courtesy cars instead of Aygos which I didn't insist on. Can't say I've noticed a buzzing, the car doesn't usually get to high revs due to a fair bit of peak time driving and a lack of overtaking space, I'll see if I can make some space on the road on the way home tonight in the courtesy car. I don't want to do any evening testing as I want the gearbox to be cold in the morning to see if this one has a better 2nd or not.

Bit of a large image so I'll just post a link to it: http://steeps.net/steeps/photos/car/1403mar/fsm_1000.jpg

You have to love how the Macaroni with cheese with the bacon removed is a fantastic vegetarian option to go with steak.