danielerror said:
9. I have the previous service agent saying the car was burning a lot of oil before the previous owner sold it.
Unfortunately, this doesn't count for much unless the dealership you bought it from knew about it, and swept it under the rug. If it consumed oil but didn't smoke or have visible leaks, they can not be expected to know on a test drive. Does that make sense? When I worked at a dealership, we test drove motorcycles out of the crate for no more than 9 miles. We had pre determined loops to check everything. Customers love seeing mileage on a new vehicle in the single digits. They're unlikely to test drive anything much further than 9 miles, and they'd have no way of knowing unless it was specifically stated to them.
On another note, the dealership I worked at had customers sign papers when they recieved their motorcycles stating they were walked through the owners manual, and they would follow the instructions. In the owners manual, it has sections like "pre use inspection"
"Prior to every use, check the following:
1. tire pressure
2. oil level
The warning is specifically stated in the toyota manual as such:
"General maintenance should be performed on a daily basis. This can
be done by yourself or by a Toyota dealer."
Under general maintenance is oil level check
on page 461 of this manual:
they state the following:
Engine oil consumption
A certain amount of engine oil will be consumed while driving. In the following
situations, oil consumption may increase, and engine oil may need to be
refilled in between oil maintenance intervals.
●When the engine is new, for example directly after purchasing the vehicle or
after replacing the engine
●If low quality oil or oil of an inappropriate viscosity is used
●When driving at high engine speeds or with a heavy load, when towing, or
when driving while accelerating or decelerating frequently
●When leaving the engine idling for a long time, or when driving frequently
through heavy traffic
Immediately after buying a used car, one should check the oil level daily until the first fill up to know if it consumed oil, and how fast. After determining rough oil consumption, I check the oil level while gas is filling the tank.
When I was in highschool, I had an old toyota tercel. Little did I know, they left the factory with oval cylinder bores. It smoked when I bought it. One day a few weeks after changing the oil with synthetic, it stopped smoking. Great! I thought to myself. I fixed it!!!!
Later that day, what little oil remaining was spread 50 yards across the road. Little did I know, it stopped smoking because it had no oil left for the poor thing to burn. Unfortunately, I think we have one thing in common. We've both learned the hard way, that oil level should be checked frequently, or atleast frequently enough that you have a thorough understanding of when your oil level should be checked and topped up. I check my oil very frequently now and I never regret it. I'm sorry you had the experience of buying something with higher than normal oil consumption and you didn't know, and you weren't told.
Unfortunately in the case it seems it will be an uphill battle to prove the dealership knew, and are at fault any more than what they will say you are in this situation.
I wish you luck though, perhaps you can ask politely if there's anything they can do. Many a dealership still enjoys customer good will, and they'll work with you to keep it.
Engineering student. Electrical or mechanical, I can't decide!
Minoring in psychology
![[bigsmile]](/data/assets/smilies/bigsmile.gif "[bigsmile] [bigsmile]")
so I used judge) 