Toyota Canada Customers Get Price Gouged and 2010 Rav4 Purchased with Cheap Faulty Parts and Faulty Paint Job

         At Toyota Canada dealerships you will pay more for your vehicle even though the Canadian dollar is at near par with the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dealers are told by Toyota U.S.A. not to sell to Canadians.
        Canadians have fewer vehicle option choices and are generally required to buy more expensive option packages to get a single option upgrade vs. Toyota U.S.A.
        I purchased a 2010 rav4 4X4 base model and wanted a simple alloy rim upgrade for this vehicle which is available at Toyota U.S. dealerships. In Canada you are required to buy an option package which includes a Sirius Satellite Radio, 6 disk CD changer and rear tinted windows to get an alloy wheel upgrade. I did not want any of these 3 items and I consider it to be a waste and redundant.  I was able to get some after market rims through the dealership after much hassle.  

         The only other accessory I requested was the dealer installed body side moldings which I had viewed on the Toyota.com (U.S.) website.   I was shocked when I went to pick up the vehicle and saw these cheap  1" wide one size fits all, cut to fit  aftermarket moldings on my $30K vehicle.  They have a rough cut edge that expose a hollow opening rather than  a sealed manufactured edge. This hollow edge will collect, road salt, water, and debris while creating  rust and or  freezing damage problems.  The rear moldings will collect wet salt spray along it's  whole length while the vehicle is travelling at highway speed. Major rust problems should start to show perhaps after 4 years.  The moldings will actually do more harm than good.   It turns out Toyota Canada installs these cheap $10  aftermarket moldings and most Toyota U.S.A. customers get the real Toyota genuine quality $120  3" wide moldings actually made for this vehicle. The U.S. moldings are made from 4 separate die casts to produce 4 different parts for each vehicle. This could be up to 32 die casts for all of the Toyota models costing perhaps $500K each. The Canadian moldings are made with possibly 1 single die cast and cut to different lengths to make as many 32 cut parts  for different Canadian toyota models. This could make for as much as  a 32Xs cost savings at the manufacturers level. Since the U.S. and CDN moldings both retail for about $200CDN installed, then this is by definition price gouging.




1" wide  generic CDN molding3" wide  molding in U.S.hollow edge  (rust trap)

                 I am therefore advising  Canadians to seek out Toyota U.S.A. dealerships willing to sell to Canadians if not the whole vehicle, then at least the accessory upgrades to get the quality and value you deserve. Also since Toyota Canada is treating Canadians as second class consumers to the U.S., then I am advising all North Americans to consider not buying Toyota anything at all.

                 I am also currently relaying this molding issue to class action lawyers on behalf of myself and other fellow Canadians harmed by this. I will be also contacting Transport Canada  to possibly  force a recall of the affected vehicles to remove these damage causing moldings and to repair the damage done by them.
                Further to all the above issues I have just noticed a problem with the paint quality on this vehicle with some chips in the paint when I washed it for the first time (just three weeks old and 600kms) and did a close examination of the paint.  I noticed that there is too little clear coat on this vehicle compared to my wife's 6 year old  Toyota Matrix, which has literally no paint chips on it.   I confirmed this paint quality issue by going to a dealer's lot to observe the condition of used Rav4s. 10 out of 10 had major paint chipping issues, on 07,08.and 09 models. The worst chipping was on the front hood areas.  All had touch up  color matched crayon put on them, as I am sure potential buyers would notice these chips right away otherwise. I believe the pearl finish Rav4s have more clear coat on them and could possibly stand up better.  There is also a glob of painted over  excess caulking on the fender will that will likely come off prematurely, while taking some paint finish with it.  They are obviously having quality control issues at the plant,  and  Toyota is apparently already being sued over this paint quality issue in the U.S., and I will be looking to join  class action lawsuits in Canada.
           Finally besides the paint issue, I also noticed that they did not provide stainless steel bolts for the licence plates as they had for wife's Matrix.  I actually used to brag of Toyota's quality with her Matrix, showing others how thick the paint looked and the stainless steel bolts.  This Joe consumer will not be bragging anymore.