It’s been a while since I invoked the lemon law in Maryland (1980s), but it was for an AC compressor. I almost got a new Taurus out of it. I would have, but for the numbskulls at the dealership refusing to replace the compressor until the last try. Every time they “repaired” the compressor, they made it worse. I don’t consider that a safety issue, yet the local lemon law covered it.
Yeah, the laws do vary from state to state. Most have some level of multiple attempts for a given failure. Heard a number of stories about how much more determined the dealership became when they were on notice and it was the last attempt. Often, the manufacturer may send a rep to help with the repair assessment when it gets to that point to avoid a buy back.
In this case, it’s the first repair attempt. The problem is known. The part is on backorder. The owner is not deprived of the use of the vehicle. That is not a lemon case according to their law and it seems reasonable that it is not. I do think the dealership would score a lot of points if they find a unit from their car inventory to install and take the inconvenience hit themselves in support of their customer…
When I walked in to leave the car for the last attempt, the service adviser was pretty bored until he called my car up on the screen and saw something that made his eyes as big a saucers. I got a good laugh out of that.
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Order an aftermarket hu and send the bill to Toyota.
In 2015 our brand new kia got rear ended. We had to wait 2 months Tll parts were available, It s not a perfect world, deal with it. You turned down the rental car and now you are suffering? Give it up!!!
Only problem I see is that the loaner they offered wasn’t suitable. Get them to give you a Highlander or equivalent, problem solved.
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Re: Removing working gadget from a new unsold car on the lot, and using it to fix a customer’s car.
Were I looking for a new car to buy, I’d much prefer the dealership didn’t do that. I’d want to be certain my new car is exactly the way it came from the factory; the way it was configured when it was quality control tested and passed for shipping to the dealership. In return I’d accept the downside delay and perhaps using a loaner car in the meantime if my new car develops a problem that requires the dealership to order the part. When I purchased my Corolla, unknown to me the dealership had prior installed a security gadget to prevent theft from their lot. That gadget (the installation of which I wasn’t aware) failed a couple years later and caused me much grief.
I feel your pain, OP. A new car shouldn’t have an issue for 30 days. I’ve never lemon lawed anything, but it seems like it would be more of a hassle than waiting for Toyota to get a new head unit and install it. Is the vehicle totally driveable, but just doesn’t have the radio, nav, etc? If so, I think I’d just drive it, tell them to call me when the head unit gets in, and ask for a 100k mile warranty for my patience in the situation.
With how interconnected various electronic devices are in cars these days, I wonder if a unit already networked to another vehicle would work properly if transplanted into the OP’s. It should be possible but it might require reprogramming with the dealer’s advanced scan tool. Human error (or ignorance) could cause a problem.
As mentioned above, I would ask for “same” loaner, Ie highlander and put miles on it while they are scratching their head.
The one time I was not happy with my loaner was when my Ford Focus was in for warranty work, Mine was manual and the loaner was dual clutch auto. They did not have a manual loaner and the dual clutch on this car was a disaster. Essentially was being shifted by a schizophrenic. I eventually parked it and drove our other spare car.
This argument is not really valid. When my GPS unit failed on my brand new Mazda6 the dealer simply popped out my GPS and unplugged it (a simple connector) and did the same thing to a brand new car on the lot. A month later the other car got a brand new, OEM, factory tested unit direct from Japan.
Are you worried that the dealer might not plug the connector all the way in or they might not press the new GPS unit into the hole in the dash until it clicks? I can understand your concern if this was a transmission or something mechanical, but electronics are plug and play and the replacement pieces for a brand new car will be OEM factory parts, tested the exact same way that the original part was.
The problem w/electronics swaps is that many of these gadgets are tied to the car’s computer network, and have to be configured correctly to work with that car and that car’s configuration. Also there’s anti-theft issues. Criminals like to break into the car & steal these gadgets, so the manufactures make it difficult to use them in any car other than the one it was originally installed in. Not saying it is not possible to be successful in swapping a gadget from car to car w/o issues, but besides the mechanical connection issues you already mentioned, there’s lots of other ways for something like that to fail, and not all of them fail in an obvious way. It might take weeks or months before the problem becomes apparent. On my 46 year old truck I wouldn’t give a seconds worry to swapping the AM radio truck to truck. But is it a worry free thing on newer computerized cars? Not so much imo.
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Reminder to everybody that thinks the answer is to pull a unit from a new car on the dealers lot. This is October, dealers want the 2018s SOLS to make room for the 2019s.
Meh. It took them five minutes and I have gone 5 years and 140,000 miles without any trouble. Anecdotally, I asked the sales manager what became of the “donor car” and he told me that it never had any GPS issues after the new one arrived from Japan and was installed. The owner still brings it in for routine service.
I posit that too often we let our past experiences govern us in emotional ways. I accept your feelings on this matter and your approach is certainly safe. I worry a lot less and I understand how modern cars work. I’m ok with these types of swaps. We can agree to each live comfortably within our belief systems.
We had to wait 2 months for parts after new car was rear ended.
While dealers nowadays would probably be reluctant to do it, this exact procedure was SOP with many FIAT dealers in The US, back in the '60s & '70s. Because certain parts were not stocked in The US, and it took… literally… months to have them imported, many FIAT dealers resorted to cannibalizing cars on their lots in order to try to keep owners of broken-down cars happy.
I’m pretty sure no one would prefer that. But, it happens more often than I think people realize and in fact you have no idea if it did happen. Cars fall off transporters and are repaired. No disclosure. You never know what the car you purchased went through prior to your taking possession and have no control or say in it either. Sleep tight! 
Didn’t BMW loose a big lawsuit over some cars getting re-painted after the paint was damaged in transit and then being sold as new?
not only is the owner driving it around, they choose to continue to drive it around, rather than making use of the dealerships loaner vehicle. I understand the size differences and the family needs, but it has to hurt a lemon law case to deny a replacement loaner vehicle.
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