Toyota New Zealand Reviews 

Toyota vehicles are excellent!! Love them!! Toyota Insurance NZ is terrible!!! Did not respond to my various emails or queries, did not return my calls. Think twice before dealing with them!!!

I took my car to King Toyota Lower Hutt for a routine service after three years and was surprised to receive a bill of $305 for what appeared to be mainly an oil change, WOF, and a miscellaneous item on the invoice. I had expected a more comprehensive inspection and better value from an authorised dealer service.

The reason many customers return to the dealership after purchase is for peace of mind and confidence that the vehicle is being thoroughly checked — but unfortunately this experience didn’t feel that way to me.

Once the warranty period ends, I’ll be reconsidering whether dealership servicing is worth the extra cost. This experience has left me disappointed, and unless things improve, I don’t see myself returning.

I encourage customers to review the invoice carefully and compare servicing options before committing.

Harish Patel
Wellington

Review Title: Extremely Disappointing Experience with 2024 Toyota Highlander Z Limited

Review:
I purchased a brand-new 2024 Toyota Highlander Z Limited, and from day one, the car had issues. Despite being a top-tier model, I faced persistent problems. I reached out to Toyota multiple times through emails and phone calls and visited the dealership over ten times. Motor Vehicle Tribunal Distribute also confirmed the defects and mandated that Toyota fix the vehicle. Yet, even after all these efforts and more than a month of waiting, Toyota has not resolved the issues and continues to waste my time. This ongoing frustration has caused significant stress for me.

Overall, I’m deeply disappointed with the quality of the car and the lack of service from Toyota.

I took my car for servicing purposes a Saturday morning and they never advised they were closing at midday so my car was stuck there the whole long weekend. I find this terrible. I had checked the opening hours online and it'd say there were open until 5:30, so when I went to collect my car I could not understand why everything was locked down. I approached the sales team and they just said "it has always been like that" (I was meant to know somehow apparently) and that they had different locks, alarm systems and so on. I took a deep breath and left as that team that had nothing to do with it, but when I went to collect the car on Tuesday, I talked to the person that I had met on Saturday and she dismissed everything I was saying and she kept on repeating that "she ALWAYS tells everybody about the opening times". I said I wanted to complain. A few minutes later a man came, did not introduce himself, listened to me and the best that I got out of him was "well, now it is in the past, so even IF I apologised, I would not change anything". So basically, there was no acknowledgement, no reviewing of the service provided, nothing at all. We talked about the way people get notifications (texts only), and how the information provided in those is insufficient to provide all the details a client would need to plan accordingly. He also said he would listen to the call when I booked the service and would follow up on that as "they are also meant to inform you when you book". That is also not good enough. Honestly, super disappointed of Toyota City Centre customer service.

Just rang Toyota Insurance to make a claim for my cracked window screen. The person a) could not repeat my car rego back to me at all correctly...got all the numbers and one letter wrong b) was unable to answer simple questions properly and, instead, attempted to read through large chunks of the policy and c) when I clarified my simple question, told me that we needed to follow the procedure and kept reading the policy.

Polite service department. Sadly the truth is hard to come by. Had the car handed back to me less than 2 weeks old with a grinding hack into the bodywork. No repair made and they sprayed the exposed metal in black paint on a white car where the grinder went through the body. No masking used and I spent a whole day removing over spray. Inferior outsourced repairs led to my Hilux being re sprayed 4 times for a simple rust spot. I have honestly had 6-8 days of work lost and time taking my car in since I purchased it. Today aircon is broken. New car less than 3 years old. An absolute calamity of narcissistic and uncaring employees. Actions speak louder than words and your actions at the Toyota service department is deplorable.

25 years ago I owned a very sporty toyota. A levin gt apex no less. Toyota North Shore maintained this car perfectly and gave flawless service. I had been a customer of theirs for years anyway, and had owned other toyota sports cars, but the experience was always the same. A new mechanic replaced a CV on it and damaged the gearbox. Even though there wasn't 100% proof this is what happened, it was pretty obvious this was the culprit and they replaced the gearbox for free after we investigated it. They are amazing.

I recently went to Rotorua Toyota and asked about a car I have owned for 9 months. The brakes on the rear weren't properly maintained and one of the calipers seized. They were the last ones to work on the rear brakes. I needed to replace the Rotors/Pads and a caliper, not a cheap service on a lexus. They had warranted the car 11 months ago and insist there was no issue then, but again the evidence on the pad wear shows this was highly unlikely even though it's not 100% proof. The outer pad was essentially untouched and the only slight wear was at an angle, and the inner was through to the metal.
When I suggested they were at fault I got shut down, and they tried shifting the blame to my usual mechanic who did the last service (which was an oil change only), they tried the "It's been too long, could have been anything" tactic, and refused to consider the wear pattern as evidence.

This experience is the polar opposite of what I have come to expect from a Toyota dealership.

Toyota insurance nz is awful to deal with.we have had them insuring our vehicle for 1 year and it started fine and about 6months in things changed.
Sporatic with communication regarding premium changes. Sporatic with billing dates and not agreed amounts. Which were stated by verbal communication
random amounts being taken out of our without knowledge. Incompetent, Rude staff. Not a great experience.

Awful service. I contracted car insurance with them, went to the office (miles
Toyota in CHC), signed all the paperwork, and realized after 3 weeks that they hadn't charged me. Upon contacting Toyota insurance, they said Miles Toyota didn't inform them about the policy. I had to contact Miles Toyota to resolve it, leaving me uninsured during that time (fun fact the rep. at Miles Toyota said I was insured from the day after (I have chooses the date), giving me all my paperwork and a handshake. Why should I have to chase people to debit my insurance? From a customer perspective, if you go to Toyota, they should take ownership of the brand instead of bouncing around for answers between Toyota and Miles Toyota, and Toyota insurance. It’s been a few days without a solution and answer
How silly is that?