Toyota's Special Service Campaign (SSC)--60D For 2007 FJ Cruiser

[TMS USA]

Hello from Toyota Motor Sales USA. Yesterday, we informed the NHTSA of our intent to conduct a Special Service Campaign for our 2007 FJ Cruiser—approximately 9,000 early production vehicles—to inspect the tires.

Because of the importance of this exciting new vehicle to the Toyota line-up and the incredible passion that has been ignited by FJ owners online in discussion groups like FJCruiserForums, we’re going to try to be a bit more proactive and provide the right information to consumers and customers via consumer-generated internet discussions.

The service campaign is a voluntary action by Toyota to ensure the highest levels of customer satisfaction for FJ owners and to make sure that the vehicle continues to perform as expected by our owners. This is not a tire manufacturer recall, but a special servicing campaign by Toyota.

During the unique tire-to-wheel assembly process for the FJ Cruiser equipped with either the Bridgestone Dueler or Dunlop Grandtrek tires, there is a possibility that the inner bead of the tire may have experienced some damage. If that happened, a bulge could develop at some point on the sidewall and air could leak out. There have been no reported incidents of this actually happening—but we want to take the precaution of finding these tire/wheel assemblies and replacing the tires with new ones.

We are able to isolate the vehicles affected and have VIN lists that will be available to our dealers. Affected FJ Cruiser customers will receive a letter from us starting in early July. The letter will ask FJ Cruiser customers to take their vehicle to a Toyota dealer for inspection, confirmation that they are within the affected tire-to-wheel assembly range and replace all involved tires at no charge to the customer. We think this will take about two hours.

While we certainly would prefer not to have to concern our enthusiastic FJ Cruiser owners, we and our dealers will work very hard to communicate well and make the campaign service as painless as possible. We regret the inconvenience.

Hope this information is helpful.

FJCruiserForums participants and others may call our Customer Experience Center for more information on this SSC at 888-270-9371.

Toyota issued an update to this SSC as SSC 60AD on August 14, 2006 to eliminate reference to tire DOT numbers within the original campaign instructions.

[Dragon]

Way to be pro active. We appreciate the heads up.

[ron21]

Great, I hope I don't receive a notice!

[desertcruiser]

Toyota seems to be making an enormous effor to back up its products, ie: Fj Cruisers. They deserve our appreciation and thanks.

9-22-06 Just received my second recall notice. I responded to the first recall notice and was told by the dealer that my tires were OK. The second notice now states that Toyota will replace all five of the factory tires, no restrictions. To make up for the inconveniance, Toyota included an American Express card with 50 points on it. My card is good until April 2007. It won't last that long with the price of gas what it is.

Again, much praise for Toyota and their Special Service Campaign.

[Dragon]

Should this be a sticky? Feel free to remove this post, mods.

[Kansas Law Dog]

Thanks for posting TMS USA. I realize this is your first post and the fact that you chose to post on this forum leads me to believe that Toyota Motor Sales recognizes that their most loyal FJ Cruiser enthusiasts are in resistance here.

It would please me and everyone else if you elected to use this forum for direct "hot off the press" communication. I hope the recall nature of the first post doesn't have to be repeated, but that the next post might be to announce the Special Edition FJ that has been rumored since February, as an example.

It is realized that official announcements must be coordinated with the Toyota Japan, but if you released FJ Cruiser announcements here at the same time they are released to the UPI and AP news services, we would be most appreciative. Furthermore, the people here crave FJ news, where the newspapers, magazines, radio and television would not appreciate it as much.

Thanks for listening. Hope to hear from you again soon. Regards, Ken

[TMS USA]

Kansas Law Dog previously said:

Thanks for posting TMS USA. I realize this is your first post and the fact that you chose to post on this forum leads me to believe that Toyota Motor Sales recognizes that their most loyal FJ Cruiser enthusiasts are in resistance here.

It would please me and everyone else if you elected to use this forum for direct "hot off the press" communication. I hope the recall nature of the first post doesn't have to be repeated, but that the next post might be to announce the Special Edition FJ that has been rumored since February, as an example.

It is realized that official announcements must be coordinated with the Toyota Japan, but if you released FJ Cruiser announcements here at the same time they are released to the UPI and AP news services, we would be most appreciative. Furthermore, the people here crave FJ news, where the newspapers, magazines, radio and television would not appreciate it as much.

Thanks for listening. Hope to hear from you again soon. Regards, Ken

Thanks for your comments. The goal of our effort is to be more proactive in our corporate communications so that we leverage the power of consumer-based space like this forum to the benefit of our customers, consumers and the Toyota brand identity or image. Getting out front of a special service campaign is kind of a natural, but there are clearly more intriguing issues and developments with our company and products like the FJ that likely warrant a similar approach.

We're going to take some baby steps at first. Not that this is revolutionary, but we've not found too many other OEMs coming out of lurker mode, so-to-speak and will be learning some valuable lessons as we go forward. Adding the nontraditional (FJCruiserForums) to the traditional (insert name of popular automotive publication here) has been suggested as one way to strengthen/reinforce our brand image (and get accurate info spread faster), so your hope may become a way of doing business for us in the not-so-distant future. We do aim to please!

[1983FJ60]

The only original rim/tire I have is the spare, which is a steelie with a Dunlop on it.

Will they still replace that for me if need be??

[bigbill25]

Thanks! Good to know you guys check in here from time to time to hear about map lights and sunroofs!

--Bill

[rick_reno]

I called in - gave them my vin and they said my FJ wasn't on the list.