We bought a Scion Xb 1 1/2 months ago. With 1500 miles on it the clutch 'burned'. Literally. Going 70 mph on a highway. Toyota refuses to honor their powertrain warranty since they say it's wear. That it's our fault. This is ridiculous. We've owned at least 10 manual transmission cars in the last 20 years. Pick-up trucks, VW's, Renault R-12 (anybody remember that one) , 911, you name it we owned it. We have never ever had to replace a clutch no matter how high the mileage has been. They say it's the way we drove it.

We're talking $1600 in repairs. Clutch, flywheel, rear main seal, labor etc. etc. I'm furious. I thought that Toyota tried to be 'nice' to its customers.

Anyway, it's my opinion that there must have been fundamentally wrong with the transmission right from the start. We talked to a mechanic and he couldn't believe that a clutch could go that fast.

Anybody else have this problem. Clutch slippage? Whatever. Anybody know who to contact other than than the glorious 1-800 number.

Furious in Michigan

 

you may want to give toyota corporate a call. a dealer curbed a BBS rim on my friend's GS and fixed it for him, but they painted it silver instead of hyperblack and refused to fix it again. Then, my friend called toyota corporate and they bought him a brand new one after ten minutes on the phone.

 

It is a manufacturing defect in the strength of the prerssure plates they won't fix it cuz it costs them too much money and time. mine has been going out forever too.

 

unless the clutch is dead within the first week or so they skirt you off. if you were to get it replaced somewhere other than toyota liek a transmission shop all those parts would only cost say 1000 installed or so

 

Call Scion @ 1.866.70.SCION and chew their a$$3$ off! Unless you really messed up, don't let Toyota/Scion get away with this one.

 

I have 15,000 miles on mine and it is starting to go... However, I drove my Echo for 2 years and 55,000 miles and that clutch wasn't showing any signs of wear when I traded it in...

Others seem to have had these problems. Maybe we should band together...

 

I have 93k miles on my Echo, and the clutch isn't slipping on it either. It's not as tight as it was when the car was new, but still works fine. Of course, I don't drive like a street racer, either. I can't afford the tickets, or the insurance on anything other than my spotless driving record!

If this becomes a common problem, Toyota needs to either fix it or face a class-action lawsuit. I'm sure that's just the publicity Toyota would want with its new Scion brand. Of course, I'm not sure Toyota is run by smart people; the dealer tells me that if I give any honest feedback to Toyota (e.g. any rating other than "completely satisfied") then they are penalized rather than counseled on how to improve.