A disgruntled Thai customer on Friday smashed up his allegedly defective Toyota pickup truck with a sledgehammer after failing to get the company to replace the offending vehicle with a deluxe Lexus sports car.
Noraset Roonpraphan took a sledgehammer to his two-year-old Toyota Hilux Tiger pickup truck in front of Thailand’s Consumer Protection Office, less than a week after Thai boutique owner Duenpen Silakhet did the same thing to her Honda CRV.
Honda eventually agreed to buy back Duenpen’s alleged ”lemon” — a car that is defective because of manufacturing errors — and the woman used the money to buy a Toyota van. Toyota is the top-selling vehicle brand in Thailand.
It was not clear on Friday whether Noraset was going to get a similarly sweet deal.
”According to our investigation the customer had modified the pickup, replacing the shocks, which may have led to other problems,” said Toyota Motors (Thailand) vice-president Paiboon Waikwamdee.
”We found there was nothing wrong with the pickup,” Paiboon told a press conference after Noraset’s destructive protest.
The Toyota executive added that the company had agreed to buy back Noraset’s pickup, which originally cost 868 000 baht (R140 000), but the customer had counter-offered to return the truck and pay an extra one million baht (R160 000) in exchange for a Lexus model — Toyota’s luxury sports car that sells at 3,9-million baht (R630 000).
”The proposal was unacceptable to Toyota,” noted Paiboon.
Thailand is currently mulling legislation that would better protect customers from ”lemons”. — Sapa-DPA