Toyota was unable to overturn a 2022 Federal Court ruling in Australia on payouts to Hilux, Fortuner, and Prado customers who experienced issues with their diesel particle filters (DPF).
The Federal Court of Australia’s Full Court on Monday confirmed the original judge’s conclusions that more than 260,000 Toyotas with faulty DPF systems were not of “acceptable standard”. Toyota is apparently liable for $1 billion in damages to owners of 264,170 diesel-powered Hilux, Fortuner, and Land Cruiser Prado cars manufactured between 2015 and 2020.
Related: Toyota to Pay More Than $2 Billion to Customers in Class Action Over Faulty DPFs
But, lawyers for the class action had previously estimated that overall damages would exceed $2 billion and that individual drivers would be entitled to extra money in light of how much their vehicle loss had damaged them.
The Court also upheld the judgment that Toyota engaged in deceptive or misleading behavior in marketing and selling the automobiles and that the value of the relevant vehicles at the time of their first supply was diminished as a result of these systems. It acknowledged that in May 2020, Toyota created a workable patch for the defect and subsequently provided it free of charge to the vehicle’s owners. The company also increased the warranty on this item to 10 years, with no mileage restrictions.
Related: Toyota Australia Trying to Stop “Scalpers” from Pushing Up Prices
The Full Court did determine that the value of these vehicles had decreased by 10% before taking into consideration the availability of the 2020 field fix, as opposed to the primary judge’s determination of 17.5%. Court concluded that Toyota’s argument that the fault and its effects had no impact on the utility of their automobiles had some merit.
Commenting on the developments, a spokesperson for Toyota Australia said:
“Toyota is reviewing the decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. We remain committed to assisting any customer whose vehicle has experienced the DPF issue and to providing a free-of-charge remedy that has been available since 2020. We believe we have implemented customer-focused and technically grounded measures to resolve customer concerns. Toyota will consider the judgment carefully before making any further comment.”
DPFs are designed to eliminate harmful pollutants by capturing and burning them. However, a lot of these cars were not regularly operated in a manner that would have allowed them to burn off those pollutants (long travels at a rapid pace), therefore became clogged. These vehicles may have a variety of problems as a result of defective DPFs, such as excessive white smoke, a loss of power, and unpleasant exhaust odors.
Related: Hino Sued by Australian Customers Over Data Fraud
In 2018, Toyota added a DPF burn-off button to its 2.8-liter diesel engine, and in the middle of 2020, the engine underwent a significant improvement. Yet the Court determined that the earlier version, which it refers to as a “field fix,” was much less successful than the latter patch.
A computer animation professional with over 23 years of industry experience having served in leading organizations, TV channels & production facilities in Pakistan. An avid car enthusiast and petrolhead with an affection to deliver quality content to help shape opinions. Formerly written for PakWheels as well as major publications including Dawn. Founder of CarSpiritPK.com
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