Complaint Review: Karl Malone Toyota - Draper UT

I went to look at a 2012 Nissan Leaf based on a KSL advertisement. When I was looking at the vehicle, the computer had been reset so based on system defaults and a history of driving around the lot, the computer claimed I would get 4 miles of range per kWh of battery (the car comes with 24) and that I had an estimated 35 miles of range with less than 50% of battery charge. The extrapolation led me to believe I would have a range close to 70 miles. After driving it off the lot, I ran out of juice on the way home. After the computer recalibrated to be based on actual driving, a full 100% charge showed an estimated range of 46 miles.

I called up Karl Malone Toyota the very next business day to report to them that I didn’t get what I paid for or what they had advertised to me in their KSL ad and verbally in person. No one would respond to my calls or e-mails. I had to be excessively persistent and make a real nuisance of myself before they would finally admit that they weren’t going to do anything for me. They were very unapologetic. They wanted me to bring the car in to “look at” the battery, but refused to tell me what possible actions they would take if they agreed that there was a problem with it. Basically, they wanted me to commit my whole family to a full day of travelling and diagnostics with the reality being that they had no intention of making the situation right. They were just going to go through the motions. I had to have several e-mail exchanges and phone calls before I finally got them to admit that if they agreed the battery was seriously degraded, it wouldn’t matter. 

I posted on a Nissan Leaf enthusiast forum about the car and I was told by the people there that my car should rightfully be considered “defective” and Karl Malone Toyota had no business selling it in the first place. Nissan offers a warranty on their battery if it degrades more than 70% in 5 years or before 50,000 miles. In my case, my battery was degraded to somewhere between 55% and 62.5% with only 44,000 miles on it. Unfortunately, my battery was older than the 5 year window so it wasn’t eligible for the Nissan warranty. 

Karl Malone Toyota also gave me two key fobs and one of them didn’t work (dead battery?). They also refused to fix that.

Unfortunately, the sales staff at Karl Malone Toyota just doesn’t know anything about electric cars. I think that is the root of this problem. I should have taken a hint when I asked the salesman if the battery was 24kWh as I understood it to be and he just sort of shrugged like he didn’t even know what I was talking about. That would have been the appropriate time for him to disclose to me that it is 24 kWh when “new”, but the car he was showing to me was closer to half of that. I think I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt by attributing that to ignorance rather than willful (i.e., criminal) deception. But I'll never know. Just like the heart of a traditional car is its internal combustion engine, the heart of an electric vehicle is the battery. Misleading or deceptive dealings with the battery is like selling a car when you a truck was advertised. It’s a significant difference in capability and ultimately means we didn’t get what we paid for.

I will never do business with Karl Malone Toyota and I would discourage anyone I know or anyone who asks from doing the same. A dealership is supposed to provide a level of reliability and peace of mind beyond what you can get from a “for sale by owner”, but Karl Malone Toyota seems to make no attempt to provide those dealership benefits. I would have been better off buying the car from a random stranger.