Have you looked at the 1st gen Mirai? They know all of their customers are masochists.
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I’m not really sure what you want them to do. The car has a warranty period on it that covers stuff breaking. If you’re out of the warranty period, it falls on you to repair. That’d be the same with any car (and why people recommend not leasing cars beyond their warranty period if you can avoid it).
The steering wheel here looks to me like defective materials that would have been covered under warranty, but if it’s not taken in for the repair during the warranty period, you can’t ask for much more. The bank doesn’t care if something is a warranty issue or not, they care if the car is returned to them in good condition.
It doesn’t surprise me that someone would get hit with a charge for wear and tear on this if they returned it to the bank and didn’t have it addressed.
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I understand the statement regarding the bank because they have to protect themselves. Toyota doesn’t take responsibility that these are warranty issues even during the warranty period. They claim that it’s not defective, but yet all these customers have this problem.
Maybe you can explain why there are so many Mirai available to purchase at $9K after 3 years and to also include a $15K fuel card?
Because you’d have to pay someone $6k to willingly walk out to their garage and look at this everyday:
I suspect the actual answer is that the Mirai is a failed experiment with an infrastructure that doesn’t support it for most use cases.
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I agree with your second assessment, that the infrastructure isn’t all there. My understanding is that they need to get more Fuel Cell vehicles out there to get the government to subsidize the cost of the stations, yet they can’t even provide enough for their current Mirai owners. SMH!!
It’s definitely a chicken or the egg problem. At least with EVs, you can charge at home, so a fledgling infrastructure can grow spontaneously. The hydrogen network all needs to be there to start with. Having single point failure for refueling your vehicle just doesn’t work.
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It’s interesting that they are even selling these after the lease is up. The Honda clarity fuel cells cannot be purchased and it is my understanding they are all going to the crusher.
Honestly OP Id consult with a lawyer specializing in car leases and auto fraud. Thats ridiculous. I wouldn’t let them rob me like that. Not at least without know my options from someone who can go toe to toe with these companies.
So all five (or so) Clarity’s are being destroyed? That probably is cheaper than what Toyota is doing, selling them for 9K with 15K of fuel included.
What is crazy is people willing to pay $625+ monthly for the new Mirai with $4000 DAS. Yes, it has a bigger range, but the problem still exists. The fuel cell will diminish just like batteries after so many fill-ups of hydrogen. My Mirai use to get 298 miles per fill-up, and now only get 248 miles per fill-up.
According to some “experts”, the strange shape of the Prius helped sales, especially among the target audience. I suspect Toyota was seeking the same results with the Mirai design.