Toyota Australia may face a lawsuit for defective diesel particulate filter

KUALA LUMPUR: Toyota cars in Australia are facing some issues with the defective DPF (diesel particulate filter). In particular, the models that are powered by the new 2.8-litre turbodiesel engine are mainly affected. This means, the vehicles, like Fortuner, Hilux, and Prado, from the production model year between 2015 and 2018 will face the issue.

The clients have said that the fuel consumption has increased and the vehicle's power seems to be lessened. This is caused due to the defective diesel particulate filter as the burning of particulate matters will not be done properly in urban driving conditions.

Toyota Australia has identified the problem and then contacted the owners quickly. The DPF of the affected vehicles will be cleaned or replaced. All the three models get a manual regeneration switch. However, the legal firm also said that there are some owners who faced inconvenience and expense issues due to this.

The law firm is now investigating, as per the ACL (Australian Consumer Law), that how many types of cases will be filed due to this misleading and deceptive conduct regarding emission.

The law firm is going to claim compensation due to the less fuel efficiency or the loss of power and will also make claims for the vehicles that were taken off the road due to this issue. Also, if the owners repair anything that is not covered under the warranty, or face other excessive problems due to the issue, a claim can be filed.

In a reply of all these, Toyota Australia has stated that it had organised a customer service campaign in October to solve the potential DPF issue. Therefore, the company requests all the owners with affected vehicles to contact to the preferred or close Toyota dealer. However, the Malaysian models were not affected with such issues.