Car *almost* a year old, 1-2 service visits a month since purchased

[Flippo25]

I am just going to put everything out here in hopes for some help.

I have had my 2009 Toyota for almost a year, and have taken it to the service center at least 10 times. Sometimes twice in one month. Starting with a week after buying we were back in to fix the trunk. It has been nothing but big money fixes since then. Recently found our undercarriage is all rust, our calipers were corroded and needed to be cleaned, etc the list is big. Is there a way to pursue for fraud or return the car without damaging my credit?
This was purchased in Massachusetts.

First of all we were promised a 2010 corolla with 55,000 miles. Came in the next day to test drive and were told we should look at 2009 (told it was 70,000 miles got in and found it was 78,000) that they "just got" which I'm finding out was total bs. I'm assuming this car sat on a lot for the last 5 years. Anyway sales guy charged us 100 hold for some reason before letting us drive the car. Had to spend 10 minutes convincing him to let us drive it. Shame on me but it was our first time purchasing from dealer. My last car had been when I was in high school. He told us once you drive one corolla you've driven them all. And had to quickly point out to us that we hadn't even had the chance to test drive the original car we had been promised before selling it out from under us in less than 18 hours. Anyway the car was turned on for us, shame on me again for not doing a cold start. Because the second we did it has a god awful rattling/loud noise from the hood.

Purchased April 2015
- 1 week later the trunk wouldn't stay closed had to come in to fix. They did not report the fix to the service center as it does not show up in my account under services.

- Less than a month - new brake light
Ask about the noise it makes during cold start. No answer "we couldn't recreate it"

-a month later same brake light replaced

- Heat shield came loose and need tightening after hearing rattling dragging noise. Ask again about cold start noise. Told it is something that all car owners have to replace at some point in the cars life. Right, I can believe that, but after less than a month of ownership?
Also when we tried to figure out what the noise was and looked under the car we discovered our ENTIRE undercarriage is RUST. Probably 90% rusted.

-Headlight replacement. While driving home discover that our cruise control knob was torn and hanging down from the steering wheel.
Called immediately for appointment the next day. They argued with me for 20 minutes that their 20 year old mechanic would have noticed and wouldn't lie about it and it must have been us. And I'm thinking okay just tape it or glue it as long as it works. Come to find out the cruise control had never worked (had not had any reason to use it before this happened) and I told him we would fix it at a later date and just to tape it up for us so it wouldn't dangle by the wheel. He came back WITH IT CUT OFF COMPLETELY. Telling me he did the same to his and it's not a big deal, after repeating myself 5 times not to cut it and to please glue it or tape it or that we would when we left. But okay go and cut it off I guess.

- Then one day I had to stop short and skidded to a stop, and felt really hard to stop. Chalked it up to ice because it was a poopy winter day. Until the day before yesterday when my boyfriend had to stop short when the guy in front of him stopped short and he again, skidded not stopped and bumped the guy in front of him. This was at a red light he was going 5 mph. No damage to the guys car, seemingly none to ours.
Yet the horns circuit went out and will cost $300 to repair.
Had them check the brakes,
The calipers were corroded and had buildup around them that was eroding the pads unevenly. Suggested we replace the rotors and pads. $600
Oh and our Axle Boot apparently will need to be replaced fairly soon. For another $450.

We live 15 minutes outside of Boston. We don't have a large commute. Maybe 40 miles a day. We don't really travel and certainly not to places where it's exposed to the elements constantly. It just feels like a lot of things to go wrong for a car we haven't had a full year. I could just be naive and not experienced and I think they took full advantage of that fact. That and we don't have the best credit. Around 610/620. All their people convinced us we were not going to get much better with that score and that the 2009 would more likely get us approved for a loan. Also the loan is for $13,000 for a 2009 Corolla S. Which they told us they couldn't go any lower and again that would probably be the result with any bank we went to. (I did work at Honda for a brief time in my early 20'so and know for a fact the older the car you sell the more of a profit the sales person makes).
The sales guy was very quick with us and didn't really like us asking questions. I look back now hating myself for letting it happen and am fully aware we share some blame but I just need to know if there is anyway out of this piece of crap car without damaging my credit more. Or if there is any indication of fraud and being able to rectify the situation in any way. Ideally we would be able to choose a newer, less financial pit of a car and not have a major change in our loan (unless it could go down). I'm just totally lost in my options and who to talk to before going to them with a proposition or resolution.
It really just seems like this car sat on a lot for 4 years without any servicing or quality check before being forced on us. The last service date before we picked it up was 2011. I really think this car must have come in the day we looked at the 2010 and he knew he could make a bigger buck off us and convinced us to take it less than 18 hours after they got it.

Any help (without pointing out my obvious mistakes) would be hugely appreciated.

Also, any service visits not mentioned were oil changes, tire checks, and filter changes

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

You either bought the car with no warranty or with a warranty for a certain period and terms, that is the limit of your recourse. Calipers and pads are an easy fix with a few you tube videos, make sure you get all the air out of the lines, change the cv axle at the same time. You can use Rustoleum sludge remover to remove the worst of the rust and then paint the undercarriage with POR-15. I have a car in my garage that will end up being my sons, we are doing the same thing to. Toyota changed the composition of their metal over the years causing about 2006 and later cars to rust more than their predecessors.

 

[smorr]

I am just going to put everything out here in hopes for some help.

I have had my 2009 Toyota for almost a year, and have taken it to the service center at least 10 times. Sometimes twice in one month. Starting with a week after buying we were back in to fix the trunk. It has been nothing but big money fixes since then. Recently found our undercarriage is all rust, our calipers were corroded and needed to be cleaned, etc the list is big. Is there a way to pursue for fraud or return the car without damaging my credit?
This was purchased in Massachusetts.

First of all we were promised a 2010 corolla with 55,000 miles. Came in the next day to test drive and were told we should look at 2009 (told it was 70,000 miles got in and found it was 78,000) that they "just got" which I'm finding out was total bs. I'm assuming this car sat on a lot for the last 5 years. Anyway sales guy charged us 100 hold for some reason before letting us drive the car. Had to spend 10 minutes convincing him to let us drive it. Shame on me but it was our first time purchasing from dealer. My last car had been when I was in high school. He told us once you drive one corolla you've driven them all. And had to quickly point out to us that we hadn't even had the chance to test drive the original car we had been promised before selling it out from under us in less than 18 hours. Anyway the car was turned on for us, shame on me again for not doing a cold start. Because the second we did it has a god awful rattling/loud noise from the hood.

Purchased April 2015
- 1 week later the trunk wouldn't stay closed had to come in to fix. They did not report the fix to the service center as it does not show up in my account under services.

- Less than a month - new brake light
Ask about the noise it makes during cold start. No answer "we couldn't recreate it"

-a month later same brake light replaced

- Heat shield came loose and need tightening after hearing rattling dragging noise. Ask again about cold start noise. Told it is something that all car owners have to replace at some point in the cars life. Right, I can believe that, but after less than a month of ownership?
Also when we tried to figure out what the noise was and looked under the car we discovered our ENTIRE undercarriage is RUST. Probably 90% rusted.

-Headlight replacement. While driving home discover that our cruise control knob was torn and hanging down from the steering wheel.
Called immediately for appointment the next day. They argued with me for 20 minutes that their 20 year old mechanic would have noticed and wouldn't lie about it and it must have been us. And I'm thinking okay just tape it or glue it as long as it works. Come to find out the cruise control had never worked (had not had any reason to use it before this happened) and I told him we would fix it at a later date and just to tape it up for us so it wouldn't dangle by the wheel. He came back WITH IT CUT OFF COMPLETELY. Telling me he did the same to his and it's not a big deal, after repeating myself 5 times not to cut it and to please glue it or tape it or that we would when we left. But okay go and cut it off I guess.

- Then one day I had to stop short and skidded to a stop, and felt really hard to stop. Chalked it up to ice because it was a poopy winter day. Until the day before yesterday when my boyfriend had to stop short when the guy in front of him stopped short and he again, skidded not stopped and bumped the guy in front of him. This was at a red light he was going 5 mph. No damage to the guys car, seemingly none to ours.
Yet the horns circuit went out and will cost $300 to repair.
Had them check the brakes,
The calipers were corroded and had buildup around them that was eroding the pads unevenly. Suggested we replace the rotors and pads. $600
Oh and our Axle Boot apparently will need to be replaced fairly soon. For another $450.

We live 15 minutes outside of Boston. We don't have a large commute. Maybe 40 miles a day. We don't really travel and certainly not to places where it's exposed to the elements constantly. It just feels like a lot of things to go wrong for a car we haven't had a full year. I could just be naive and not experienced and I think they took full advantage of that fact. That and we don't have the best credit. Around 610/620. All their people convinced us we were not going to get much better with that score and that the 2009 would more likely get us approved for a loan. Also the loan is for $13,000 for a 2009 Corolla S. Which they told us they couldn't go any lower and again that would probably be the result with any bank we went to. (I did work at Honda for a brief time in my early 20'so and know for a fact the older the car you sell the more of a profit the sales person makes).
The sales guy was very quick with us and didn't really like us asking questions. I look back now hating myself for letting it happen and am fully aware we share some blame but I just need to know if there is anyway out of this piece of crap car without damaging my credit more. Or if there is any indication of fraud and being able to rectify the situation in any way. Ideally we would be able to choose a newer, less financial pit of a car and not have a major change in our loan (unless it could go down). I'm just totally lost in my options and who to talk to before going to them with a proposition or resolution.
It really just seems like this car sat on a lot for 4 years without any servicing or quality check before being forced on us. The last service date before we picked it up was 2011. I really think this car must have come in the day we looked at the 2010 and he knew he could make a bigger buck off us and convinced us to take it less than 18 hours after they got it.

Any help (without pointing out my obvious mistakes) would be hugely appreciated.

Also, any service visits not mentioned were oil changes, tire checks, and filter changes

You purchased this car almost a year ago. The car is over 3 years old to begin with (2009?). Unless you purchased a Toyota warranty that gave you at least three years and "x" amount of miles, you are bound by whatever a general warranty gives you. Barring a purchased warranty, a car that is at least 3 years but less than 6 carries a 60-day, 2,500 mile warranty by Massachusetts general laws. A car that has the mileage you have/had, if you're going with mileage only is also 60-days/2,500 miles (at least 40,000, but less than 79,999 miles on the car). Since you've had the car for almost a year, your warranty is no longer valid, if you didn't purchase a specific Toyota warranty. Even if you count the days the car was in the shop, you still have gone past the warranty time.

It would be very difficult - and expensive - to take these guys to court. If you're already strapped for funds, a lawsuit won't make much sense, unless you can prove your damages without a doubt. If you can, and the court accepts it, you can sue for triple the damages. That's iffy to say the least. A couple of the issues you mention aren't really part of the lemon law. Bringing it in for oil changes, etc. is part of a maintenance schedule and is not covered under any warranty, not even a new car warranty. Here is a link to the Massachusetts Lemon Laws:

http://www.mass.gov/ocabr/consumer-rights-and-resources/autos/lemon-laws/used-vehicle-warranty-law.html

If the link doesn't work, you can Google "Massachusetts Lemon Law." I'm afraid you don't have much to go on, unfortunately. I've experienced the same myself many years ago and there was no way I would have been able to be successful at suing the "dealer" if you want to call him that. The car ended up dying 2 1/2 years into a four-year loan. I had to borrow money from my mom to buy a new car and I still had the loan hanging over my head.

Sorry - I hope you find a solution that works for you.