New Hamburg, Ont. couple gets new truck after dealing with transmission troubles

A family in New Hamburg, Ont. finally has a resolution to their Toyota truck trouble.

Susi and Rod Roth got their Toyota Tundra in April 2023. Within the first month, however, they had to bring it back to the Strickland’s Stratford Toyota dealership to address a problem with the hybrid truck’s transmission.

“You had to hold onto things in the truck because it was vibrating so heavy when you were going up a hill,” Susi recalled.

That kicked off a year-long nightmare with the truck going back and forth between their home and the dealership. Every time the couple thought the problem was fixed – it wasn’t.

“We could have gone somewhere else. We could have done something else. We are dedicated to Toyota. My son works at Toyota. We want to support the local brands,” Susi explained.

Their mechanical headache only got worse.

In the short period when Roth’s thought the truck was fixed, they installed a hitch hoping it could finally pull their camper. But before they had the chance, they noticed the vibration had returned. This time though, the dealership wasn’t willing to find a fix.

“Strickland’s Toyota in Stratford told us they would no longer honour the warranty on this truck because we put aftermarket parts on it,” Susi said. “Even though they knew there was problems with the truck long before any aftermarket parts were added.”

That’s when the couple contacted CTV News. At that point, Toyota Canada said the issue was being investigated by their warranty department.

“We called CTV News May 1 and, thanks to CTV News, we were in negotiations with Strickland’s again to have some resolution to the problem,” said Susi. “Strickland’s later notified us that they would like to make it right and that they would then provide us with the same truck that we ordered, but brand new 2024, and we just received it last [Friday].”

Toyota Canada did not respond to CTV News’ request for comment and the Stratford dealership did not wish to speak on record.

As for the couple’s plans to pull their camper, that’s on pause for now because they don’t want history to repeat itself.

“Well,” Rod said, letting out a sigh. “I’m going to drive it a little while before I install that hitch now just to make sure there’s no issues.”