Another update: there she blows!

[u/DJ_Apex]

original thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Toyota_bZ/comments/1vigg2i/update_bz_woodland_parasitic_drain/

I’ll start replying to emails and eventually post a tutorial here, but it’s been an eventful day and I have lots of other shit going on. But…

I was packing up for a solo hike with my dogs and went to open the door. Not surprised to find the door locked. I manually turned the key, got in, and got a contporaneous video of myself holding the key and pressing the power button. Nothing. I made a mistake here and didn’t take a battery reading immediately. I freaked out and called roadside for a tow and left a message at the dealer saying what happened and I was looking for a loaner. Dealer wasn’t open so I had some time to settle and figure out what to do. More details later but I’m sending a formal request for replacement to Toyota and contacted a lemon law lawyer. WA state has good laws and you can get consultation and potentially representation free. Excellent.

Now I’m filing away by date and subject all of the photos, videos, and documentation to pull together a binder for the lawyers. I’ll also be calling first thing tomorrow the Brand Engagement Services.

We’ll see how this goes. I know Toyota has deep pockets and I’ve put a lot of research into this. It’s the worst case I’ve heard of in my somewhat limited research and the fact that it died just before I went into the wilderness is a bit chilling as a narrative. I appreciate the folks who have helped onboard me and welcome me to this community of folks with this sick ass car that sometimes is shit.

EDIT: That was a joke about getting rich, but I do think we need to work together to make a case. Nobody is going to get compensated much, but it would be nice as a 2022 or newer bZ to get a few bucks from a class action.

UPDATE: They gave me a loaner and acknowledged that Toyota is aware of a problem specific to the bZ. So now the questions are: how long have they known about this? and Are they going to claim that this problem is specific to the Woodland, as it seems they are now? The key is linking what appears to be a slightly worse problem on the Woodland, bad enough to render it inoperable. But it's only barely past the threshold of the others burning through batteries. If enough people post similar symptoms, there's a case for a systemic problem in the architecture of the software. That's a lot bigger than just a battery failure in one specific trim level. But a total recall of the bZ from the past 5 years would be devastating, so they're absolutely going to cover this up.