Bought a used vehicle a couple of weeks ago.. An odd thing happened tonight.

[danc]

I bought a used (obviously) 2006 Toyota Tacoma a couple of weeks ago. I'm very happy with it. Original owner, rust checked every year. Pretty much immaculate. The interior was like you were looking at a brand new vehicle in the showroom. Anyways, tonight I get a knock at my door and there's some dude standing there in a uniform that would be fit for Buckingham Palace. He identifies himself as being from the MTO (Ministry of Transportation of Ontario), which I concluded from his fancy arm band a minute or so into our conversation. He tells me that he is investigating safety checks from a certain dealer in town, as there has been some complaints lately. He wants to check out my new Tacoma. I say sure, have at 'er. This could only go in my favor. So the dude gets under my truck with his clean, fancy uniform on, and checks a whole lot of things out. He gets me to turn the steering while he is under there. He asks if I have any vibration or steering issues. I do have a small vibration on the highway at 100 kph or so. He says I might have a bad tie rod end on the drivers side. Not a safety check issue in the condition that it was in. He gets me to start the vehicle and then checks the mileage. All good. Then he does some more rolling around under my truck and then comes back up. I tell him to not be shy if he finds anything wrong, because I have nothing to lose here. He didn't find anything wrong. In fact he complimented me on the condition of my purchase. Anyways, nice to see this type of thing happening. The government is actually looking out for the consumer.

[leaf4]

Happy to hear that, wish it happened more often actually, there's a lot of crap on the road that shouldn't be, and there's a bunch of vehicles that shouldn't pass a safety yet they are

[big guy]

If it was me, I would take a look under the truck to see if anything looks out of the ordinary, anything has been tampered with, cut, or recently attached. I find it extremely odd that any branch of the government would go to that length to make sure any vehicle was safe, especially on a house call. I could see them contacting you to bring it in to a center, but to arrive at your house is not something you see, ever. Something could very easily be fishy about the guy and you should be very cautious about it in my opinion.

[spincast]

The MTO will investigate if they get reports of false safeties - and these are a lot more common than you may think. Someone willing to bend the rules can make a fast buck at $200 per sticker, and word gets around to those looking for this. Had a guy try and pull that on me once with a couple of commercial vehicles. I thought something was fishy and had them checked over by a different garage and sure enough, had a list of defects two pages long.

You could call the local MTO office to confirm they are sending people out to investigate this garage. Strange that he didn't put on one of those nice reflective coveralls the boys at the scales where when they climb under our trucks, but maybe he was wearing the bosses suit for the day? To be able to identify that you had a wobble and match it to the tie rod end wear kind of tells me he knows what he was doing. Someone who was scammin ya wouldn't likely be able to identify that.

[Bernie]

When I write up a safety I have to make sure of proper address on the work order. It's part of the process.
I go by the book and have not had an issue with the MTO in 20 years.
I aim to keep it that way.

Have not heard of them going to a customers house before, but it is a possibility.
I do find it strange that play in a tie rod would pass however.

[DanD]

One of my friends is an MTO officer and yea they do a lot of spot checks, after they receive complaints from consumers of a certain shop.

DanC as far as “this could only go in my favor”; that’s true as in finding safety issues; but you wouldn’t have been pleased if he did find something during the spot check.

Depending on what he found, he could have pulled the plates right then and there. If it were something minor but worth doing a complete inspection; he would have asked you to make an appointment with a licensed safety inspection facility of your choice or they may recommend one for an inspector to check the vehicle. The MTO would pay that facility the cost of the inspection. Again if they found more unsafe issues during the inspection, off come the plates. If this were the case the MTO would then go to the people that issued the certificate and hand them a summons to appear in court to face their charges.

You are now the proud owner of an un-plated un-certified vehicle; that it’s up to you to get it back on the road. The Ministry cannot force the dealer or the people who originally certified the vehicle too repair the vehicle. Your only recourse if they refuse to pay for the repairs is to pay it out of your pocket and then take them to court.

A safety certificate is not a warrantee/guarantee. I’ve been doing safety checks for over 30 years; I have also done these MTO inspections with the investigators and believe me, I have seen a lot of pissed off people calling a cab to get home because their plates were pulled.

 

 

Dan.

[fishermccann]

If is sitting in your driveway, can you just say NO.

[blaque]

This sort of thing at my doorstep would absolutely get my suspicious juices flowing lol I believe i would have told him to "get off my lawn"

[woodenboater]

He planted a beacon to track you to your secret lakes

 

Seriously though, if he was indeed from the MTO, I would have let him have at the truck it as well. I'd rather know if there were issues while it was parked in my driveway vs on the road, esp if it was a serious safety issue.

[danc]

One of my friends is an MTO officer and yea they do a lot of spot checks, after they receive complaints from consumers of a certain shop.

DanC as far as “this could only go in my favor”; that’s true as in finding safety issues; but you wouldn’t have been pleased if he did find something during the spot check.

Depending on what he found, he could have pulled the plates right then and there. If it were something minor but worth doing a complete inspection; he would have asked you to make an appointment with a licensed safety inspection facility of your choice or they may recommend one for an inspector to check the vehicle. The MTO would pay that facility the cost of the inspection. Again if they found more unsafe issues during the inspection, off come the plates. If this were the case the MTO would then go to the people that issued the certificate and hand them a summons to appear in court to face their charges.

You are now the proud owner of an un-plated un-certified vehicle; that it’s up to you to get it back on the road. The Ministry cannot force the dealer or the people who originally certified the vehicle too repair the vehicle. Your only recourse if they refuse to pay for the repairs is to pay it out of your pocket and then take them to court.

A safety certificate is not a warrantee/guarantee. I’ve been doing safety checks for over 30 years; I have also done these MTO inspections with the investigators and believe me, I have seen a lot of pissed off people calling a cab to get home because their plates were pulled.

 

 

Dan.

Although I'm not a mechanic, I didn't exactly fall off of the back of the turnip truck lately either. I bought an immaculate vehicle for it's age for 3 to 5 grand less than folks up here are asking for the same year vehicle with double the mileage on them. Original owner too. This thing could be in a show room. If it needs a tie rod end, so be it. The last thing the inspector said was "Wow. Whoever owned this thing last sure took care of it". I'm a pretty happy guy about this purchase.

[DanD]

DanC I apologize if you took my post as knocking your new truck; I wasn’t at all.

I was just trying to explain that if any vehicle checked by the MTO shows too be unsafe; they will pull the plates.

Then it’s the responsibility of the vehicle’s new owner to have it brought back up to standards. I have had many customers over the years that I’ve found things with their new purchase that should have been repaired during the safety. They’re first response is I’m going to the Ministry and get them to make the garage fix it.

Sorry it doesn’t work that way; as I stated in my first post.

Again I meant no disrespect toward your purchase; it sounds like a real nice truck.

 

Dan.

[fishermccann]

Will - can anyone answer my question? Can you say no, that I do not want any mto guy looking at my truck. On the road I understand but In your own driveway?

[DanD]

I guess you could say no; but I bet you'd be given a court order to release the vehicle to them as soon as they got a judge to sign the order?

 

Dan.

[blue pickeral]

Keep an eye on your frame - big recall in Canada and the US for Tacoma 05 to 08 for rusty frames. Check behind the catalytic converters on each side and the box frame in the front. Toyota got skunked by Dana Corporation (successfully sued them) who manufactured frames from them and turned out shoddy parts. Since the switch to US parts from those in Japan in earlier generations, all kinds of bad things happening - AC Delco radios turning on full blast by themselves, steel wheels rusting, bad bearing in front differentials on the 4X4 among others. Your vibration at 100 kph is likely caused by a steering damper that needs adjustment - look up the TSB.

 

Dealer will inspect and recommend either a coating of some kind of anti rust compound or a complete frame replacement. Do a search on www.tacomaworld.com for details.

 

The Tacoma is still the best selling mid-sized truck because it is the best of a bunch of poor choices, but maybe that will change if Chevy's new Colorado/Canyon is up to much and won't catch fire in your driveway.

[ch312]

They're actually starting to look into crooked safety's? I guess the days of handing over $100 cash for a hot safety, where the mechanic only checks your odometer and nothing else, are coming to an end?

 

Bummer...