Ben bought a Toyota Sienna minivan last year, and one of the fancy options included was a built-in navigation system. That’s neat. But what’s strange is that his car has the wrong system. It has the one meant for the 2011 model, not the 2012 that he purchased. This doesn’t seem like all that big a deal, but it hurts the resale value of his van and is just generally annoying. Wouldn’t you want the technology that you paid for?

In late 2011, I purchased a 2012 Toyota Sienna XLE with Navigation. It took them 3 months to deliver the car to me (I received it in February), and my wife and newborn twins have been relatively happy with it since then.

Fast forward to about a week ago when I was browsing the Toyota website. It turns out that 2012 Sienna’s are supposed to come with a completely different navigation system than the one I received. The one I received is actually the 2011 model nav that has no special features, while 2012 models allow you to search Bing, make restaurant resevations, stream Pandora, etc.

Needless to say, I’m annoyed. My 2012 Sienna is effectively worth less than every other 2012 Sienna, as it has older technology than the others.

I called the dealership, and they will do nothing. They claim that I got a great deal on the car and should be happy with what I got. They also claim that they reviewed the options with me when I bought it, and if I didn’t like what I was getting, I should have said something then.

My position is that it never occurred to me that they would put 2011 options in a 2012 car. I saw that my 2012 car had nav, and just assumed that it would have the 2012 version of it. They also didn’t specifically state that I was getting the 2012 seat belts – do I now need to go and check those as well?

I spoke to Toyota corporate, and they said that these things have to go through the dealership, so there is nothing they can do.

Any advice on where I can go next?

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