Toyota HiLux, Prado, Fortuner DPF ruling: Are you eligible for compo?

A vast number of Australians who purchased a Toyota HiLux, Toyota Prado or Toyota Fortuner with a potentially faulty diesel particulate filter (DPF) can now apply for compensation.

This comes after the Federal Court ruled in April in favour of vehicle owners who brought a class action against Toyota, accepting that the 264,170 affected models failed to comply with the statutory guarantee as to “acceptable quality” provided under Australian Consumer Law.

Toyota is appealing the decision in a bid to avoid an estimated payout of more than $2.7 billion given that owners could receive $10,000 each in compensation, according to lawyers.

If you are an owner of the relevant Toyota HiLux, Toyota Prado or Toyota Fortuner models sold between October 1, 2015, and April 23, 2020, you can register your interest to receive any compensation to which you are entitled at the official Toyota Class Action distribution scheme portal here.

Owners who are deemed eligible for compensation will get an official notice in the mail or by text message or email.

The legal representatives of owners in the class action against Toyota have published a list of affected vehicles that cover the following models:

The issue revolves around defective DPFs that were allegedly found in the above-mentioned diesel-powered Toyota vehicles, which opened the door to compensation after the Federal Court’s ruling in April.

Toyota was also found to have misled customers in its marketing of the vehicles in question, which lawyers allege consumed more fuel than claimed and emitted excessive and odorous tailpipe emissions.

In its ruling, the Federal Court determined that the value of the impacted cars had reduced by 17.5 per cent as a result of the defects, based on the average retail price.

The average payout to each customer affected by a faulty DPF is estimated to be just over $10,000, according to lawyers, which in broad-brush terms could see Toyota forced to pay back around $2.7 billion.

Not all customers will be eligible for an amount this high, but others could recoup more, especially those who may have been hit by lost income due to their vehicles being off the road while undergoing repairs and DPF replacements, according to the legal firm now handling the case.

Representatives from Gilbert + Tobin say the compensation payout could make history as the biggest yet in Australia.

“If a significant number of those group members do come forward, then there is a possibility – or a likelihood actually – that this will be the largest compensation payout in Australian history,” Gilbert + Tobin partner Matt Mackenzie told the ABC.

“It’s one of the few instances of the Federal Court exercising its power to award aggregate damage.”

Any compensation now hinges on the outcome of Toyota’s appeal. If the appeal is unsuccessful, it could be more than a year before eligible owners see any compensation.

Toyota has stated it will challenge “the factual and legal basis for the award of damages, particularly in circumstances where many of the group members did not experience the DPF issue”.

The long-running dispute between aggrieved owners and Toyota concerns the DPF fitted to two turbo-diesel engines: the 2.8-litre four-cylinder (1GD-FTV) and 2.4-litre turbo-diesel (2GD-FTV).

The DPF is designed to trap and eradicate noxious tailpipe emissions and maintain their effectiveness by high-heat regeneration.

However, owners reported malfunctions and a clogged exhaust system which could result in unburnt fuel expelled from the vehicle, often manifesting in stinky white tailpipe smoke.

This in turn saw many owners – some of them business owners who couldn’t afford having a work vehicle off the road – returning their vehicles to Toyota to be fixed on multiple occasions.

There are accounts of Toyota buying back problematic vehicles, directly refunding some owners, compensating others and replacing vehicles in some cases, all which will impact on the level of compensation some owners may be able to claim.

Toyota continues to offer free repairs and replacements to owners affected by faulty DPFs and has extended the warranty on DPFs to 10 years.

No safety recall was issued but Toyota was the subject of a probe by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in a separate investigation. It avoided fines from the ACCC but the car-maker vowed to overhaul how it dealt with customer complaints.

For more details on who is eligible for compensation and how it works, check out the Toyota Class Action Frequently Asked Questions published by Gilbert + Tobin and Deloitte.

Further information on Toyota’s response to the class action is provided on the car-maker’s website here.

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