Dodgy service department - corroded footwell

[vincenthicks]

2008 yaris purchased brand new and serviced at the same toyota dealership for the past 7 years. Decided to take it to a local mechanic this year for the first time as it was cheaper - he found a rust hole the size of a large fist in the rear LHS foot well and rust was beginning to eat away at the opposite footwell!!

Dealership refused to inspect the vehicle as it was out of warranty, and determined it was caused by road damage purely based on the shitty images i showed them on my phone. On top of this the local panel beater refused to quote my yaris as it was now a total write off but did say that he believed the damage was caused by a factory defect. So i took the issue up with toyota customer care and they referred it back to the original dealership who repeated ''out of warranty, road damage'' blah blah.

Toyota customer care said they had to take the advice of the dealership over the panel beater and wouldn't action any further investigation. Although they did arrange my yaris to inspected at a dealership of my choice when i told them that it hadn't been looked at by anyone other than the panel beater.

Consumer affairs advised me to sort it out with toyota and the dealership before taking legal action, which i now have to consider because i have no car! I don't hold out much hope for the inspection result so i'm preparing to take the next step towards legal action. Any advise would be great.