Toyota has sued Mirai owners to stop making payments, now facing triple-digit credit scores – Jalopnik

While hydrogen fuel cell cars seem like a zero-emissions dream on paper, there are fewer than 60 hydrogen fueling stations in California and none in the rest of the country. A lawsuit against Toyota filed last month on behalf of Mirai owners alleged they had oversold the utility of the hydrogen fuel cell car. In a show of goodwill, the Japanese automaker told owners to stop making payments until the lawsuit was resolved. However, several owners claimed their non-payments were reported to collections.

According to Mirai owners, Toyota representatives missed notes on their accounts that payments were interrupted. Anthony Escobedo told KTLA that his credit score of 814 dropped by 100 points. Due to the credit crisis, he was denied an interest-free loan to cover his wife’s medical care costs. Instead, he was forced to use credit cards. Toyota eventually reversed the claim, but the damage had already been done. It was a similar story for other owners, with Toyota fixing the glaring errors after being contacted. Jason Ingber, the owners’ attorney, said:

“It’s one thing if [Toyota] I never made this promise at all… That would have been fine. We were trying to get our pound of meat in at the end of the day [court.] But then to give you false information and actively hurt you and create more confusion, that’s really a dark, twisted thing to do to your own customers. That should not go unnoticed. People should be wary of that. This is a very arrogant company with bad intentions.”

Mirai owners are stuck between a rock and a hard place because of the extent to which the model has been depreciated. One Marine bought a 2023 Mirai for $42,358.93. While stationed in California, he knew he could be transferred to another part of the country and made the purchase with the promise that he would return his Mirai. Lo and behold, he was transferred to Virginia and offered only $11,000 from the dealer for the hydrogen car. Apparently he also didn’t know that there was no hydrogen infrastructure outside of California.