Toyota PS Enterprise chief executive officer Polpat Asavaprapha said Toyota's headquarters had contacted him about buying back the car, which was given a ceremonial funeral by unhappy owner Kantarat Ruemsungnoen.

"We and Toyota headquarters will talk more about it [today]," he said.

"We are happy to accede to our customer's demands. But Satur-day's protest stopped other customers from getting into our showroom and affected our business. We are just the sales agent, not the Toyota production company.

"If a customer wants to complain about car problems, we are willing to coordinate with headquarters to deal with the problem."

Polpat said the dealership had fixed the car several times over a two-month period.

"We also passed it on to Toyota's main repair centre. During all that time, she did not request it be changed for a new one or demand it be repurchased, she just told us to fix the car," he said.

Kantarat said she made the protest to get fair treatment.

"I have been offered the solution of getting my money back or a new car. But I am afraid that the new one might have problems also. So I just want to get my money back, the down-payment of Bt650,000 and the six months of instalments [Bt 11,232 a month]," she said.

Pasara Puthamat

The Nation