Door Latch problems of the 2000 Toyota Camry

The contact owns a 2000 Toyota Camry. The front passenger side door handle latch would not manually unlock or open from the outside or inside. The automatic door lock was the only way to unlock the door. The mechanic repaired the door handle; however, the failure continued to occur. The dealer stated that the problem may have been due to the lock actuator which is a mechanical device on the inside of the door. The warranty expired and the manufacturer will not be responsible for the repairs. The contact stated that this was a common occurrence. The VIN was not available. The current and failure mileage were 155,000. Updated 11/12/09 updated 11/16/09.

Left work, stopped at a gas station, went in to pay for gas, and when I came out the driver door would not open. There was no warning this was going to happen. I was really panicked initially because I was afraid the other doors wouldn't work; it was late at night in a bad area of town. I tried the remote, then the key, and the driver's side door would not open at all. I finally went to the passenger door and was able to unlock that door, crawl over the passenger side front seat and squeeze myself in to the driver's seat. I went to the Toyota dealer to have this fixed. I have never before had a door on the driver's side just stop working, not ever. While the car was in the garage, the first brand new part that came in was defective, I had to wait for the dealer to get in a second one that was functional. I find that odd too. Almost $410. 18 later the door was operational, at my expense. My concerns with this is the fact that if this is a common occurrence this could pose a severe safety hazard to someone who is in an accident and may not be able to exit their car. Or if someone is in a bad place, like I was, and can't get back in to their car because the door is not functional. I find it odd the automatic latch broke without warning or nothing to indicate prior to the happening that it could, and secondly, the first part the dealer got in was defective. Makes me wonder if the part has a history of being defective to begin with. I've never been advised of any recall on my car; so do not know if there are recalls for this model or not. We did contact Toyota headquarters about this issue, and were told this was not compensatory. To hang on to the bills I paid and if in the future this appears to be a problem I can deal with it then.

The driver's side door failed to operate properly. The driver tried to open the door and was unable to do so. The driver called the dealer for an appointment for the next day. The consumer spoke to a mechanic, and the mechanic determined that the lock mechanism malfunctioned, and needed to be replaced. The lock mechanism was replaced.