Southern Bus and Mobility

The Valley Park branch of Southern Bus and Mobility (SBM) sold us a new Toyota Sienna Hybrid handicapped van modified by Vantage Mobility International (VMI) for $81,652.00+$3,228.00 (warranty) -$1000 (rebate) =$85,880.00. The van has had problems continuously since its purchase.

It is the first year VMI has produced this conversion for this model, and this is one of the first vehicles of this model modified by them. The design is full of bugs. New warning signs keep showing up every few miles. During the first few weeks, there were warning signs related to hybrid batteries that a Toyota dealer fixed.

This took 3 or 4 trips over the first month. Then a sign indicating "Traction Battery Cooling System is not working" appeared. The Toyota dealer indicated they could not find the Traction Battery cooling system in the converted van. VMI may have removed/relocated it.
SBM indicated that VMI knows the problem and has already worked out a solution.

If VMI knew the problem, why did they not send a recall notice? Anyway, I waited, and SBM implemented the solution, but the warning sign reappeared. Instead of fixing the problem, VMI (through SBM) responded that it is the customer's responsibility to clean the cooling system. They threatened that the customer would be responsible for a fire or any other damage the traction system heating may cause.

They sent pages from the standard Toyota Sienna User Manual showing where the cooling system vents are. There are no vents there in the converted van. I returned the pictures of the actual location to the dealer, showing that the vents had been removed. This was five months ago, back in October 2022.

We have been waiting for a response since then. We are afraid to drive the vehicle and put my disabled son to danger when there have been so many cases of fire due to batteries getting hot. I want the dealer to take this lemon away and provide a complete refund so that we can buy reliable transportation for our disabled son.
SBM is the sole representative of VMI in MO, so this is the only dealer anywhere that will touch this van.

Once, the sign appeared when we were in another city, and all dealers refused to work on this van and asked us to take it back to the dealer who sold it. We are now trapped with an expensive "lemon."