Great idea but wonder if my nineteen year old Corolla Verso will qualify?

But with the news I heard from my friend who tried to change his battery on his S 4 the nails are already in the coffin for DIY.

The car refused to start the next day so it was recovered the next day to Audi who found that the battery had not been linked to to the cars main computer . So no DIY battery changing in future for newish cars?

Is this common and when was it introduced ?

This proposed Toyota scheme sounds like a slight variation on "NetworkQ - Used Cars Like New" to me, which has been around from Vauxhall for 20 years at least!!

Reading between the lines, I think it says they no longer trust the dealers to do the "Approved Used" checks, or are perhaps considering cutting dealers out of the equation entirely.

Given that if I bought a new Toyota Corolla tomorrow, chances are it would last 15-20 years with only routine service items, I don't see the point of this scheme. I doubt whether there will be much in the way of mechanical "refurbishment" as none would be required. So all that leaves would be to give the interior a good clean perhaps replace a few bits of interior plastic which had got scratched and touch up the stone chips. That's exactly what the "Approved Used" schemes do at the moment, though perhaps the factory could do a better job at preparing the used cars than most main dealers seem capable of these days.....

>>there won’t be much refurbing required.

All depends who was the driver - I had many a company car - some of my colleagues seemed to look after their cars - drove it with some car, washed it, had it serviced others essentially treated their new car as if it were a banger - scraped, bashed, never checked fluids, washed if in for a service etc etc.

My cars tended to be "still smart" even with 80/90K on the clock when they were replaced.