14 ms·

My family’s ownership outcomes strongly suggest getting a Toyota. I’m driving my Dad’s old 2001 Tundra pickup with 350k miles on the same engine. I was amazed

My family’s ownership outcomes strongly suggest getting a Toyota. I’m driving my Dad’s old 2001 Tundra pickup with 350k miles on the same engine. I was amazed when I bought it from him how every switch still worked, the original AC still blew cold. This is not my normal experience buying used cars from other manufacturers. Usually at about 150k miles they turn into a clown car of various systems failing. Someone put thought into each component on the truck and how it would age.

LeonM 7y ago
Toyota has been known for their reliability for a long time now. I can attest that with my Lexus, it's 13 years old now and in the 7 years that I have owned it, it has had zero defects. Last year it even got recalled (12 years after production) because the fuel filter might not have been installed correctly in the factory, so they replaced it for free. That said: I still do every scheduled maintenance, which helps tremendously. The main problem with older vehicles is that people stop following the recommended services as the car gets older. Which is of course the opposite of what you should do with an old car.
- celticmusic 7y ago
  > That said: I still do every scheduled maintenance, which helps tremendously. The main problem with older vehicles is that people stop following the recommended services as the car gets older. Which is of course the opposite of what you should do with an old car. exactly this. I've been driving my Toyota for 15 years, never had a problem with it. But I still, to this day, have it maintained. The cost of that maintenance is pennies compared to purchasing a new car. If you can afford it, it's foolish not to.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  > Last year it even got recalled (12 years after production) Toyota is great about that. There was something in the steering column that needed replaced on my '95 T100 and and 15 years later they sent a notice offering to fix it for free. I never did get it replaced, it was a 'we gotta keep the vehicle for a couple of days' and we'd been driving it since it was brand new without issue so I decided to keep on since the risk seemed incredibly minimal.
  - rasz 7y ago
    >> Last year it even got recalled (12 years after production) >Toyota is great about that. after you sue them https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/toyota-faces-class-action-over-hilux-prado-filter-issues/10821680 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/toyota-faces-class-ac... https://www.caradvice.com.au/780759/class-action-filed-over-toyota-dpf-issues/ https://www.caradvice.com.au/780759/class-action-filed-over-... https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truck-frame-rust-suit-suit-34-billion https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truc...
    - ryanmercer 7y ago
      Find me a vehicle manufacturer currently in business that hasn't been sued and sells more than 100,000 cars a year. I see the .au domains and while I don't know how stuff is in Australia, the United States it looks like more than 10,000 class action lawsuits are filed a year [1]. Hell I just got an email about one this weekend where apparently Audible was sued for not making it more clear that credits expired if you didn't use them... I mean, as long as I can remember (and I've been a member over a decade) Audible has explicitly stated that you can only accumulate so many unused credits and that if you cancel any outstanding ones are nullified. Lawyers make BANK if they win a class action. So did they get sued and then issue a recall, yes it looks that way but in the case of my recall it was voluntary and involved no lawsuit that I know of. They found some defect that happened under extremely specific (and unrealistic for 99.99% of drivers) conditions and issued a voluntary recall. When I got the notice the Truck was 15 or even 16 years old and we hadn't had it at a dealership in 2 address (I'd never had it at a dealership under my name) yet they found me to tell me and then sent the notice every few months for a couple of years until I notified them I no longer owned the vehicle per the instructions in the mailings. [1] https://gettingthedealthrough.com/area/82/jurisdiction/23/class-actions-2019-united-states/ https://gettingthedealthrough.com/area/82/jurisdiction/23/cl...
kipchak 7y ago
Generally speaking Toyota is conservative in terms of rolling out new technologies and sticks with what's proven. For example the base Camry has a 2.5L engine and 8 speed auto transmission and the base Accord a 1.5 turbo and 10 speed auto. Toyota also goes more in depth terms of QA and testing on individual parts than others. From an article on the Toyota - BMW Supra/M4 collaboration, "...BMW couldn’t believe how extensive some of our quality and efficiency studies were as parts came into shape one by one. We would take every bit down to a fastener or rivet, and put it through our stringent quality control and a dozen other testing, we’d ship thousands of parts back to Japan for analysis. That is normal to us." http://club4ag.com/chief-engineer-tetsuya-tada-reveals-the-a90-supra-through-a-viewpoint-of-joint-development-with-bmw/ http://club4ag.com/chief-engineer-tetsuya-tada-reveals-the-a...
- antisthenes 7y ago
  You know how rigorous it is when even the Germans are surprised.
  - jcims 7y ago
    For performance/handling yes, for reliability not so much.
    - jackhack 7y ago
      This has been my experience with German cars (Mercedes, BMW) precisely : They are great to drive, but terrible to own.
- tdurden 7y ago
  > From an article on the Toyota - BMW Supra/M4 collaboration I think you mean Z4
- cardiffspaceman 7y ago
  That article seems to be more balanced shall we say, in terms of what was normal for which team. Toyota's engineering seems to be closer to production while BMW's seems to be closer to design. * I almost started to think if they had an infinite budget funding to the task of design. * And it seemed like the opinion from Toyota was that Toyota has a body style in mind at first but BMW lets the body style be influenced its contents. BMW's fundamental difference in approach was that they wanted to design a package, and from there they would naturally evolve a shape and size of the body from that packaging, a functionally oriented goal. ... Our company (Toyota) with my tenure and experience, the focus was always design elements being the priority. We would first spend a lot of time on the shape and appeal of the car from visual perspective ... But let the article speak for itself. I kept my quotes short.
celticmusic 7y ago
When I was in HS I had a friend whose family had this old beat up orange smallbed truck from the 70's (this was mid 90's). That thing was beat all to hell, ugly as sin. It was used as a truck. But you know what? That damned thing ran like a beauty. It literally ran until their son started driving it and wrecked it. I was impressed enough with it, that when it was time for me to purchase a vehicle, I went with Toyota. 15 years later and that thing has never left me on the side of the road, not even once (I do keep up maintenance on it). I'm considering purchasing another vehicle because it's time to get something larger, and when I do it will most likely be Toyota. I've seen so many people say that at 200k miles Toyota is just getting warmed up, and there's some truth to it. You obviously have to keep up with maintenance on the vehicle, but if you do I can guarantee it will treat you right. And I'm not saying other manufacturers are any worse, but I am saying Toyota is a great vehicle to buy.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  I was driving a '67 C10 in 2003-2004 and it still ran perfect. It needed a frame off restoration as the bed was severely damaged from decades of use as a farm truck and removing the bed alone was more work than I wanted to do (at least a 4 man job) so I ended up selling it for about 2 grand more than I had bought it for. Then I took my father's '95 Toyota t100 from my mother when she got a new vehicle, drove it until 2013 and gave it to my half brother. It has 130k or so when I gave it to him and aside from having a really squeaky bed was in great shape, the only remotely major work I'd had to do was replace the fuel pump bracket due to rust which involved dropping the gas tank (2 man job). The ball joints and pitmans needed replaced in the next 10k miles probably but that's just a special tool rental and an afternoon sitting on the ground. Then take my 2013 impala... I've got 68k miles on it now. I've had a wire harness malfunction which would randomly trigger ABS and traction control while you were driving, I've had to replace the evap sensor THREE TIMES and it is now throwing codes again, the factory rotors have already had to be replaced due to severe rust, any time humidity gets above 70% or so it throws another engine code because of more fuel/emissions sensors.... pinches bridge of nose
  - vonmoltke 7y ago
tyfon 7y ago
It highly depends on which Toyota you pick. RAV4 for instance is plagued with faults while my 2013 Avensis ran quite ok the first 90000 kilometres I drove it before getting a tesla. It did have to change brakes, a spring in one of the keys failed and the open/close window button on the passenger side broke. It also rusted under the chrome strips.. But compared to other cars I think it did quite well :)
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Certain Tundra, Tacoma, and Sequoia frames have rust issues so bad, Toyota settled for billions of dollars. https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truck-frame-rust-suit-suit-34-billion https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truc...
  - wasdfff 7y ago
    Happened to my uncle and toyota put a brand new frame on a 10 year old truck for free.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
anderspitman 7y ago
Our '91 Tacoma (simply called SR5 back then) made it well past 200k miles and only stopped then because it got caught in a garage fire a couple years ago and melted. Loved that rig

LeonM 7y ago

Toyota has been known for their reliability for a long time now. I can attest that with my Lexus, it's 13 years old now and in the 7 years that I have owned it, it has had zero defects. Last year it even got recalled (12 years after production) because the fuel filter might not have been installed correctly in the factory, so they replaced it for free. That said: I still do every scheduled maintenance, which helps tremendously. The main problem with older vehicles is that people stop following the recommended services as the car gets older. Which is of course the opposite of what you should do with an old car.

celticmusic 7y ago
> That said: I still do every scheduled maintenance, which helps tremendously. The main problem with older vehicles is that people stop following the recommended services as the car gets older. Which is of course the opposite of what you should do with an old car. exactly this. I've been driving my Toyota for 15 years, never had a problem with it. But I still, to this day, have it maintained. The cost of that maintenance is pennies compared to purchasing a new car. If you can afford it, it's foolish not to.
ryanmercer 7y ago
> Last year it even got recalled (12 years after production) Toyota is great about that. There was something in the steering column that needed replaced on my '95 T100 and and 15 years later they sent a notice offering to fix it for free. I never did get it replaced, it was a 'we gotta keep the vehicle for a couple of days' and we'd been driving it since it was brand new without issue so I decided to keep on since the risk seemed incredibly minimal.
- rasz 7y ago
  >> Last year it even got recalled (12 years after production) >Toyota is great about that. after you sue them https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/toyota-faces-class-action-over-hilux-prado-filter-issues/10821680 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/toyota-faces-class-ac... https://www.caradvice.com.au/780759/class-action-filed-over-toyota-dpf-issues/ https://www.caradvice.com.au/780759/class-action-filed-over-... https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truck-frame-rust-suit-suit-34-billion https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truc...
  - ryanmercer 7y ago
    Find me a vehicle manufacturer currently in business that hasn't been sued and sells more than 100,000 cars a year. I see the .au domains and while I don't know how stuff is in Australia, the United States it looks like more than 10,000 class action lawsuits are filed a year [1]. Hell I just got an email about one this weekend where apparently Audible was sued for not making it more clear that credits expired if you didn't use them... I mean, as long as I can remember (and I've been a member over a decade) Audible has explicitly stated that you can only accumulate so many unused credits and that if you cancel any outstanding ones are nullified. Lawyers make BANK if they win a class action. So did they get sued and then issue a recall, yes it looks that way but in the case of my recall it was voluntary and involved no lawsuit that I know of. They found some defect that happened under extremely specific (and unrealistic for 99.99% of drivers) conditions and issued a voluntary recall. When I got the notice the Truck was 15 or even 16 years old and we hadn't had it at a dealership in 2 address (I'd never had it at a dealership under my name) yet they found me to tell me and then sent the notice every few months for a couple of years until I notified them I no longer owned the vehicle per the instructions in the mailings. [1] https://gettingthedealthrough.com/area/82/jurisdiction/23/class-actions-2019-united-states/ https://gettingthedealthrough.com/area/82/jurisdiction/23/cl...

kipchak 7y ago

Generally speaking Toyota is conservative in terms of rolling out new technologies and sticks with what's proven. For example the base Camry has a 2.5L engine and 8 speed auto transmission and the base Accord a 1.5 turbo and 10 speed auto. Toyota also goes more in depth terms of QA and testing on individual parts than others. From an article on the Toyota - BMW Supra/M4 collaboration, "...BMW couldn’t believe how extensive some of our quality and efficiency studies were as parts came into shape one by one. We would take every bit down to a fastener or rivet, and put it through our stringent quality control and a dozen other testing, we’d ship thousands of parts back to Japan for analysis. That is normal to us." http://club4ag.com/chief-engineer-tetsuya-tada-reveals-the-a90-supra-through-a-viewpoint-of-joint-development-with-bmw/ http://club4ag.com/chief-engineer-tetsuya-tada-reveals-the-a...

antisthenes 7y ago
You know how rigorous it is when even the Germans are surprised.
- jcims 7y ago
  For performance/handling yes, for reliability not so much.
  - jackhack 7y ago
    This has been my experience with German cars (Mercedes, BMW) precisely : They are great to drive, but terrible to own.
tdurden 7y ago
> From an article on the Toyota - BMW Supra/M4 collaboration I think you mean Z4
cardiffspaceman 7y ago
That article seems to be more balanced shall we say, in terms of what was normal for which team. Toyota's engineering seems to be closer to production while BMW's seems to be closer to design. * I almost started to think if they had an infinite budget funding to the task of design. * And it seemed like the opinion from Toyota was that Toyota has a body style in mind at first but BMW lets the body style be influenced its contents. BMW's fundamental difference in approach was that they wanted to design a package, and from there they would naturally evolve a shape and size of the body from that packaging, a functionally oriented goal. ... Our company (Toyota) with my tenure and experience, the focus was always design elements being the priority. We would first spend a lot of time on the shape and appeal of the car from visual perspective ... But let the article speak for itself. I kept my quotes short.

celticmusic 7y ago

When I was in HS I had a friend whose family had this old beat up orange smallbed truck from the 70's (this was mid 90's). That thing was beat all to hell, ugly as sin. It was used as a truck. But you know what? That damned thing ran like a beauty. It literally ran until their son started driving it and wrecked it. I was impressed enough with it, that when it was time for me to purchase a vehicle, I went with Toyota. 15 years later and that thing has never left me on the side of the road, not even once (I do keep up maintenance on it). I'm considering purchasing another vehicle because it's time to get something larger, and when I do it will most likely be Toyota. I've seen so many people say that at 200k miles Toyota is just getting warmed up, and there's some truth to it. You obviously have to keep up with maintenance on the vehicle, but if you do I can guarantee it will treat you right. And I'm not saying other manufacturers are any worse, but I am saying Toyota is a great vehicle to buy.

ryanmercer 7y ago
I was driving a '67 C10 in 2003-2004 and it still ran perfect. It needed a frame off restoration as the bed was severely damaged from decades of use as a farm truck and removing the bed alone was more work than I wanted to do (at least a 4 man job) so I ended up selling it for about 2 grand more than I had bought it for. Then I took my father's '95 Toyota t100 from my mother when she got a new vehicle, drove it until 2013 and gave it to my half brother. It has 130k or so when I gave it to him and aside from having a really squeaky bed was in great shape, the only remotely major work I'd had to do was replace the fuel pump bracket due to rust which involved dropping the gas tank (2 man job). The ball joints and pitmans needed replaced in the next 10k miles probably but that's just a special tool rental and an afternoon sitting on the ground. Then take my 2013 impala... I've got 68k miles on it now. I've had a wire harness malfunction which would randomly trigger ABS and traction control while you were driving, I've had to replace the evap sensor THREE TIMES and it is now throwing codes again, the factory rotors have already had to be replaced due to severe rust, any time humidity gets above 70% or so it throws another engine code because of more fuel/emissions sensors.... pinches bridge of nose
- vonmoltke 7y ago

tyfon 7y ago

It highly depends on which Toyota you pick. RAV4 for instance is plagued with faults while my 2013 Avensis ran quite ok the first 90000 kilometres I drove it before getting a tesla. It did have to change brakes, a spring in one of the keys failed and the open/close window button on the passenger side broke. It also rusted under the chrome strips.. But compared to other cars I think it did quite well :)

toomuchtodo 7y ago
Certain Tundra, Tacoma, and Sequoia frames have rust issues so bad, Toyota settled for billions of dollars. https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truck-frame-rust-suit-suit-34-billion https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truc...
- wasdfff 7y ago
  Happened to my uncle and toyota put a brand new frame on a 10 year old truck for free.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

anderspitman 7y ago

Our '91 Tacoma (simply called SR5 back then) made it well past 200k miles and only stopped then because it got caught in a garage fire a couple years ago and melted. Loved that rig