The REAL problem with Toyota's cars

[HopeHoops]

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear HopeHoops...

I think they've taken their view as being invincible and run with it, damn the consequences.

Arrogant. That's the word.

That they would put their world view over the safety of the public is just infuriating.

x(

[HopeHoops]

3. "Shhh - don't say anything and maybe the problem will go away."

Works GREAT for cancer, eh?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. ROFL!

Exactly!

[NNadir]

6. Ding. Ding. Ding. They have "GM" disease.

The best car I ever owned was a Toyota Corolla, but the model year was 1984.

One of the worst cars I've owned turned out to be a Honda Accord.

The best vehicle I ever owned was a bicycle, however. Many years ago I used to take ride it every weekend from the Hermosa Pier to the "hills" around Malibu, passing of course, through your town.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. How long ago were those bike rides?

I wonder if I lived here then?

That's a beautiful bike ride, my dear NNadir!

:hug:

[NNadir]

13. That would have been in the late 1970's, during my private revolution against the internal

combustion engine.

I was on a quixotic quest to not drive in a car anywhere.

Sigh...

There was a time that I would bike from Hermosa up to Santa Monica in the evening and join my friends for an hour of running, then ride back.

I did have my share of accidents involving cars however, which only deepened my hatred of cars.

I recall the first time I rode in a car in two years, when I got strep throat and a friend drove me to Kaiser in Harbor City to the clinic.

I was terrified to go that fast.

That was, I think, the best physical shape I was ever in, although my wife and I had a period, in San Diego, where we ran an hour a day, every day, rain or shine.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Nah, Hondas are the ones that are fucking ugly.

Toyota's are decent looking, but I do think their reputation got to their heads a little and caused them to ignore their falibility.

[HopeHoops]

4. Honda, Toyota, Nissan - they're all pretty much the same car. EXCEPT for...

... that fucking ugly 1940's U.K. delivery van thing Honda makes - DAMN is that fucker ugly!! How can anyone own one of those without waking up in the morning, looking outside and asking, "Who the fuck parked that ugly piece of shit in my driveway?" before remembering - "Oh, I'M the asshole who parked that ugly piece of shit in my driveway."

[TZ]

8. Hell NO those aren't the same cars

Really. Look at a picture of a 2002 Toyota Celica (what I have and I LOVE) and tell me if Honda or Nissan make anything like it. Nope. And I'm sorry Toyota stopped making them. I'd buy one in a heartbeat again. For all the bad press, me and my family HAVE NEVER had a problem with our Toyotas. Whereas the American cars we bought and drove were all pieces of crap that put several family members in bad spots when they blew engines at roughly 50,000 miles. I've never felt unsafe in a Toyota. I have in other makes.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. I'm somewhere in between on Toyota.

I'm currently driving a 2010 Toyota Matrix and I like it a lot. It's a fun little car, and it's probably the most attached I've gotten to a car since my "first" car, a 1994 Dodge Shadow.

That being said, I'm a little weary given that the Matrix is on the recall list. But so far, no problems, and I hope the fix is a real fix.

I'm not in love with the Toyota brand but I don't hate it either. My car before the Matrix was a 2004 Corolla that my wife pawned off on me. It was rather sluggish and handled stiff, and I can't say that I enjoyed it all that much. That being said, it ran well, and when my little sister asked if I could sell it to her after I got my new car, I had no reservations in doing so.

The best car I've ever had still has to be my all American built Shadow.

[1gobluedem]

10. Other

They are active union busters who build their US plants in right to work states.

[Taitertots]

11. Other:

Their government is committed to unfair trade with the US. Through their manipulation of the resource market and their currency they have assured an unfair playing field.

[HopeHoops]

12. The "Glenn Beck is an asshole" option ALWAYS seems to have the most votes.

It doesn't matter what the poll is about. It just gets the most votes.

[LeftyMom]

14. The Yaris kinda sucks.

It's an absolute dog compared to the Fit. I'm amazed they haven't rolled out a revamped version because they won't be competitive in that segment until they do.

Honestly, that's probably the biggest problem they've got right now, and if they're smart they can keep it that way. They've built up a lot of consumer goodwill and I think that'll see them through their current rough patch, as long as they take care of their existing customers and go out of their way to impress new ones. Bad things happen. Taking care of them well will earn you lifelong customers, fucking them up will make you enemies. The smart thing to do would be to get their dealers to absolutely roll out the red carpet and go above and beyond for each and every customer who comes in for a warranty/recall issue. That's the most important thing they can do right now- reassure their customers and make sure they're still confident in their cars and in Toyota.

[stray cat]

15. They are not made by American Union Employees - some don't like Toyota's totally on that basis

[CRF450]

16. I wanted a 05+Toyota Tacoma, got a Dodge Dakota instead

At the time they were still holding well over 20 grand in resail value for a 4 door crew cab, and a 4x4. Got an 04 Dakota instead for $16,000 with 45,000 miles 2 years ago. Its an SLT, quad cab, 4x4 with the 4.7 v8. Has 94k miles now, without a major problem. Only thing I had replace other than maintainance related were the shocks. Cant really complain about that, they were super easy to replace. I dont even like Dodges, but the Dakota has been an awsome and dependable truck.





I'm a firm believer that for most cars no matter who they're made by, if taken proper care of will go around 200,000 and sometimes 300k before a major failure. My Dad's Chevy S10 pickup is a perfect example of this. The trasmission on that truck failed yesterday at an auto-lube shop right after the tranny fluid was changed. The old stuff that came out of it was black, flat out nasty, and because of that, it wasn't shifting right. Dad just let the miles add up without ever checking and changing the fluid. When they flushed and filled it back up, the truck wouln't move anywhere, they have to push it out of the shop. So now its at a transmission shop getting an overhaul. What went wrong with it was some kind of pump, I don't know what it is specifically. My brother's 95 z28 Camaro uses that same 4L60E transmission Dad's S10 has, and it went up to 232,000 miles before the engine threw a rod. He sold it to some guys who wanted to swap in a newly rebuilt LT1 and a 6 speed manual. They tore down the original transmission to see what shape it was in, and surprisingly, the internals still looked really good! Brother had that thing serviced every 30 or 40,000 miles just as it should be.

[Kali]

20. are Dakotas still Mitsubishis?

:shrug:

[CRF450]

22. What do you mean? As in the engine?

Not aware of the Dakota being any kind of Mistubishi. I know theres a little myth going around that the 4.7 in the newer Dodges are mitsubishi engines IIRC. Completely false, the engine was developed all by Crysler, it first showed up in the Jeep Grand Cherokee's in 99, and its a very solid, well built engine. The Mitsubishi Raider is a rebadged Dakota, but nothing on it except maybe just the badges and different body panels are made by them. I think that truck came out in 06.

[Kali]

24. sorry - thinking of our old d-50 (later named dakotas)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Ram_50

The Dodge Ram 50 (called the D50 for 1979 and 1980) was a compact pickup truck produced by Mitsubishi Motors and sold by the Chrysler Corporation from 1979 to 1993. Plymouth also received a version of the truck known as the Arrow Truck, sold from 1979 to 1982. Mitsubishi itself imported it as the Mitsubishi Mighty Max when it began selling directly in the U.S. from 1982, at which point the Plymouth ceased to be available.

Four wheel drive was added for 1982, creating the Power Ram 50 according to Dodge's nomenclature (the Power Ram name was used for four wheel drive models). A turbodiesel engine was available in US models between 1983 and 1985.

The Ram 50 was redesigned in 1987, which was the same year Chrysler introduced the Ram 50's successor, the Dodge Dakota. Despite this, sales of the Ram 50 continued for another seven years, possibly because the Ram 50 was a compact and the Dakota was a mid-size. The difference in size and cost left a niche for the Dodge 50, and its cancellation may have been due more to a desire to show independence from Mitsubishi than because of any product overlap. The Mighty Max ended production for the 1996 model year despite its old age.

[Throd]

17. They aren't Oldsmobiles

(Pre '74)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. They've got those little japanese girl ghosts in the radiators.

70,000 miles!

[Mopar151]

19. You step on a little plastic piece of crap

Sometime after that, the computer actuates the throttle - possibly in proportion to the little piece of plastic crap, but maybe not. When you lift your foot off the plastic thingie, maybe it will follow your foot up, and sometime after that, the throttle will close, at a rate determined by emissions testing, not your closure rate on a garbage truck. Or maybe not. If you detect a problem with this process, stomp on the brake pedal, and the car may slow down, if the computer does not shut the brakes off. If that fails to satisfiy your requirements, push on the start button continuously, while the car travels the length of a football field, and maybe it will shut off.

[CRF450]

21. Auto makers need to go back to cable operated pedals and throttle bodies.

Problem solved! I don't see the point in these new electronic servo operated throttle body setups, I want to drive the car, not let the car drive me! Granted the drive by wire system has been around for more than a few years now, and I reckon its pretty damn reliable. I just hate how car manufacturers keep inching the driver from having direct control of the vehicle with the implementation of driver assist features like traction control and stability control, etc etc...

[Mopar151]

25. It's a matter of choice in systems engineering and software.

A paralell example: Airbus and Boeing both buile fly-by wire airplanes. Boeing's philosiphy is that the pilot should be given all possible control of the airplane - Airbus wants to only allow "safe" control parameters. Wich one do you want Capt. Sully to fly you in?
I've run fly-by wire machine tools in their manual mode that were gloriously precise, responsive, and linear - but those handwheel encoders wer'nt $15 pieces of crap.

[quakerboy]

23. The same one that just got my pontiac recalled

Dunno what it is, but it effects my Pontiac. Only GM ain't ready to fix it yet, so I cant schedule an appt to get it fixed till the end of the month. And make sure you take our your mats in the mean time.