Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
Options
Comments
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/11/rumormill-toyota-considering-prius-pickup/
I don't think this would sell at all, what do you folks think?
How are the GM hybrid pickups selling?
I do think it would be cool to have generators on-board for power outages and to charge power tools, but I don't see contractors buying a Prius - ever.
AAAAAAGHHH!!! Change it, Butthead! Change it!
Mahle
BorgWarner
PPG
TRW
CTS
Dura
Pittsburg Glass
Eaton
Webasto
Gentex
Well, when somebody has only been on these forums for a couple of months, and is only posting as a Toyota basher in this thread, then you sort of have to wonder what the agenda is. Is he some disgruntled UAW type? I suspect he owns GMs or Mopars and is upset about a foreign make doing well. But that's only a guess. Hence my question about what he drives. I'm just sure that he's made great choices about quality by not buying Toyotas.
Let's see if he answers.
I'm in all threads for the brands we own, plus previous cars, plus the news-related ones I find interesting. Sprinkle in some old school threads like RWTIV and "I saw a New..."
LOL, gotta steal the spotlight from the expanding Prius lineup.
LOL, gotta steal the spotlight from the expanding Prius lineup.
So GM will have:
Volt - sedan
Arc - hatch
Bolt - sports car
Watt - minivan
Resistor - truck
:shades:
All all suppliers to the new Swagger Wagon.
It's actually surprising how many US and even German (Mahle, Webasto) are listed, i.e. how globalized the auto industry has become.
Check 'em all out:
http://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA7223917.PDF
The Volt dance in all it's cheesiness :sick:
Have to wonder if someone at Subaru didn't go visit the Toyota design studio with a handful of Brat/Baja blueprints.
Only things not original are gas/oil, air/oil filters, tires, windshield wipers.
A/C and heat still work, ran great last time started (4 months ago).
Having driven and ridden in a Prius in the winter, the mileage drops quite a bit in those conditions.
I had a 1980 Mustang Ghia that didn't do as well. Cooling system and exhaust issues at about age 6, but I just sold it. To be fair we got it used.
That 3.3l straight six was a dog, though. Terrrible mileage and not particularly quick, either. I remember getting 19mpg on the highway, ugh.
Absolutely amazing..
At one point, 6 or 7 years ago, I didn't even take the car cover off of it for 2 years.
Turned it over using no spark a few times, reconnected it and it started right up. Mileage was crappy until I burned up the 2 year old gas.
Overall, I agree that maintenance makes a big difference as to how well a vehicle ages.
Many Toyota's have been better maintained by their owners than the domestic competitors.
Now that Toyota has dropped into the abyss of the 'deal', are they going to suffer from the same 'cheapout' ownership mentality as much of the competition? I think 'yes'.
And the most important of all is sending my money to these 3 companies does not make me feel like an idiot for supporting crazy corporations like toyota !
Find me a video of a Nissan, Honda or Hyundai whose cases are like those reported in this news video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-wD9MkaL3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWbqe8NAqnU
While I am far from a Toyota lover, your characterization of their vehicles as crap/junk/whatever is far from balanced. Every make has its issues. While GM was making crap all through the 80s, 90s, and half the 00s, Toyotas were much better. Ford had people dying with underinflated tires on the Explorer. Hyundai made crap in the 80s and 90's. Honda had transmission problems. The new Hondas are mostly ugly and the interior quality is down. Nissan had the Titan which was one of the most unreliable vehicles ever made when it first came out.
Toyota has nearly ALWAYS been better than average, just not perfect. And I agree that their management deserved getting the big fines for their hiding of issues. They tried to expand too fast and became complacent. Toyota vehicles may be numb dull appliances, but for the most part they serve very reliably for the people who like them.
Strike a bit of balance, man. :surprise:
If that's freon I sure hope it lasts. Converting to the new cleaner systems can add up fast.
I also owned a 1991 Ford Escort GT, the A/C went out on that not once but twice. Freon was still legal, but the shop billed me $17 per quart, OUCH! :sick:
Many Toyota's have been better maintained by their owners than the domestic competitors.
I'm not so sure...
There is another school of thought - some owners figure their car is bullet-proof, so they neglect to follow scheduled maintenance, figuring the car will last anyway.
How well someone adheres to the schedule says more about the owner than it does about the car.
Another factor - manufacturers wanted to bring TCO (total cost of ownership) down, so they stretched the oil change intervals. I do think modern oils are longer lasting, but what used to be every 3000 miles is now every 7500 miles with dino oil, and often a LOT more than that on synthetic oil.
Don't BMWs only need changes once a year, for instance? 10,000 plus miles, often. Of course they oil they use costs a whopping $7-9 per quart. Ouch again.
I like doing my own service because I get to see the condition of the oil that comes out. Same for rotating tires - I torque to 75 ft-lbs, most shops tend to overtighten. They overtighten oil filters, too, BADLY. One grease monkey shop drained the transmission fluid out of my buddy's car, instead of the oil, then proceeded to add motor oil.
Overfilled motor oil, empty trans oil. Niiii-ice!
No thanks, I'll do it myself.
Didn't you just see the video of that Honda Pilot with a malfunctioning throttle?
no rust problems
You're kidding, right?
Too easy, I'll let that one slide.
That's an important point - and before all this hype, in September 2009, the rate of SUA complaints in NHTSA's ODI database for Toyota was half that of Ford's.
The ABS News video you shared is from November 2009, before the CTS throttle pedals were recalled and replaced.
Noone here is disputing that the CTS pedals were bad - they were shown to jam.
Even with those pedals factored in, the complaint rate was half of Ford's until the media hysteria. Why didn't they investigate Ford? Home field advantage, perhaps? Dateline got crushed when they went after GM.
Well, at least they now can't describe you as some "disgruntled UAW type!"
That makes no sense at all.
The electronics go berserk, yet Bluetooth works perfectly and she can make a phone call?
Then she proceeds to drive another 6 miles without losing control.
6 miles later the brakes are still able to slow the car to 33mph, then a complete stop?
After all that, the car tried to start itself?
After that, the Tooth Fairy flew out of the glove box. Santa Claus jumped out of the battery pack, and they had drinks with the Easter Bunny.
Some of these things were made up. It may be hard to figure out which ones, though.
Scion's average customer is 37 years old, the youngest in the industry, with buyers of tC coupes just 29 years old on average
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110111/OEM04/110119902/1115- - #ixzz1Aq7LT8ay
They used average vs. median, too, which surprises me, because you get the curve-busting 80+ year old geezers. I bet the median age is lower.
I actually disagree with the strategy of offering premium cars at higher prices. They would overlap 100% with existing cars from Toyota's other brands.
Instead, we've seen Scion incentives are 2nd lowest, behind only Subaru. I would add content, such as EnTune. Make that standard. When Scion came out they offered good in-car tech for the price, but now they've been surpassed. Make EnTune standard across the whole lineup, that can't cost more than the average incentive for competitors with economies of scale factored in.
Going premium is what got them in to trouble in the first place. Note the 1.5l xA and xB sold much better than their bigger replacements.
I say stay small and push tech. The iQ should boost sales, also.
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/11/top-ten-most-and-least-expensive-cars-to-insu- - - re-in-2011/
A little ironic that the insurance industry charges so little yet they're suing Toyota to try to recover costs.
This is for 2011, too.
So much for the theories about Toyotas' rates going up. They had just 1 model in the top 10 for the 2010 list, so they improved dramatically. LOL
Oops. :sick:
Guess the retirement community vehicle of choice still slants towards the Buicks, Caddies and Lincolns of the industry... :shades:
That honor used to belong to Kia, last time I checked.
I guess with bigger sedans and crossovers Kia has expanded its appeal, but the buyers are older.
The excuse of unemployment among youth doesn't fly with me given the Kia Soul outsells the entire Scion brand all by itself.
As I like to say, it's the product.
Never owned an orphaned car before but could see it happening.
This one?
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/12/23/kia-bringing-kv7-gull-wing-concept-to-detroit- /
I liked it also. Even if you ignore the gullwing doors and the interior, that is one cool looking minivan.
Ford tried with the Flex, but it was just too low and long. This hits the sweet spot in terms of proportions.
My favorite detail - the rear window echoes the shape of Kia's corporate grille.
Nice design. Enough to keep me in minivans.... Well, not quite but I love the design. Of course I like the Flex, too.
Toyota sold 98,337 Siennas, while Ford sold just 34,227 of the Flex last year
They don't compete directly, but of course that's basically the closest thing Ford has to a minivan, and it did replace the Freestar.
Ford has too much overlap, especially now that there is a 3 row Explorer, the Flex should go back to being more minivan and less SUV.
I don't know why they don't try a full length slider starting at the windshield. Makes way more sense than gullwings. Just keep the rig long enough so that the doors don't hang out beyond the rear bumper too far when fully open.
Funny thing with that Kia - the seats look right of the Jetsons!