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Toyota is on the Offensive. Will it work?
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AE86 replacement
I will believe it when I see it. Toyota could easily offer some interesting sporty manual transmission cars but they chose not to in order to concentrate on mass market cars and higher profits.
However, Mack indicated a price range of around $25K, which seems to contradict the linked info:
"The committee's final directive is to keep the new car's sticker price below 1.5million Yen. That's about $12,300 USD in today's money."
C'mon - Under $12.5K MSRP in the USA?? Did anybody proof read that article??
You were probably not around Toyota LCs in the 1960s. The vehicle overall was tough. The engine was a very sloppy, poor quality copy of a Chevy 6. There were many parts I ended replacing with Chevy OEM parts. Most of the early LCs ended up with Chevy small block V8s. I was not wealthy enough to afford that luxury with a brand NEW vehicle.
Lucky for you that you bought into Toyota after they got their act together. Too bad they are falling backward again. That in spite of the spin from all the Toyota salesmen that frequent these forums.
Hehehe, that is a car whose production ended before Christmas last year, so what that REALLY is, is the last leftover '06 xA on their lot. And with that in mind, I wonder if the sales manager won't order LESS stick shift xDs in future so the same thing doesn't happen again...
See, I get WHY Toyota is getting out of the stick shift biz, I just won't be interested in them any more once they have completed the move. Given the other things that also have me doubting them lately. When a company starts believing its own PR, it becomes, well, GM, not to put too fine a point on it. All the PR in the world won't fix quality control problems.
We shall see how this Matrix treats me. All is good so far, 6000 miles. I have the same high expectations of its durability and reliability as all my Toyotas before it, and I won't settle for anything less.
Oh, and to chime in on what seems to be a running dialog in the last 50 posts: over many Toyotas spanning 25 years and quite a number that went well past the 100K mark before I sold them, I have never replaced a clutch, ever. The only clutch I ever replaced was in my 280Z.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The passionate pursuit of middle road should be Toyota's new motto.
Mackabee
Did you see that in July the domestics only held 48% of the market, imports 52%?
Toyota has the best brand image (even though Hyundai gets headlines).
Tundra just whooped the domestic pickups in the latest issue of Consumer Reports. Acceleration was literally in another league yet it also managed to be the most fuel efficient.
The issue just came out and will only help them build momentum.
The only thing they are falling backwards into are piles of money.
You know what I think of that rag from CR. Paid advertising. Oh, I mean donations accepted. It would be interesting to know how much of that PILE of money Toyota is sitting on is donated to CR. From the looks of the reports it is money well DONATED!
If I am going to tow 10k lbs it will not be with a gasser that guzzles like a Tundra. Anyone foolish enough to buy a gas truck to tow that much deserves the 6 MPG they will get.
But if they do and at around that price, I'll start voluntarily doing house chores now to accumulate the "please, please" credits.
Toyota is not the reliable vehicle it was in the 1990s
Statistics show the problem rate has in fact declined. What is your source?
If CR is so pro-Toyota why did the Scion xA score poorly?
Statistics are not very realistic. Probably less than 1% of any given new car.
Are the results in on the trouble laden new Camry & Tundra.
Maybe the Scion was the goat. Or maybe such a POC they had no choice. I would say CR has shown a bias toward the Japanese cars for a LONG time.
My basis is 5 GM trucks in 19 years with virtually NO problems and 2 Toyota trucks that were nothing but trouble. Each has his own experience. Hopefully we learn from those experiences.
1986 Hyundai Excels were crap, so that means what about a new Veracruz? Nothing.
I've never been critical of recall announcements, domestic or otherwise. My last car got a brake master cylinder recall and I was very excited because they replace it and that meant they bled my brakes for free. I was elated. LOL
Yet no amount of free labor could keep him from defecting to Toyota when he bought his Tundra DC back in March. Had these been 80's or even mid 90's trucks I would have just chocked it up to old age, but these were late model vehicles. Because of that (and a few others here at work with problematic GM'ers), I wouldn't even give those trucks a look. But I digress...
You're basing your opinion on a 40 year old vehicle man. Things have changed a bit since your old cruiser
I was talking about the new 2008 C-class.
There are going to be C300 Luxury, C300 Sports and C350 sports. Only the C300 Sports comes with manual tranny. The C350 comes with only automatic.
Check it out yourself.
2008 C-class
Maybe I am not the one who failed to do a little research, huh?
By the way I have a 2005 GMC Sierra Hybrid. No problems after 25 months. Do I like the way it is put together. Not really. They use thin sheet metal. I like a heavy gauge steel shell surrounding me.
PS
Your service manager friend must be making too much money if he can buy a new truck every 1-2 years.
It doesn't surprise me that Merc doesn't have a manual though. With the exception of Lexus they are the least sporty brand.
Gagrice, what troubles would these be? The Camry is on its way to number one (again) and the Tundra is selling extremely well.
1. Camry: Sure there was a problem with the software on the 6spd trannies in the early production units but that has been corrected.
2. Tundra: 20 Tundras with the 5.7L had their cams break and Toyota replaced the engines on them. An outside supplier provided the defective camshafts. This supplier is a well known maker of trucks and I have it from a reliable source. Toyota notified them and they got their stuff together since.
3. Toyota, Lexus, and Scion are in the top five spots in J.D. Power's initial quality surveys with Acura and Honda in the fourth and fifth spot. So in reality Toyota and Honda own the two top spots.
Mackabee
If it were actually a problem with "software" it would be able to flashed into previously existent computers-or the computers can be replaced and the previous cars with probems would have gone on their merry way. That hasn't happened. Even with replacement transmissions that hasn't happened. I believe that's a PR effort by Toyota.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
No they don't
Porsche in the top spot then Lexus and Lincoln followed by Honda. Mercedes rounds out the top 5 and Jaguar comes in at sixth tied with Toyota.
I think in a Tie with Toyota Jaguar gets the win.
I had an 80 Mustang with cooling issues throughout its life and a 91 Escort with two A/C failures within a year of each other, I don't think either says anything about a Ford F-150, Focus, or Fusion you might buy today.
Ford Credit tried to screw me too. :mad:
In your attempt to prove him wrong, the overall point he was trying to make was proven correct.
Yet no amount of free labor could keep him from defecting to Toyota when he bought his Tundra DC back in March. Had these been 80's or even mid 90's trucks I would have just chocked it up to old age, but these were late model vehicles. Because of that (and a few others here at work with problematic GM'ers), I wouldn't even give those trucks a look. But I digress...
You wouldnt by chance have any other tales you would care to keep posting on here for a while do you? this ones getting kind of old after 1000th time seeing you post your little fairy tale.
The truck from the 60s doesn't really matter. That was well before Toyota was established here. They really earned their rep only by the late 70s.
The clutch on the 90s pickup? Your brother/sister/girlfriend/buddy burned your clutch out without your knowledge. :P
I know you would never let me get away with a falsehood like that. The truth is Lexus is second best and Toyota is in sixth place. Meaning the company that sells the most cars is not necessarily the best automaker. Honda is in fourth place with Acura well below average. If you think one out of five is good accuracy, Well.
Oh, to respond to your next bit of spin. The Clutch was the first failure at 11k miles. Some timing belt issue occurred under 60k miles for another $1300. Then the engine blew up in Lake Tahoe just past 100k miles, costing me several thousand to get a rebuilt. Maybe I will give them another try in 2024, NOT! I don't care if they are the only car company left. I know there will be plenty of good used trucks available.
Clutch is wear and tear. Shouldn't the belt be replaced at 60k miles anyway? Along with the water pump, which you probably skipped, which is they the engine blew at 100k when the water pump failed, is my guess.
None of this even matters to anyone but you. 2 trucks is statistically insignificant.
He's in the process of dumping his wifes 'Burban because of the 12mpg/$100+ gas fillup and the Intermediate steering shaft has been replaced 3 times along with a couple of brake jobs in 40k miles (I think that's what he has on it). Plus, he sold both his boats so the towing aspect is not needed anymore. He'll probably end up with a new Highlander.
"Why is it OK to give anecdotal accounts of terrible GM products but not Toyota?"
I never said it wasn't but even 1994 is 14 years ago... You want to vent about how Toyota let you down, go for it. It doesn't bother me a bit because I have no emotional attachment to a brand of vehicle (Well, maybe Aston Martin ).
I have a Honda, an Acura and a Subaru, all of which have been serving me very well. Never owned a Toyota in my life and may never own one, but I know far too many satisfied people to ever worry about purchasing one. GM, meh... not so much. :sick:
I glad your happy with them, but your really not adding much to the topic that's all.
Sure, once again we'll use your personal experience over data from, say, Automotive Lease Guide, which uses its residual figures to calculate lease payments on thousands of cars.
The original owner took a serious depreciation hit on that Ranger when they sold it to you. You may not have felt it, but I'm sure the original owner did. :sick:
I made out a lot better on the Land Cruiser than I did that 94 PU truck. I have never spent or lost more money on any truck as I did that Toyota PU. The only vehicle that was worse was the Fiat Spyder I bought my son.
How about taking some personal responsibility and quit the bashing. It's getting old. :mad:
Mackabee
As long as people try to put up smokescreens and spinning the reliability of Toyota, I will continue to bash them. No different than the dozens of GM bashers with the same old wore out stories about how they had a 1955 Buick with a bad transmission after only 175,000 miles.
My son was hard on trucks. My GMC had zero problems with him 4 wheeling it into the worst places in Alaska all one summer. He drove a Fiat Spyder for a year and a half with a stick shift before we traded it in on the Toyota PU truck. Never blew a clutch. Face it Toyota does not build tough trucks. At least they were not very substantial in 1994. If you have to do all kinds of expensive maintenance other than fluid & filter changes, where is the economy there? I have never done anything but fluid, brakes and tires on the last 5 GM trucks. Oh and changed a couple $26 serpentine belts. Toyota needs to tear apart a GM truck and learn what a truck is supposed to be like. You know like they did with the 6 cylinder engines back in the 1960s.
No to state it accurately you're hoping it's a PR effort by Toyota and you're hoping it keeps coming up again and again.
But alas for the hopeful detractors the various solutions including software reflashes seem to have been effective and the issues are fading into recent past memory as sales continue apace on upward. Record Camry sales are expected this CY. Life goes on.
The business I work for has a fleet of 8 pickup trucks for our sales force (light-duty use; all heavy duty work is performed by "International" trucks). Several months ago, we replaced all of our 2002-2004 regular-cab F-150s with new 2007 extended-cab Rangers.
So far, the Rangers have been pretty bad. We've had one driveshift snap in two, showing more cardboard inside than metal (yes, we took pictures). On two other trucks, we've had serious transmission issues requiring extensive service.
In general, they have been much less reliable than the F-150s were. Same drivers, same light-duty use, but more problems with brand new trucks than we were having with the 100k+ mileage F-150s.
They are also a nightmare to drive. The comfort and ergonomics are terrible, and the V6 feels like a four-cylinder.
Two of our guys have Tacomas as personal vehicles, and wow, what a difference... The engines are the same size as the Fords, but they feel totally different.
PS
Our 2004 F350 PS diesel work trucks were crap. Always in the shop with emissions related problems.
It's just a business decision based on what the future buyer will demand ( diesel ) and one of their thorniest domestic issues ( the UAW in an aging plant ).
First you say Ford resale is great, then you acknowledge the original owner took a huge hit on depreciation on that Ranger and you blame the media for Ford resale being so lousy.
Pardon me while I laugh.
Then you say *you* were easy on your Toyota pickup's clutch, and later admit it wasn't even your truck in the first place, and that your *son* "was hard on trucks" and did 4 wheeling all the time, and clearly not light duty.
Off roaders prefer automatics because it's brutal on cluthes, no wonder it went out after 15k miles. I'm shocked that it lasted that long. I bet the GMC was an automatic, the preferred transmission for wheelin'.
IMHO your son (not you) chose the wrong transmission for someone hard on trucks that goes wheelin' in the worst conditions (as you just stated).
Yet you blame Toyota?
This is getting funnier by the minute!
The lack of maintenance on the timing belt is also the owner's fault. If you changed the serpentine belts on a GM, a timing belt is similar, just remove the timimg cover and make a few marks. Dealers send coupons for $300 or less if you're too lazy.
Again, you blame Toyota?
Toyota is far from perfect, noone is. My Sienna was delivered without an antennae (some models with JBL have them in-glass, but mine doesn't have the JBL sound). The service guys got greasy finger prints on my interior, so I'll service it myself from now on. They're certainly experiencing growing pains right now, because of the added volume from the last couple of years.
Your arguments are inconsistent, though, and you've contradict yourself more than once.
People aren't buying Toyotas because they have been duped by Consumer Reports, they possess an irrational hatred of the Big Three, or they will be shunned by their neighbors for parking a Chevy in the driveway.
Car companies, like people, earn their reputations. If Toyota delivers several years of consistently bad products, its reputation will start swirling the bowl, too.
Actually, it will happen faster for Toyota than it did for the domestics, because in the age of the internet (and sites such as this one), word spreads much faster of serious problems.
And, if we are swapping anecdotal stories: my mother-in-law's 1999 Malibu, by 70,000 miles, had a manifold intake gasket seal on the V-6 that was about ready to go; had a HVAC fan that did not work in the first position; and was making several clunking noises in the suspension.
My parent's 1999 Park Avenue had a ruined engine thanks to the manifold intake gasket failure, but this occurred at 113,000 miles, so I'll cut GM a pass on this one. Otherwise, the car has been reliable.
My co-worker's 2000 Impala has gone through pads and rotors at an alarming rate, and experienced the manifold gasket intake failure, but the dealer caught it before there was serious engine damage (and was going to make her pay full price for the replacement, until I found the TSB).
My wife has a 2005 Focus with 48,000 miles and so far it has had two problems - the wiper motor went out last winter (during the worst snowstorm of the season), but the dealer did fix it at a reduce cost, even though it was out of warranty. The CD player is on the fritz. Otherwise, the car has been solid, although let's hope that for the next-generation Focus, Ford spends more than $2.95 on the entire interior.
So, for alot of us, problematic domestic cars are not too far in the past, which is why Toyota looks good to many people, even with their vehicles' blandness and dull styling.
Though Toyota has delayed the Corolla quite a bit, too. At least it'll be a new one.
Laugh all you like. I can respond to your twisted spin all day long.
I never once said my son was 4 wheeling in MY 1994 Toyota POC. If he had made the payments as prescribed it would have been his Toyota POC. The clutch went out at 11k miles driving on the roads of San Diego. When he came to spend the summer with me in Alaska he learned how to drive and ran the wheels off my GM 4X4. No Toyota would take the punishment he put that GM truck through while I was at work in Prudhoe.
If you want to see who is twisting the truth and inconsistent a quick peek in the mirror would be all that is needed.
Toyota is suffering the same growing pains they started with in the early 1960s.
Please post the places I have contradicted myself or was inconsistent. Just because I do not give every detail of every anecdote does not give you an open forum to inject half truths to back up your total bias toward Toyota.
If you want me to post all the places you have added to my anecdote to make your opinion seem plausible. I would be happy to do so.
I got all day. And my desk looks out over the city. I just filled the bird feeders so the humming birds and orioles keep me amused when blogging no longer amuses me.
I think our Bullock's have flown - the sugar water in the feeder isn't getting empty every three days now. The hummers are thick though.
This is posting by the way - for blogging you need to go here. CarSpace members get free car blogs with multiple designs to choose to showcase your personality and style. Create your own blog and have your voice heard in the automotive industry. Comment on others' blogs for even more fun. (I can just imagine some of the contents now. :shades:).
Post 539: "My son was having problems with his truck"
Post 555: "MY 1994 Toyota"
Why don't you sort out who owned it and then let us know?
Perhaps that makes sense to you, but to us, reading your posts, it's inconsisent.
Inconsistency #2:
Post 539: "Another Toyota myth, resale value"
Post 542: "The original owner took a serious hit because of bad press killing the value"
You were comparing your used Ranger implying it favored the Toyota in resale. The opposite was true - you got a bargain (congrats, great dealing by the way) because Ford resale was dismal, far worse than Toyota's.
Post 545: "I have never done anything but fluid, brakes and tires on the last 5 GM trucks. Oh and changed a couple $26 serpentine belts"
Post 537: "Some timing belt issue occurred under 60k miles for another $1300"
It would have been a $26 issue if you had changed that serpentine belt, as you found so easy to do on your GMs. You're handy enough to spend the time on your GMs, yet you neglected your Toyota. Your fault. Accept responsibility for your mistake.
Post 545: "If you have to do all kinds of expensive maintenance other than fluid & filter changes, where is the economy there?"
All gagrice posts are inconsistent with that.
You were not willing to perform the schedule maintenance required for your Toyota. Perhaps you can argue the Toyota was higher maintenance and you chose to ignore the manufacturer's recommendations, but that simply kills your theory that your truck was unreliable.
Had it been maintained properly, as per the manufacturer's schedule, the expensive belt failure could have been prevented.
Did GM use timing chains on those V6s back then, or were you just lucky?
Funny thing is my Sienna has a timing chain. Maintenance-free. Perfect car for someone like you who ignores timing belt change intervals!
So he didn't know how to drive the Toyota? :confuse:
Mack
I mean, no offense but the topic seems to be dominated by complaints about 14 and 34 year old vehicles which have zero impact on where Toyota is headed in the future...
Now, from my perspective it's a mixed bag:
The Tundra, the RAV4 and the Prius are strong efforts which show Toyota is serious about putting out a class competitive, if not class leading product. However, they are also serious about getting the Tundra into owners hands if it takes big cash on the hoods to do it. But, these folks would have probably NEVER given the Tundra a chance but once they get their hands on them? That seems like an offensive move Hopefully they'll be back. I know a few people who are sold on yotas based on their trucks.
Word is the Prius may deliver 100mpg offensive move
The RAV4 brings a 265hp V6 that is capable of 26mpg (RAV4world.com has a couple of people) offensive move
On the other hand, the Corolla is on an extended cycle. It's ready for a redesign, hopefully they put a "Camry-like" effort into delivering a competitive product. That would be an offensive move
The highlander, while a nice update may not have gone far enough to be a standout. But there's a class exclusive hybrid to boast about there. Not really offensive, more trying not to be (playing it safe)
The Sienna is certainly class competitive, but with the supposed "shrinking segment" the next Sienna has to be something special to attract buyers away from SUV's and x-overs. Offensive needed
Toyota still has no sporty models and as mentioned above, they have neglected the manual trasmission buyers. That's offensive, maybe not in a good way
Gagrice, what do you think of the offensive in 2007?