This is embarrassing ... for Toyota.

 

Werd, although I wouldn't mind if they dressed up the interior of the ship a little more (talking the corridors and places other than the bridge). I think my favorite set besides the bridge was main engineering on the refurbished 1701, then again the refurbished 1701, B and E are my favorite ships, pretty much in that order too.

 

If they used a Tundra to try and tow that trailer, they might not be able to make the races!

 

That picture brings me so much joy

 

Thats Great!!!!!

 

I for one am thankful that Toyota originally stepped up quality (despite that I think they are going down hill now in everything but sales) through the 80's and 90's as it's whats giving us a better built Ford today, they will be No.1 for the foreseeable future but that doesn't mean Ford and GM (if they stay on the right track) can't come **** close to their numbers.

That being said Toyota especially can't build a Truck to save their lives. The new Tundra is a total POS, a friend of ours is the sales platform manager for a local Toyota dealer and he can't give these away. At one point he told me that they had a 5K rebate offer going on them. After the complaints started coming in he told the salesmen to stop pushing them along with the FJ ("thank God for Camry sales" -his words) The next F-150 just needs a stronger powerplant, if Ford does that the F series will continue to be the best sell and best built Truck in America.

Have you ever owned one? I had a 03 Tacoma SRS with TRD package. That truck was horrible, it almost killed my mother when she was driving it. See the truck had this odd thing with the breaks. When you were driving and applied the breaks they would seize up and you were unable to stop. When this happened it sounded like what I describe as a metal pole being shoved into a paper shreadder. So you do the math NJ potholes+highway speed+Bad Breaks+18 wheeler= Thankfully not my mother in the hospital.

This would happen anytime at random so you could never prepare for it, it was scary. Took it to the dealership multiple times and they said everything was working to spec. The other problem was the truck never handeled very well, you would be driving and the steering wheel would have a dead spot in it and you would turn the wheel but the truck would not turn, this happened only when it was warm(70deg.) or Hot (90+ deg) when it was cold or freezing the steering was solid. I told them about this as well and they said nothing was wrong. well, a few months later Toyota did a recall for all steering joints on all their Trucks and SUV's. I will never trust Toyota with my or my families life again.

A woman I work with just bought a 07 Tacoma a year ago and at first she liked it but she starte complaining about some of the same stuff I had problems with and she now says "I can't wait till this thing is gone"

 

Agreed.

I dunno about all of that. I can reference an even greater number of stories about people who have been very satisfied with Toyota products. Myself, for one. I also have a friend with a '93 Toyota pickup (the precursor of the Tacoma). Fourteen years old and still going strong...with nothing even resembling the sort of problems you describe above.

As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.

At the end of the day, the only thing here that really matters is for Ford (and GM, for that matter) to keep going in the direction they're going...but to accelerate the process as much as possible. Now is the time to do it, while Toyota quality control begins to slip a bit. Translation: "If it bleeds we can kill it." Or at least gain some significant ground.

The new UAW concessions mean no more excuses like "It's not a level playing field," or "Legacy costs are killing us," etc, etc, etc.

Time to get busy.

 

Yeah and I would believe it the 80's and early 90's Toyotas are like Brick **** houses, it's after 98 that their quality started to slip(in my experience of course). My fathers 97 Avalon was a great car comfortable, quick, and classy as his Lincoln's before it. His 2001 Avalon.......not so much it was littered with problems, cam went twice, faulty fuel sensors, malfunctioning tach and speedometer what a mess. Not to say the last two things are un heard of but for a car of "superior quality" it sure fooled me. also worth noting all the problems we have had with Toyota have happened before hitting 38K. My Mothers $60K Land Crusier had body panels falling off of it everytime we turned around at at 300.00 a pop for a 2 foot long piece it sure made a bad taste in our mouth. My family has only had three problems with all the Ford cars we have had, my fathers 82 Lincoln contenental blew a piston at 55K my mothers 94 Windstar developed an electrical problem at 60K that was never really sorted out and my 92 Grand Marquee's tranny went after 89K. Though looking back my mothers 80's Nissan station wagon went for 50K and then got into an accident, no engine damage and we had it repainted, sold it when it got to 70K to another family and that car has over 300K on it now and it finally crapped out on them. Like I said 80's and early 90's is one thing, but as Toyota started to ramp upproduction to meet demand the quality began to decline. Not starting an argument here bro (After all our Stangs share a build week) just shooting the **** with ya.

 

Toyota used to be good when they had smaller production. Now that they're #1 they have the most recalls out of all auto-companies in the USA.

 

So they sell more cars than everyone else...and they have the most recalls.

Quite a mystery...

All kidding aside, I agree that when many companies get to a certain size, a combination of bureaucratic red tape and hubris tends to take over, and product quality often suffers.

Toyota may be slipping into a similar syndrome to what the Big 3 experienced in the mid-'70s.

Meanwhile, North American automakers are building increasingly better cars.

 

Guess Toyota is getting too big for its own good. I've heard of cases where a small Japanese business (usually a mom & pop operation/restaurant) would rather limit production despite high demand if they feel product quality would be sacrificed in any way. Of course, there's no profit in that, but...

 

You can still make a profit, you just have to charge a premium. Depends upon how you want to position yourself: niche manufacturer with a small to medium, but loyal clientele, or global giant taking advantage of economies of scale.

 

the only problem I see with toyota, nissun, and kia, and all the rest is that they allowed them here in the u.s. in the first place

 

well gee, thats openminded

where do you think we'd be if we never allowed any kind of product or idea to be imported from another place? American is quite literally an amalgam of products pieces and ideas from many different places that have come together to form what it is.

 

Plus the Big Three would have never had any impetus to improve their products.

 

wow, i hadn't even thought of that. good call

 

This has to be one of my favorite threads to date...includes Mustangs, the Enterprise and bashing Toyota! I love it!

 

Kirk would totally buy domestic.

 

but would domestic be made by earth in his universe?

 

I'd like to see a Klingon interpretation of a muscle car.

Guaranteed to be bad-azz.