htwag

My wife bought a used 2001 butt-ugly white Prius about 16 months ago. It had 29700 miles on it and today has 51,300. Yesterday the @$%# thing had to be towed-in. The overheat and check engine came on. It had been sitting a parking lot for 45 minutes. Turns out the throttle body went south. A few months ago, the rack had to be replaced. And while Toyota agreed to fix it both for free (no charge to me - thank you - and I mean thank you nicely), I can't help but wonder where's the world famous quality I read about all the time? This is the firt Toyota I've owned. Anybody else have less than sellar comments about Toyota quality?

05GT-O.C.D.

I just know their cars are normally ugly, underpowered, and boring. Their reputation for quality is normally the only thing that saves them. Sorry about your luck.

AnotherMustangMan

Underpowered? Honda's vehicles are usually among the quickest of their respective market packs.

TomServo92

Don't you mean Toyota?

Zastava_101

From my experience with Toyota, they don't have major problems, but they have many smaller issues. Many people can live with those issues, it's something that doesn't have to be fixed right away.

05GT-O.C.D.

I think Honda's are great. My Mom's Accord is a great car, and I've got no complaints w/ my Acura. However, the Toyota's I've driven seem like the motor's about to blow every time you have to floor it to pass someone or get onto a highway.

Blue Notch

I know of a kid who was driving with his mom in their mid '90s (?) camry, and when they were stopped at a trafic light, the mom was telling her kid how much she loved their toyota, and that it was such high quality, and that they were one of the best cars out their. Well, just as light turned green, the toyota was a no go. They had to take it into a shop, and found out that the alternator had died!

hi5.0

Well, used cars/reliability are somewhat iffy no matter who makes it - previous owner maintenance or lack thereof also has a lot to do with it.

vistablue mustang

I agree that used car reliability is iffy due to the fact you don't really know how well it was taken care of before you bought it, and the Prius is not known for being a good example of quality to begin with. My family bought 4 toyotas over 8 years (all new) and I would never buy another.

Our first Avalon was a great car for the most part (though we traded it in when it 36K) everything went south from there. My parents take good care of their cars, not like we do but they were washed and waxed regularly.

99 Land Cruiser - Body pannels fell off regularly, stupid magnetic cupholder covers never stayed closed (extremely minor but it ****ed my Mom off)

01 Avalon - Cam blew twice, faulty fuel sensor replaced twice, Tachometer would stick (and they would not fix it) clearcoat began to deteriorate after 4 years(again they would not fix it), the wheels also began to pit and rust along with emblems. Leater seats began to deteriorate twice in places no one sat or touched. This all happened before the car hit 34K and most of this happened within 3 years.

03 Tacoma - Biggest POS ever. This one was mine. all 4 doors has orange peel so bad you could feel it, When I asked the dealer he said "nothing we can do we got 6 others that all have the same thing", auto trans never seemed to shift right you step on it and it sounds like your going fast but your not, 4WD was a joke this truck could not dig it's self of ouf a childs sandbox with one wheel in.

The 3 big ones were, 1. Bad design, the wheel base was too small and the truck felt like it would flip over when turning. 2. breakes would spraticly not work, if you were turning and happened to hit a bump when you press the breaks after that they would not work (had it in for this they said the classic "unable to duplicate concern") 3. AC compressor did not work properly, the AC would go warm despite that there was enough coolant. Also when it was on and you would accelerate you could hear this loud whine sound coming from the engine, they had a toyota tech come out from Cali. and even he cold not fix it.

4WD would get stuck in the on position despite that everything indicated it was off. That one was always fun because you would turn it off and think you were good, you would be driving and all of a sudden BANG it would actually take it's self out of gear. All this happened before 40K.

A series of bad luck? Maybe but it has always been my opinion that Japanese car quality was the direct result of them not having to produce as many cars as Ford and GM (besides when they clearly did something wrong) Which is why I think their quality has become questionable of late, because fact is if you make more cars the rate of failure goes up.

AnotherMustangMan

I think I was buzzed when I typed that. Disregard...

n00bstang

My friend has an 05/06 Matrix and the CD player is jacked up. It skips on hot days. It's still under warranty, so he takes it to the dealership. They try to fix it. It's beyond repair, so they say they're going to order a new head unit. Weeks pass and he calls them, every time he calls they put him on hold and it's impossible to get a hold of them. He's frustrated so he decides he just going to buy an aftermarket one.

That's the only story I have.

karman

OKAY
My '86 4runner --- front main oil seal 50k, clutch 60k
'80 Tercel Corolla--- 23k CV joint, 25K speedo cable.
'91 Tercel---Perfect for 20K, then sold it for my 455 Olds
'72 Celica --- Previous owner never changed oil until 110k mi. ran great.
'85 Pickup --- sold at 15K, paint started cracking

.
Mixed bag, just like most people's Ford lists.