Toyota quality

The Vibe is basically a glitzed up Toyota Matrix. Now maybe that is a Voltz in Japan, but in any case, it is just a jacked up Corolla wagon.

Ed

I think the opposite is true. Toyotra owners have deluded themselves in to putting up with mediocrity and liking it. The little old lady a two doors down was having trouble getting her Corolla started a couple of days back. I went over to help. It was obvious the problem was the typoical bad contacts in the starter solenoid that it seems all Toyota eventually suffer from. I was able to get the car started and sugggested she take it in and have the starter fixed (I know you can just replace the contacts, but the dealer will probably replace the starter - much more profit). Ths is about the fourth time in the last four months something has been wrong with this car. And guess what - she tells me how great the car isand how much she loves her Toyota. In my opinion. even if the car never failed, it is a POS. It is was all I could do to wedge myself intot he car to get it going. The paint is faded, it uses oil, the interior is falling apart - yeah a great car - NOT. But she thinks it is....Oh what a feeling.

I think Toyota owners have developed a religous belief that all Toyota problems are minor and that things are much worse for the owners of other cars. This delusions allows them to excuse sticking accelerator pedals, failing balljoints, rusting frames, collasping suspensions and just tell people how mcuh worse things would be if they owned another brand.

Ed

(Cross posting removed, automatically)

(Cross postings removed, automatically)

Interestingly industry figures always showed that one could always drive home a Vibe, for an average of $2,500 LESS than a similarly equipped Matrix

I had CNN on yesterday and they spent hours (at least it seemed like hours) talking about the Toyota recalls. They had one guy that must have been working for Toyota. He was essentially spouting the Toyota BS about how good they were to stop selling the cars and never mentioned that NHTSA essentially said you stop selling these cars or we will make you. They even interviewed a dealer who repeated the whole BS line about how no car company but Toyota would have stopped selling car in this manner. Of course this is total BS. I am sure he knows that government regulations prohibit selling cars subject to safety recalls, but I suppose the Toyota play book encourages dealers to lie. This is the sort of Toyota BS that drives me crazy. It is bad enough that they spent 3 years trying to cover this problem up, but now they are trying to pretend that screwing their Customers is a good thing.

On the other hand, I do think there is a major over reaction by the press to this issue. The way the press is reacting, you would think Toyotas were running wild on the highways. I haven't seen one out of control yet. This is at least as bad as the Explorer Firestone Tire fiasco. When that was big news I got mad because the press never once compared the rate of Explorer rollover accidents to other similar SUVs (Explorers were near the top in terms of safety, not at the bottom as the press reports might lead one to believe). For this Toyota throttle issue, I think the press should be presenting comparisons to other manufacturers vehicles. They have no problem combing through the NHTSA database to count up the number of complaints against Toyotas. Why aren't they giving us comparable numbers for other manufacturers? I am confident every manufacturer sees unintended acceleration complaints. It may be that Toyota has more than others (corrected for number of vehicles sold) or not. It would be nice to know whether they do or don't.

To be sure, I am glad to see the press highlighting Toyota attempts to cover-up this issue. In fact, I think they need to go back and refer to past cases where Toyota tried to deceive the public and HNTSA about significant safety issues. A little exposure on past problems might finally alert people to Toyota's less than stellar concern for their Customers. I have never understood how Toyota managed to convince people that their cars were especially good. For the record, I don't think Toyotas are especially bad. I just get tired of the "how great they are BS" some people spout. Some are good, some aren't. Some have problems, some don't. My SO and family members all have Toyotas. All are decent vehicles that were selected because they provided a desirable set of characteristics, and except for one, none were selected solely because they were Toyotas (the SO probably bought hers primarily because it was a Toyota, but otherwise, the Toyotas were selected because they seemed like the best balance of features and price).

Ed

In message , Mike Hunter writes

According to the UK Toyota site all cars registered since January are fit to drive.

In Canada at least, you a WRONG. Customers cars are first. Those with any sign of stiffness get priority. Then come sold cars on dealers lots, then dealer inventory.

New cars are unlikely to have a problem as it is a "combination of wear and humidity" that is causing the problem. This whole thing is being blown WAY out of proportion.

And the "braking" problem on the Hybrids??? Do you realize FORD has had to reflash the code on some of their hybrids for the same problem?? Switching from regen to friction brakes is NOT seamless, so the "impression" of reduced breaking is there.

Not a safety issue at this point as far as anyone knows - but definitely a "driveability" type problem.