"Avalon shows dent in Toyota Quality"

I was given a Georgetown Carmy as a loaner while my Corolla was being repaired in 1999. Brand new, about 2,500 miles on it. It was a warm day, but not hot, so I decided to lower the window rather than use the AC.

The window got down about 1/3 of the way, jumped the track and jammed.

I also noticed the 'fit' of things was not what I expected from Toyota.

Mazda still makes a lot of their cars in Japan...

Automotive News," is the bible of the industry but I doubt anybody besides me in this NG subscribes to "Automotive News," it is comparably expensive for a weekly. You can read portions of past articles on their web cite ;)

As to quality issues, build quality is a function of management, not one of labor. The build quality of the vehicle should be the same no mater who screws it together, if management is doing its job. Some of the best screwed together vehicles Toyota sells come out of the GM/Toyota plant in California, not Japan The increasing number of Toyota 'quality' problems has more to do with increasing sales volume, in any event. When one sells hundreds of thousands of anything, as was Toyota in the US ten years ago, more of the ones with 'problems' will begin to appear when one sales get into the millions, as is Toyotas currently. Now that Toyotas is stating to run with some of the 'big dogs' in the US you will see that more of their 'problems' will appear as well.

mike hunt

Mazda builds ALL of its vehicles in Japan. Ford builds the Mazda Tribute in one of its plants. Mazda no longer builds cars in the Ford Flat Rock Michigan plant, the new Mustang has been built there since late 2004

mike hunt

Well, really, it's not that expensive. $150 for a year (gets you both print and online versions). But I'll bet ya that article appears on Lexis-Nexis tomorrow for 3 bucks :-P

And then I'll post. :P

The dealer couldn't figure out my problems with my 2002 Toyota Corolla, either. I don't think so much it was a problem with the car -- I think the Service Department is a profit center for Lithia Motors... hence, charging me or wanting to charge me $1,000 for a leaking injector is outrageous, at best. It's sad too because Lithia is really destroying a name that Toyota claims its all about -- Service, Reliability, Pride, etc.. none of those I attribute to Lithia.

GM to buy more wheels from China.

General Motors is poised to become the auto industry's largest buyer of wheels in China.

GM purchasing czar Bo Andersson said last week that GM will replace wheels made by Amcast in Indiana with aluminum wheels made in China by Zhejiang Wanfeng Auto Wheel Co. Ltd.

== (I think soon Toyotas made in America will have more American parts in them than GMs made here.)

What is wrong with GM buying wheels from the same place Toyota buys their wheels? LOL

mike hunt

Since one can subscribe to "Auto Week" for as low as $9.95, wouldn't you call that comparably expensive for a weekly LOL

mike hunt

I thought that Toyota buys wheels from its wheel plant in Canada.

And yet, their reliability stinks--no thanks to Ford I'm sure.

Corolla is made in Freemont, CA and Canada and it remains one of the most, if not THE most, reliable Toyota model.

Believe it or not, I think the Echo is suppose to be a little more reliable than the Corolla.

Cutting corners? Toyota stopped using fuel filters on some of the models and relies on the in tank screen only.Does this explain the sticking fuel injectors. Tacomas stopped using boxed frames on the trucks and use only channels and actually look very similar to the chev canyon (whats with that?) Heck even the fenders are the same shape. My 1994 camry v6 has 528k km with almost no problems (until the tranny stopped going into 3rd), but 02 echo has a rad leaking when 2-3 years old and wears out wheel bearings. Plastic bushings in the 5spd shift mechanism (sloppy). Emmission trouble codes.I realise the cars are at the opposite ends of the spectrum but my experience is the 94 definitely feels like a lexus and the echo has more problems.

All their vehicles are built in Japan? How do you explain the Mazda6?

The final assembly of Toyota and GM products is pretty comparable these days. GM has improved and Toyota has deteriorated. But Toyota bread and butter components like alternators are still more reliable so Toyota will still have less reliability problems as it ages.