The Party is Over..Toyota Quality Takes a Dump

First of all, we've already covered this item (Please see my thread, as well as a few others)

And secondly,

is your friend; the link was broken.

Natalie

Toyota finds a marginality and voluntarily recalls the cars to fix it. No big deal. Ford had a massive problem with engine control modules and fought against a recall for years. It finally took a California court going against them to get Ford to do the right thing.

(

) Every company is going to have some problems get out there. The question is, does the company stand up and deal with the problem or do they rope-a-dope their customers?

I am still waiting for the GM 3.4 L intake manifold gasket repair recall!

John

You mean just like Toyota sludge problem in engines on hundreds of thousands of cars?

mike

----- Original Message ----- From: "John Horner"

Sort of reminds me of the Toyota sludge recall - oh wait, the Sludge Customer Satisfaction Program. I am still waitign for Toyota to fix the paint on the sorry Cressida we owned (the worse POS I ever owned). Or maybe you are thinking of the Toyota V-6 head gasket fiasco. Or maybe you are thinking of how Toyota had to dragged kicking and screaming by NHTSA into recalling cerain trucks to address the high rate of ball joint failures for certain models. When you have some time go to the NHTSA web site and review the documents. It is hilarious. First Toyota claimed there was not a problem. Then the claimed it was the suppliers fault. Then they stalled for months. Finally they admitted there was a problem and did the right thing after a couple of years.....

At least with Ford you can get an inkling of the potential problems by reviewing the titles of the various TSBs. Most of the Japanese manufacturers are restricting access to this information. I recently purchased a Nissan Frontier. After I purchased the vehicle, I got a recall notice. Never saw the recall mentioned anywhere. Then I started checking and after I paid for access to the Nissan information service, I found that my 2006 vehicle already had over 50 TSB again it. 50!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for a 2006 vehicle. So I started poking around and found out both Toyota and Honda are pulling the same stunt. I suppose they are hoping if you don't know there is a fault in the design you might not notice the problem.

I had a 1997 Ford Expedtion with the 5.4L engine. There were lots of complains about this engine having piston slap problems. Heck, there were even web pages where you could download the sound. I heard a couple myself. Ford said it wasn't a problem, but it worried a lot of people to death and eventually Ford replaced a lot of engines to keep Customers happy. So last year when I was looking for a new Pick-up Truck I spent a lot of time looking at Tundras. I test drove three. All three sounded like rock crushers when they were first started. They were all far worse than any 5.4L Expedition I have ever heard. I commented on this to the various sales people. They all said the nosie was completely normal and not to worry about it. And just like the Fords, as soon as the engine warmed up slightly, the noise went away. So it appears to me there are double standards out there - Toyota crap is OK (especially if you don't know it is crap) and Ford or GM crap really stinks.

You mean like Toyota does? See comments about V-6 Engines and Ball Joints.....

Unfotunately, I am too....

Ed

When has Toyota ever had a voluntary recall for a "marginality" ? Seems it has to be a saftey problem before they will recall anything.

Looks like it time to release those Chinese cars, all the other have gone to hell

I think you missed a couple "Toyotas" there.

But when you figure, Toyota makes almost as many cars as GM, and sells them all over the world, and the last 'recall' I had on a '95 Tercel was to replace a screw holding the antenna to the car so AM radio would work, I think I'll stick with Toyota for a while longer...

....and NOT ONE documented to have had the factory recommended oil changes....

Just because we drive the best cars in the world does not make all of us smart enough to change the oil...

No, that's the big 3 you are describing. Toyota and Honda have both issued recalls for things not related to safety.

ROFL

Natalie

Oh yeah, the one where Toyota unilaterally extended the warranty to

100,000 miles? When did GM EVER give an extra warranty to cover issues like that????

John

Didn't Toyota reduce the maximum oil change interval to 5,000 miles because of this? Ford did the same for one model year (1995?), reducing it from 7,500 miles, probably because some of their engines were burning too much oil.

For my 1980s Corolla, Toyota allowed 10,000 miles between changes, not that I ever let it go even 1/3 that far.

My '92 Corolla has two intervals

3750 or 5000 miles.

3750 is for severe service

Your are correct there was not one..........there were many. ;)

mike

Actually it was eight years, unlimited mileage. But only after blaming the problem on owner neglect, until the problem began to show up in engines serviced at dealerships. And yes many manufactures have offered extended warranties, including GM ;)

mike

Yes...

In talking to dealer service people in my area (and MDT Tech in Washington State)....they all say they have not seen a single case of sludge in properly maintained vehicle.

The problem did NOT appear on vehicles that had their oil changed per Toyota maintenance schedule.

Prove me wrong....

I stand corrected, I just remembered that the last recall for my Echo was for rust under the driver floor. I am dissapointed in them for not recalling the Sienna for a known serious problem with the transmission. They did at least extend the warranty. My transimmision went out on the road at 60K, right after the service. Luckily it didn't strand me. Funny how they will recall for a minor rust problem and not a serious transmission problem. I guess the cost of the recall is a large factor.

What year is your Sienna? So far on my 2002 Sienna, the original tires were horrible and I could easily skid on wet pavement. They were soon replaced with Michelins. It had a transaxle leak and warped rotors at 30K, seat belt clip failure, and two O2 sensors within a month of each other at 51K. The dealer ripped me off on the warped rotors and charged me for a complete brake job in replacing the pads, whereas if I refused to have the pads replaced, he would have had to do the same amount of work replacing the rotors under warranty. Another dealer tried to rip me off claiming the O2 sensor was frozen in the manifold, and the manifold had to be replaced, which would have cost another $500. I found a service station that replaced the O2 sensor without replacing the manifold.

Quote me all the reliability statistics you want until you are blue in the face, but between the lousy tires, the many failures and the rip-offs from Toyota that I have experienced, I will never buy a Toyota vehicle again.

Lena