9th Apr 2020, 18:06
My mom had a 1998 Avalon. At the time it was a very nice car. Basically as close to getting a Lexus without the Lexus price. Basically a Japanese Buick. She handed it down to my brother who abused it horribly. Yet it never had issues and had over 300,000 miles when he sold it to a neighbor.
IMHO Toyota is one of the most conservative automakers in existence. They will keep the same engine designs for decades at a time without making many changes. Once a tried and true design is met they basically leave it alone. That's why they tend to run forever and ever. I own a 1996 Tacoma and the engine in it is hardly different from what is in the new Tacoma. The engine has never even had the valve covers off. It just goes and goes. One day I'll eventually get bored of it. I feel that lately they have been painfully slow to adopt newer technologies. Their most innovative product - the Prius - is not horribly different than what it was like when it was released over 20 years ago. They are VERY late to the EV game. Many of their engines in their trucks and SUVs get AWFUL fuel economy.
Yes - the interior quality has gotten worse. Their interiors these days remind me more of what GM's interiors were like in the 90's. Lots and lots of really unappealing looking, cheap feeling plastic. My Mom owns a newer Prius. The interior seriously squeaks and rattles way more than a new car should. The interior of my 9 year old Chevy Volt is way nicer.
11th Apr 2020, 00:30
I like what you said about Toyota being very conservative, and not changing designs (engine) for decades. Well, here's a view from outside North America. It makes sense for all makers to keep their designs, and they know which ones they fluked and gave no problems despite complications; a design that does not change means any money spent in hundreds of millions to design them to existence, are already fully paid, and every engine built thereafter is money for jam. And lower warranty bills. The trouble is, many car makers have to dump these tried-and-true designs, because they will not meet upcoming legislation (whatever they are tied to). Example - European countries often link car registration and yearly road tax to emissions of g/km of carbon dioxide. So car makers keep coming up with ways to meet them, else their cars would be legislated out of existence. So - here come turbos to supplement small displacement engines (they know turbos are more complicated, less forgiving of ill maintenance, etc. vs an equivalent larger displacement normally-aspirated engine with the same power, but a larger displacement emits more CO-2 when idling). Many European cars (and European-built Japanese cars for export) start having sagging headliners with age, because of the use of environmentally-friendly glue. Plastics are not as robust, because they have to meet German recyclability laws, not because their engineers are so dumb they don't know what good plastic is. So, that's a bit of a challenge for us consumers around the world - we part with our hard-earned money for machines which can fail prematurely, perhaps not by deliberate but consequential design faults. A great many Asian engines used in North America are not suitable for sale outside the area: too large, too guzzly (where gas can cost US$7.50/gal normally), too much CO-2, too expensive to road tax, too expensive to insure.
8th Apr 2020, 18:23
Ever consider buying an older one with low miles? Maybe pay a premium vs others of the year it was built. I’ve found nice cars that were just an extra car. I like new, but if the new quality is so bad, it may be an option.