4th Sep 2011, 19:34

Original Reviewer.

That's unfortunate. My 1996 Corolla doesn't have a thing falling off of it, and it's almost 16 years old with almost 200K miles on it!

My mother actually just purchased a 2009 Camry. It only has 40,000 miles on it and it's been totally flawless. Out of the 12 cars she's owned in her lifetime, she claims her Camry has been the best one yet.

A friend of ours has a 2006 Toyota RAV4, which replaced his hopelessly unreliable 2004 Ford Ranger (he traded that in with only 23,000 miles, and it had already left him stranded 5 times!).

Our neighbors own a 2003 Toyota Sequoia with 181,000 miles on it, that has been great for them, they take it on vacation to Florida every year.

An uncle of mine also owns an '03 Sequoia. Being in the military, he moves around a lot. His Sequoia has 223,000 miles on it, and it has towed his 2nd vehicle (a Volvo 240) around the country several times (right now it's with him in Italy, where he is currently stationed).

As for myself, I work at an automotive repair facility here in town. I've seen dozens of Toyota's come in with well over 250K miles on them. It's almost an everyday occurrence.

An '01 Camry Solara came in a few days ago, 331,000 miles on it. It was in for its first real "repair." Needed a transmission input shaft seal.

A '99 Sienna was also in recently, it had 248,000 miles. We had to replace the exhaust system on it because its owner ran it over a stump! It drove perfectly fine despite that, although it was quite loud before we put the new exhaust on!

I guess what I'm trying to say here is, I'm sorry your friend had bad luck with his Toyota, but the evidence to me is quite clear. Toyota makes excellent vehicles. By the way, you shouldn't take this as me saying all other vehicles are complete crap. If you read all of my comments, you might notice that I am also the owner of a '97 Saturn SL2 and a '99 Chrysler Cirrus. Both of which have been very good cars for me, and, in all honesty, my Saturn is probably my favorite. My family has owned several domestic vehicles as well. My mother's Ford Focus went 140,000 miles before it needed any major work. My grandfathers F-350 had 180,000 on it when it finally quit. Our family isn't particularly loyal to any car manufacture, but we've had our best luck with Toyota.

If Toyota doesn't work for you, well then I guess you should just stick to whatever brand does work for you, rather than try to keep others away from Toyota because of your experiences. With some of the things I've seen, I could easily convince someone to not buy a particular brand. I've seen a Nissan pick-up snap clean in half on a lift, and I've seen an '09 Cadillac with less than 30,000 miles guzzle oil like gasoline, but I would never tell somebody to completely discount these two brands based on either of those experiences. But it's certainly something to think about!

12th Nov 2011, 19:26

Original Reviewer.

195,000 miles still. The Corolla has been sitting for quite some time due to the fuel tank finally letting go, shortly after writing my last update.

The tank was in bad shape for quite some time, and I let it go too long. My fault. I have since replaced it. I replaced all the fuel lines and brakes lines at the same time. Everything was starting to look pretty rusty, so I figured I'd might as well take care of any future problems with rust while I had it on the lift.

It wouldn't start one morning (first time since I bought it); the original starter had finally let go. Replaced that as well. Battery died shortly after, but it was still the same cheap Wal-mart battery I bought the car with, so I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.

Overall, it has shown its age a bit lately. But I'm still very happy with it. To put it all into perspective, I've owned this car for going on 2 years very soon. I have replaced in total, 7 items that would not be considered regular maintenance. And this is on a 16 year old car with nearly 200,000 miles. My previous car, a Dodge Neon with 90,000 miles required 6 items outside of regular maintenance within the same time period. One being a head gasket, another being a transmission. I'd much rather replace a few small items than 2 very big ones (on top of 4 other small ones!) Not to mention the numerous times I was left stranded away from home because of the problems my Neon gave me. My Corolla has always gotten me home, and that to me is what is most important.

19th Jan 2012, 21:01

Original reviewer again!

Well, since my younger brother has delayed getting his license by almost a year now, I'm still the main driver of the Corolla. It has 197,000 miles now, and hasn't had a problem since the starter failed (which I reported in my last comment).

I had an old aftermarket remote starter system in my closet that I had forgotten about. I decided to install in my Corolla (mostly out of sheer boredom), but it works great. Being able to start it from inside the house when it's freezing cold in the morning is awesome.

I also found a set of 4 snow tires and rims for $50 on the side of the road one day. The rims are actually from a Corolla, just like mine, so I bought them on the spot. Makes a big difference in the snow and ice. It's very light, so it tends to slide around a bit, but these snow tires keep it tracking straight with ease. They also work well on the muddy, dirt back roads on the outskirts of my small hometown. They used to be completely inaccessible to me after it rained due to the mud, but now it will go through without issue.

19th Feb 2012, 21:17

Original Reviewer.

198,000 miles. The Corolla has been great since my last report. I had to use it for a week while my other car (see: Saturn SL2 review titled "Very impressed with this plastic wondercar") was down with clutch problems.

It will be getting new front brakes, new rear brakes (they are the originals) and new rear shocks within the coming month, as it's role as a sort of second car here in the family is becoming bigger, as salary cuts have made it difficult for us to continue filling another vehicle in our family (see: Honda CR-V review titled "The perfect SUV for people who usually hate SUVs") everyday. While the CR-V gets around 25 MPG, its small tank requires frequent fill-ups. The Corolla gets around 45 MPG, so it will be getting used far more often now.

12th Mar 2012, 19:26

Original Reviewer.

Over 200,000 miles now. Remember those struts I said I needed to replace 20,000 miles ago? Well, they've just now been replaced. Ha. One of them finally decided it had enough and completely blew when I hit a pot hole one day.

I also replaced the rear brakes (the shoes were original with 200,000 miles on them, and actually still had life left, but they were starting to get very cracked, so I replaced them along with the drums, hardware and wheel cylinders as preventative maintenance).

Also replaced the front brakes.

No issues, it's still running perfectly.