10th May 2006, 13:02

Wow, I am sorry this has happened to you. This is not something that normally happens with Toyota's. I do think you are going a little over board with the comment regarding American manufactures wouldn't be allowed to do something like this. THEY DO IT EVERYDAY. The American people just accept and expect it from their cars.

11th May 2006, 13:57

You import guys are so full of it. Toyota makes a lemon and all you can say is that its not as bad as american? Could you at least admit toyota made a lemon, just this once?

8th Sep 2006, 17:11

Yes, Toyota makes a Lemon. I am driving a 2003 Higlander right now that I just got back from the dealers. They fixed it supposedly for the 2nd time this time. Well, I am driving it again and the same problem is beginning recurr. They supposedly replaced some assembly that has to do with Idle. Whatever that is. But here I am looking to swap this car with another. I know this one will go down in 2 weeks. I am praying.

10th Sep 2006, 21:34

We test drove 6 new SUV's before buying our GMC Envoy in 2003. The absolute WORST thing we drove was a Highlander. The interior trim was shoddy, the ride was very rough, it lurched violently to the left when braking and it was so underpowered we were terrified trying to merge onto the freeway. Not one of the other SUV's we drove was anywhere near as bad as this monstrosity. We've never once regretted buying our Envoy. It now has 50,000 miles on it with not one single problem. We've owned Japanese, German and American cars over the past 35 years and the ONLY ones we have NEVER had a problem with were Ford and GM. Toyota has got to be the most over rated car on the planet. Not one of our friends who owns one has ever gone over 90,000 miles without some expensive repair. Several of our American cars went well over 200,000 miles without a problem, and one (a Ford) went 325,000+ miles with only routine maintenance. We won't even bother test driving another Japanese car...EVER.

12th Sep 2006, 14:24

You have to keep in mind that automotive magazine writers, who know nothing about cars, help promote the myth that Japanese cars are somehow better than American cars. The writers are given all sorts of perks to write good things about the cars, which are only tested briefly. There is no way to get an accurate picture of how the cars will hold up. The few long-term tests I have read didn't find any more reliability in Japanese cars as compared to American cars.

I've driven the Highlander and was underwhelmed to say the least. Not surprisingly (as it is basically an underpowered Camry with a much heavier body) the performance was terrible. You'd need a CALENDAR to time this thing thru a quarter mile. I've never driven a slower SUV.

In 40 years of driving and working on lots of different brands (I'm a mechanic) I have never found ANY Japanese car to be as reliable as a well cared for Ford, GM or Chrysler product. Maybe many years ago, but certainly not in the last 10 or so. American manufacturers are the best in the world. A quick look at how Mazda and Jaguar made huge strides in quality and reliability after being taken over by Ford is a great example of this.