9th Sep 2007, 10:51
16:05, are you disputing the fact that Buick is rated No. 1 in initial quality? Are you disputing that Cadillac, Lincoln, and Mercury are rated above Toyota, Acura and Honda in initial quality? Are you disputing the fact that Buick, Lincoln, Mercury, and Cadillac continue to be rated higher in quality than Toyota, Honda, and Acura even after the cars are three years old? Are you disputing the fact that Ford and Chevy meets or exceeds the quality of Toyota and Honda built in the US?
You can try to twist and obscure these facts any way you like, but it only shows your blind loyalty to Japan and indicates the bias and unreliability of your comments. In other words, you are what you accuse the die-hard domestic loyalists of being. Except now the domestic loyalists are fully justified in their loyalty, as domestics are as good as or better than Japanese cars.
Sorry it hurts you so much to see that Toyota and Honda have slipped, and were just a flash in the pan not qualified to occupy the top slots. It's not an attack on your personal beliefs, it's just the way it is.
10th Sep 2007, 11:28
The top corners of the 2007 tundra tailgate outside sheetmetal are not attached to anything. You can see right inside. This is not a good design. Also the tailgate is higher than the bed when the tailgate is in the down position. This puts more weight on the tailgate when hauling a long load such as lumber longer than the bed and tailgate. My tailgate came apart in the corners after hauling lumber as described above.
It was a good half ton load of 8 to 10-foot long lumber. My dealer replaced the tailgate at no charge, thankfully, with an identical one except without the bead sealer that the original one had. Not sure of the purpose of the bead sealer. Check your corners and you will see gaps in the top corners. I've had many pickups and used this same method of hauling long loads without any damage. I do have the toyota bedliner in it. This is advertised as a working man's truck and that is all that I was using it for. This is my only complaint with the 2007 tundra.
10th Sep 2007, 17:11
Does that include the Toyota 4Runners that people are complaining about on this site that blew head gaskets between 75,000 and 120,000 miles? Funny how you say every Toyota will routinely go 260,000 and yet they only reached 1/3 to 1/2 the mileage of the Dodge. Please explain.
10th Sep 2007, 18:16
"I guess Toyota has it's own steel mill on site and pours casts or machines their own camshafts now?"
Just keep making excuses for Toyota. The fact remains that other manufacturers are not having this problem, but Toyota is. Whether they have a supplier or not, is that any excuse? I guess if any car has a problem now, we should not hold the manufacturer accountable, just blame it on any suppliers they might have used. Would you be that forgiving to a domestic brand?
By the way, not everybody is as clueless as you think they are. I have a masters degree in engineering, and a large amount of professional experience is in Industrial Engineering, so I know a little bit about manufacturing. Clearly, there are separate facilities where components are manufactured/cast and where they are finally assembled. I do not know, nor ever claimed to know, every single aspect of how Toyota conducts their operations, and neither do you. But, it is a well known fact that Toyota casts its own engines, so it is not unreasonable to assume that they might just cast their own camshafts as well. That is not far fetched.
I ask you again, why won't Toyota name their supplier (if there is one)? Could it be that, if the problem is a metallurgy problem, as Toyota claims, then it could potentially effect camshafts from other model Toyota's, not just the Tundra. Naturally, that is assuming Toyota is telling the truth about it even being a metallurgy problem. But it could also be (and my guess is this may very likely be the case) a mechanical design problem, wherein the metal is fine, but not engineered in the proper proportions to withstand the loads it is subjected to. There is a lot more than just a foul up in alloying the metal of the camshafts that can cause them to fail. Toyota has been having major mechanical issues across its product line (engine sludge, suspension component failures, brake system design flaws), so they do not inspire confidence.
Speaking from experience, I know for a fact that I can buy a domestic truck, as I have done several times, and have it give me several hundred thousand miles of trouble free driving. And, as an added bonus, I can do real work with it. Yet the people I know who have Toyota trucks all have problems with them. Every single person I know who has ever had compact Toyota trucks, including both four and six cylinder models, has had head gasket failures.
So far, I have only known two people who have had Tundra's, because they are still relatively new. The first person I know bought his Tundra new, and then almost immediately it started making loud upper engine valve train noises. You always knew when he was coming down the road; you could hear that pile of pot metal coming a block away. That truck was sold within two years, and replaced by another Ford, which is the type of truck the person had owned previously - I guess the grass isn't always greener... Then, the second person I know who has a Tundra (and so far still has it), is fortunately not having engine problems, but has to take it back to the dealership constantly for suspension problems.
With all of these problems I see everybody around me having with Toyota's, while I have never had a problem with any of my domestic vehicles, what is my opinion of Toyota supposed to be? I have not even mentioned (nor do I care to because I am sick of writing all of this, and we are talking about trucks anyway), all of the disastrous problems I have seen with Toyota cars. I have had to personally pick up the pieces, both financially, and with my repair labor, on several of them. Based on my direct real world observations, I just think this myth of Toyota's being superior, or even good vehicles for that matter, is absolutely preposterous, and I simply cannot believe so many people are so enamored in it.
9th Sep 2007, 06:59
12:12 Domestic trucks have a 'proven' track record of being junk; I know, I've owned too many, until I wised up and bought a Toyota.
Do you know anything at all about assembly plants? I guess Toyota has it's own steel mill on site and pours casts or machines their own camshafts now?
If every Tundra on the road were to blow up because of a bad camshaft, Toyota would still be ahead of GM and Ford for recalls and major malfunctions. Why do you think it is that you can buy parts so cheap for a Chevy 350, and they practically sell them at K-mart? They make so many because the demand is so high for parts, because that junk engine breaks constantly.
And to the person who is impressed with 260,000 on their Dodge; so what? Every Toyota on the road is capable of doing that, it's to be expected when you buy one. Big deal, if it's even true.
Do you anti-Toyota people ever read the endless list of major problems that Ford and Chevy have had in the last... let's say 20 years, even though they've always been junk? You guys put Toyota's issues under a microscope, almost always completely exaggerate the numbers. A list of Ford's major problems in the last 20 years would be a MUCH, MUCH, thicker book than Toyota's for the last 20. But you won't admit that knowing it is without question completely true. If you think it's not, you're just plain old WRONG.
The difference is, you THINK your Ford's are as good as a Toyota, but I KNOW that Toyota puts them to shame when you're talking about overall quality of the product.