9th Nov 2007, 17:42

The rust issue really depends on where you live. I live in CA and cars out here last forever and ever. There's literally hundreds of 80's vintage hondas, toyotas, and yes- even Fords and Chevys all driving around with the original paint. My 96' Tacoma looks like the day it rolled off the assembly line.

I also have a 55' Mercury that hasn't sat in a garage a day in it's life. It too has remarkably little rust. That said, I grew up in the South and vehicles there tended to look pretty awful in general after they reached the 10 year mark. The humidity just ate them alive. If you live in the Midwest or in the snow belt, then your car is going to get eaten by road salt. So condition has a lot to do with location.

9th Nov 2007, 19:00

14:06 exactly buy a Honda or a GM not a new Toyota. Why defend Toyota using Honda as an example anyway?

9th Nov 2007, 22:39

The 350 LT1 in my 1995 Chevrolet Caprice had a rod knock and it only had 100,000 miles. It was driven very carefully by an elderly couple for the first 60,000 miles and then we had it till it had 125,000 miles. Beautiful car, but we had many paint/rust issues. Quality control issues and then problems with engine knocks and the opti spark.

10th Nov 2007, 05:57

I live in the salt belt/northeast and always park both my new SUV and full size truck in my garage. At work I park in a parking garage. Rather than roll up garage doors at home I have carraige doors which work great for the larger (longer) vehicles. There are discussions to sell new individual car condos with 24 hour secure access for those concerned about the elements as well as vehicle theft/vandalism. People in the Northeast can minimize the element exposure by keeping them clean and garaged. I have had muscle cars over the years garage kept and covered inside that were also extremely clean. By the way GM's small blocks are plentiful, easy to work on, tough and durable. The newer Mustangs are easy to work on as well. Although I prefer GM, my older sons first car a 95 Mustang GT Convertible was a lot of fun easy to build and show. Working on blown engine crammed in a small FWD import has to be a pain.

10th Nov 2007, 20:06

Hmm...that is funny because if you open the hood of many imports there is more room to fit things than in the trunk. Probably could fit a V6 in a CRV and so on... my 99 Accord inline 4 has a large empty expanse to its older brother V6 Accord we have, so I do not know what you are talking about a crammed compartment.

Yes, my 305 and 350 Chevy's both had plenty of room, but everyone seems to forget their V6 and smaller engines suck to work on.

BTW... I have worked on many GM vehicles that had stuff crammed in so bad we had to take the car apart to get to simple things like alternators, etc.

Score 1 imports... Domestic 0.

11th Nov 2007, 05:43

I must admit that this thread is quite funny; seriously I almost wet myself from some of the comments.

To the guy from Kentucky who wants people to bring their Toyota trucks to him, so he can ram them with his truck to prove how the frame will get all twisted up. I have some news for you, if I T-bone your truck with a Metro the same thing will happen. So you are proving very little by your comments.

I also believe the same person said they are loading thousands of pounds into the bed of a Ford Ranger and not even seeing any strain placed on the truck. First, you are talking about a 1/2 ton truck (1500 max), a 1/2 ton is 1000 pounds. When I see the word thousands, I tend to think of 2000+ pounds. So that would be double the rating of the truck. Not only would you see a major strain on the truck, you would very likely snap the axle. Not to mention by adding that much weight to the back would cause major problems with you ability to steer. You also tried to say that you can tow 10,000 pounds with a truck rated for only 2200 pounds (5800 max). Even if you had the 4.0 (160hp/ 225foot-pounds of torque) this would be a miracle.

If you still insist that you are telling the truth, then I invite you to come to Oak Ridge TN and prove it. I am positive I can come up with the proper weights, at the lab to test your claims. I would just bring an extra ride home if I were you.

To the guy who thinks that there is no way for an Aluminum alloy to get within 300 degrees of Cast Iron. First I assume you are talking in F and not C, even though we normally measure melting points in C. What would you like to bet? The Melting point of Iron is only 2802F / 1539C while Aluminum is 1220F / 660C. So to make an alloy that would raise the temp by 1300F isn't that hard. By making it a 60% Aluminum and 40% Iridium alloy it would be over 3000F.

To the guy who claims that Steel gets its strength from Iron. I would have to disagree, the iron is what makes steel weaker. The Carbon is what makes it strong. The more Carbon the stronger the steel is. Not to mention Steel isn't the strongest material around, there are quite a few plastics that more than double the load strength.

To all the people who keep relating strength to weight. Please stop they are not even remotely related. One has nothing to do with the other. If it did Lead would be really strong.

To the guy that claims to have driven his truck with it setting on “H” with no water and just stopping to let it cool down and it still runs fine. First, if you actually did this you deserve the blown engine you received from it. So how do I know you didn't do it, well that is quite simple. If you raised the temp in your engine that high even after you shut it off it would continue to rise. This would break down the oil and fuse together every moving part in the engine. As far as your “I just stopped and let it cool down then continued driving” comment, even if you managed to shut down the engine before it fused together, it would take hours for that Cast Iron block to cool down and only 5-10 minutes for it to over heat again. Cast Iron doesn’t release heat very well.

To the guy that made the claim that Ford and GM are losing money due to their need to honor their pension plan. You make wish to read some of the recent news. Both Ford and GM wanted to stop paying the pensions of their retired workers, and if it wasn't for the courts stopping them, they would have. So much for honoring the American workers who gave them 30 or 40 years of hard work.

To those who claim they buy a new vehicle every 2-3 years. Do you know how much money you are wasting, especially if you are leasing? Let’s say guy “A” is buying $30,000 vehicle, after financing it is more like $35,000 (6 years loan $500 payments) and that is with perfect credit. Now at trade in with the vehicle in perfect condition and low miles, guy “A” will be lucky to get $17,000 just enough to pay it off. Putting guy “A” ’s price for the vehicle at $30,000 ($10,000 a year), of course this just keeps doubling every 2-3 years and guy “A” is always making a car payment and throwing money away.

Now if guy ”B” kept the vehicle for 8-12 years, that means guy ”B” has 3-7 years without a car payment. This allows guy ”B” to save $18,000-$42,000 by placing guy “B” ’s normal payment into a savings account (the worst interest) guy “B” would have $19,000-$47,000. Now by the time that guy “B” is ready to buy a new vehicle guy “A” is up for his 5th new vehicle and has wasted $150,000. Guy “B” still has $12,000 left in savings, meaning he is up $162,000.

Yes, I am guy “B”, I haven’t made a car payment in over 15 years. In 1995 I bought a used 1992 Toyota 4x4 V6 manual, which was the first vehicle I paid cash for. I still have this truck and use it for my hunting and fishing vehicle. In 1997 I bought a 97 Saturn SW2, which is now my current daily driver. In 2006 my wife decided she wanted a new car so we paid cash for a 2006 Mercedes CLS500C, which is what she wanted, I would have preferred the AMG model myself. Some people have asked me why I don’t get a new vehicle for myself and the answer is simple, I will be retiring before I am 50 right after my youngest graduates. Regardless of which type of vehicle or brand you like you really should keep it for as long as possible.

To the guy with the problem with the Free-Trade agreements, while I will agree that it is killing the American manufacturing industry and putting millions out of work, we have no one to blame for it except the large manufacturing companies that lobbied and paid for it, companies like Ford and GM. You don't have to take my word for it, just look at how long it took Ford to open its first plant in Central America and close a plant in the U.S. Of course business wise this makes perfect sense. Why pay an U.S. worker $15 an hour, plus benefits when they can pay some Third world worker $5 a day or less. Foreign companies had nothing to do with them coming into existence. In the words of Ross Perot "That sucking sound you will hear will be jobs leaving the US."

Now on to my real reason for posting, if you don’t own a Toyota and never will, then why are you on this tread talking? Am I really supposed to believe your comments of how bad they are? This doesn’t just go for the Toyota treads either, but for all of them. If you don’t own the vehicle in question, why are you making judgements on how well it works? What are you basing your knowledge on, because we already know you don’t have one, so it isn’t first hand. That is right it is your uncle’s, neighbor’s, cousin’s, roommate’s, sister’s, best friend’s, mother’s, boyfriend knows a guy who had one and it spent 2 years out of the 3 that he owned it in the shop and it only had 200 miles on it.

I came here hoping to get some honest opinions and reviews from people who own one, but instead I found yet another site packed full of people arguing the same things with no first hand knowledge to pass on. Just more of the same "my truck is better and yours is junk because it wasn’t made by (insert company name here)".