15th Jun 2008, 13:41

Well said 17:14. My experience has been comparable.

Unfortunately, the import lovers will never get it. The grass is always greener on the other side... until we have no country left.

15th Jun 2008, 14:00

I don't understand how you are making a case that Toyotas are so great when you have owned three in only 13 years. That is only an average of slightly over four years each. That is hardly enough time to say anything about long-term reliability. I'm sure they were reliable for you during that time, and that's great.

However, I'm 39, and can tell the same story as you, except with the nouns all reversed. My friends and I grew up beating the hell out of Dodges, Chevies, and Fords, and they never broke. And I mean sedans, not just trucks. Driving through cornfields, through ditches, through the woods, jumping off rock piles, doing reverse drops at 30 mph, and that's just the cars! The trucks saw mud bogging, hauling feed wagons through sticky barnyard mud 18 inches deep, hauling a bed load of oak piled 6 feet high out of the woods, hauling farm equipment like a tractor, pulling stumps, driving over tree falls. Not this wussy stuff about doing donuts in the mud. These were vehicles that already had over 150,000 miles on them.

My friend is still using his '87 Dodge Ram with 220,000 miles to haul scrap, and my '85 Dodge Ram with 250,000 miles is still doing duty hauling wood and plowing, and we've had these for 10 years.

16th Jun 2008, 05:13

The small Tacoma may be a tough little truck for off roading. However, how many people do so on here... and this is about full size trucks.

I tow and carry large loads, and the Tundra is too small.

As far as transmission replacements; I have had my quota attained with imports, namely Acura.

I have seen high repairs at the 100,000 mile mark with new Hondas... heater cores, A/C going out, timing belts going in spite of religious maintenance.

I drove company cars for many years and never had a single major mechanical issues with large American sedans with V8 engines. I believe in spite of driving an average 200 miles daily, they had an easy life having a V8 not over-revving, overworking running the AC in hot weather, stopping and starting many times daily. I never had a trans or major engine failure. Overheat a small aluminum engine and it's cooked with plastic radiator parts.

The company cars I am referring to have been Crown Victorias, and Impalas, which were always outstanding. I cannot emphasize that enough; they are tough, reliable, long distance vehicles. I have idled in hot weather doing paperwork and they run smooth as silk. Certainly a lot of room and very comfortable. They must be tough, as they are used a lot by Police, Taxis etc.

I do not know how many people are going to sell their Tundras and other full size trucks to buy an off road Tacoma, but apparently you have had good luck with that application. If you need a full size truck, I recommend a domestic with a V8. I also like comfort and room; something I have not seen in import trucks. Especially the ride and handling in the new full size trucks I have driven lately.

I have yet to ever have a major mechanical issue with a domestic. I see import quality on new vehicles dropping, and I am sure I am not alone on here as far as new evaluations by others as well.

16th Jun 2008, 14:49

Comment 14:00 reminded me of an incident that occurred with my very first car when I was just 16. The car was a 1949 Ford sedan with the flathead engine. It was as old then as I was!! It had around 125,000 miles on it.

A friend bet me I couldn't get up to 75 mph between one rural mailbox and another. I got up to 80, but there was a very steep hill that dipped down, then back up again. I became airborne and slammed into the opposite hill at 80mph. We measured the tire marks (it was a gravel road) and my Ford had been airborne for over 75 feet before impacting the upward slanting road. It hit so hard it ripped off my right "lake pipe" (you older guys know what those were). Other than that there was not a hint of any damage of any kind.

I drove that car for another 5 years with no trouble. If I had been in an import (even a Tundra) there would have been pieces of it scattered for 50 feet in all directions.

16th Jun 2008, 17:21

I'm not sure why it seems that all those who obviously hate anything not stamped with an American badge of some sort, are so concerned and eager to tell those who own something that isn't American that they've never known anyone to have a problem with whatever domestic vehicle in question. The fact is that ALL cars and trucks have problems. They are man-made mechanical objects and are all prone to having eventual failures.

This sort of anti-import tone seems to have really picked up in the last few years as Toyota eats away at whatever remaining lead GM might have in terms of sales and volume. The fact is that 50 years ago, the first Toyotas that got shipped to California barely ran in the hot weather. They overheated and could barely accelerate. They were anything but reliable. Had they maintained that line of engineering, they would probably have gone the way of Yugo, Daewoo, and Fiat, which is to say that they would not be sold in the US anymore. But that wasn't the case, they drastically improved their engineering, and made better and better cars that over time gained a reputation of reliability.

The ironic thing about the success of various Japanese automakers is that the brain behind it was actually an American named Edward Demming who introduced the practice of lean manufacturing and close quality control to Japanese companies. GM, Ford, and Chrysler totally ignored these business models and continued chugging out garbage for the masses.

By the time Japanese automakers became a threat to Detroit, irreparable damage was done to the reputation of domestic brands simply because the delta between the quality of Japanese and American brand vehicles was immense. This delta remained pretty wide until the late 90's, at which point domestic brands began to improve. But make no mistake: the loss of market share, perception of quality, and their continues slump year after year was self-inflicted. I think now all domestic brands get it: they MUST produce quality vehicles or fail.

But even to this day, they're still cutting corners: The Chevy Aveo is a cheap and poorly made Daewoo from Korea. A good bit of Ford's products are a mish-mash of stuff using Volvo, Mazda, and Ford platforms. Most of their best-selling products are actually made in Mexico.

Let me put it this way to give some of you some perspective: My family originally owned an Oldsmobile Delta 88, a Buick Electra, and a Chevy Malibu. These were all from the early to mid eighties. The Malibu was OK, but the other two had catastrophic problems such as transmission failure, electrical gremlins, and a blown head gasket. We then owned 2 Camrys, a 4runner, and now my Tacoma. My brother owns an Avalon. We've NEVER had one single problem with any of these cars. When I mean never, I'm dead serious. The cars were flawless. Later, my dad bought a 94' Ford F-250 brand-new off the lot. It ran fine for about 75,000 miles, then one day the water pump went out. It was easy to replace, but within a month, the intake manifold formed a leak. After that, the alternator stopped working. He traded it in on a new Tundra 7 years ago. So far, the Tundra has been flawless after 200,000+ miles.

Now I keep on hearing from people about how much 'better' domestic brands are from just a few years ago. But even so, why should I switch when I've never had a problem with any of the Toyotas I've ever driven or owned? I gain nothing from taking a chance on a product that I suspect is hit or miss even today. You'll find that most of us who have had decades of trouble-free service from our Toyotas and Hondas feel the same. There's your answer.

In regards to keeping money in the US by supporting US branded cars, well as mentioned, most US cars these days are full of Chinese, Mexican, and Brazillian parts. Others are imported entirely. Others are made in Mexico, Canada, and even Germany. Most of the money goes into the pockets of the corporate big-wigs. On the other hand, My truck was made in California with 60% US-made parts, the rest from Japan. My Brother's Avalon was made in Lexington, KY using 50% US parts. My Dad's Tundra was made in Indiana using approximately 60% US parts. All in all, the cars and trucks we own probably use more American labor than any of those so-called domestics.

Lastly, the decline of the US dollar has nothing to do with people buying foreign goods. It is due to the Fed cutting rates, which encourages inflation. If anything, a weak dollar actually encourages US exports.