Toyota,s Reputation Has Frightened Me Off !

[alwin]

Hi Guys

I have been looking at a replacement for my Audi A3tdi. I want 4 doors, Diesel , and plenty of toys including a Sunroof.The new Golf is horrible,(everything fitted as standard to the T Spirit is extra), and the recently announced Audi A3 Sportback is frighteningly expensive!!.

The Corolla T Spirit D4D seemed to fit the bill, and given Toyota,s past reputation for quality I was all set to visit the Toyota dealers for a test drive. Then whilst idly browsing I found this forum !!!.

Your horror stories about current toyota models, and Toyota GB,s service has to say the least frightened me off !!

I decided to post this in the hope that Toyota GB do read these posts, and note that they have just lost a potential new customer. Having said that they probably don't care anyway given their responses to some of you guys.

Meanwhile the search continues.

[CoRoLLa_KiD]

Our horror stories may be bad, but try other motor companies... I know which car I'd buy :P

Plus being put off by a few comments without even testing the car... well, I think you should go for that test drive mate

[jasemeister]

LOL! What can I say! Did it ever occur to you that the Corolla line has been running for decades and its rep is hard-earned and second to none? If cars from Toyota have X number of problems, it means that others brands have 10 times X number of problems and will most likely not last as much as a Toyota.

What, are you still reading this post?!?!

GO AND ORDER YOUR NEW COROLLA NOW!

[The Gooner]

This is my first Toyota, a 2004 TSport Corrolla.

I can honestly say after I purchased the car I read these stories and was a bit oh S*** what have I done. But after a few weeks of owning the car I am very pleased with it and wouldnt hesitate to buy another toyota.

My local dealer is very helpful and dosnt hesitate to help.

The Tsport is a very nice car to drive and performance is excellent. A freind has the CTR and has had to take it back on a couple of occasions for things which have gone wrong.

Any manufacturer will get a few cars back every now and then for faults, Toyota seem to be more reliable than most.

I would go drive it and make your own mind up, you may be pleasently surprised.

[SKG]

I have my TSport for 52 k. No problems so far. I have talked to many users in Greece (Corolla E12 is No1 in the market for three consecutive years now) and there are only limited problems.

I just think people with problems in their cars try different Forums to find solutions. So, I wouldn't consider any forum with a few decades of Corolla users as a "representative sample".

[The Gooner]

The other thing you always find is problems always get written about more than just getting in and driving. if you know what I mean

There are alot of happy toyota owners who havnt had problems

[+Steve]

you bound to find problems on a forum... thats what its there for.. to resolve issues.

Toyota has been the best car company i have been with.

Also read the reliability figures.. you will be suprised.. Toyota is right up there.

[Twincam.GTi]

'ere we go again (about quality of recent Toyotas).

I've comented about this on two previous posts before and my personal opinion is that there is a 'confidence' problem with Japanesse cars built in Britain (Apart from Toyota I include Honda in this). I am not saying the cars are any worse built, it's just that concern seems to keep being raised from what are potential customers and as alwin said Toyota GB needs to act in someway on these coments.

As for the Toyota Dealers...Brilliant!

my own experiance is they are very helpful regardless of age of car.

Two dealers in Shropshire I must say are/were excellent Was 'Hylton of Toyota' who have now closed and the current Toyota Dealer 'William A Lewis'. The assistance is superb, they have even done little jobs for me and not charged for the labour! Also the parts departments are very helpful and will find parts for cars even if its between 12 and 20+ years old (e.g 70's Fastback Celica 2000 GT)! Many main dealer parts departments cannot be bothered with you if you ask for something thats on a car thats over 10 years old (The local GM dealer springs to mind when parts were required for an Opel Manta).

So with regard to the Toyota Dealers I hope someone from Toyota GB is reading this

[bzn]

I think the problem is the people that are here. Many of them are just crazy about their cars. It is obvious that the level of requierments a car should meet not to be critisized here are by far out of reach for ALL the manufacturers, but most agree that TOYOTA, HONDA and a few other JAPANESE (euro cars have gotten marginally worse in terms quality lately) manufacturers are closest to it.

People here can sniff out faults which most "users" will never find. Just go to an audi or some other forum and see how many BIG problems they've got!!!

[corollags]

Whatever car you buy your going to get horror stories about m8!

Ive had my Corolla 3 months now and done 6,000 miles and nothing at all has gone wrong! Well happy with it!

If U have been put off the Toyota, your missing out!

Just whatever you do, get a Jap car!

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[suidwester]

alwin

You will never be more gratefull for a decision of buying a Toyota, I have own allot of them from the corolla range to the bakkie including MPV's, there was a few problems but none that was sorted out with a call to the dealer.

Currently a ride a T Sport (RunX Rsi), and I'm as happy as can be.

Step over, I came over from VW and Toyota did gain my repect.

[Gareth B]

You could always buy a Renault, Citroen or pugeot!!!!!

[Aphelion]

I seem to remeber that Which done a reliablilty report for new cars, the german cars (i.e. Audi, VW and BMW) had a very poor reliablity score as compared to the likes of toyota which was around 98% reliabilty.

I have been a toyota owner for of 3 cars over 6 years and have had relitavly few problems with it, i just put mine down to being the first release of the car.

Nah nuts to golfs etc, corolla kicks there ***** on more than price

[Richard K]

I've had my corolla from new 1997 126,000miles.

The I've had no major problems with the car.

And the problem's I have had have been sorted within a decent time.

In my opinion, The car's are great, my Dad's had 5 different celicas and a RAV4.

My only concerns were with the dealerships customer service NOT the car.

[CTS03]

1.4lt engine Corolla is a great car !

Major CTS' rattles are related to the use of the same car body for much more powerful moving mechanical parts.

In any case, you should be very cautious with all the "people's car manufacturers", even the most serious companies. They tend to exhibit a povocative attitude of not recognizing manufacturing faults. For example, both VW Golf (new) and Toyota Corolla manuals consider as normal an engine consuming up to 1lt oil per 1000km (600 miles) !!!!!

Of course, you are not going to read this in any BMW manual.

[bzn]

This oil consumption threshold is actually a very interesting thing. A friend (he's a mechanic) told me that BMW have it as 1 lt / 1000 km for the whole range! Obviously a V8 is gonna drink MUCH more oil than almost any R4!

But if a corolla starts drinking oil even at a rate of 0,5l/1000km i would consern it some major problem!

[pb5]

I wouldn't be too put off by what you read. I had my Corolla T Sport for about 12,000 miles now with no problems. Only a few rattles from inside the car, which I'm slowly fixing (the dealers a bit deaf).

It's much better than the BMW Compact E46 I had before where their customer services didn't careless. :censor:

Read about it here:

http://www.topgear.com/content/my_topgear/duffers/A4/E2/14/

Pb5

[bzn]

It's a pitty you've had all these problems! The BMW's don't seem to be reliable, and i've already heard the compact has problems from somewhere (...

But in their defense i must say boy do they know how to build suspensions!!! Not that they are reliable (harsh conditions for them here), but the ride quality and steering feel is awesome!

[Blacksheep]

I just agree with most of the comments on here.

I've had a Yaris 1.3 SR for 3 years totally trouble free not even had to change a bulb in it.

And last weekend I picked up my New Corolla T-Sport I've only done 100 miles in it but all I can say is no rattles, very quiet drive, handling feels very good to me and as for the customer service I can't praise the guys at the garage I've had mine from enough, I ordered my car a month ago it was supposed to arrive on thursday but it arrived 5:00 friday afternoon and they still got it ready for me Saturday 12:00, top service from them and any questions I've had i've always had an honest answer and you can't ask for more, my next car will be a toyota as will my wife's and my daughters can't say any more than that really....

[pb5]

Bzn,

BMW's do handle very well & seem to grip forever. But the ride is some what bouncy. I've had a Yaris T3 1.0 ltr as a loan car & it's ride is bouncy in the same way as the BMW (that may sound strange, but true).

But the steering was petty good.

pb5

[bzn]

Yeah, pb5, i feels as if the suspension seems to get into the swing on poor asphalt.

To tell you the truth, the only car that I felt the same thing with was a 2001 Mitsubishi Galant that i took for a test! At the time I also thought that it's handling is superb!

[Dane]

I have had 2 Corollas (a 1.3 GL and a 1.4 GS) from 1991 and NEVER had any problems with either of them.

[SKG]

I have had 2 Corollas (a 1.3 GL and a 1.4 GS) from 1991 and NEVER had any problems with either of them.

Join the club!

[CTS03]

There is more than one page in Corolla's manual devoted to convince the owner why it is normal an engine to consume oil up to 1lt /1000km !!!

I guess not many new engines of any manufacturer will operate so badly. However, it is indicative for the aguments available to a bad dealer. They could also use it to avoid repairs under extended quarantees.

Everybody should be very-very upset with this! How do you really feel?

There is nothing similar in my '97 BMW Compact manual. In addition, I have been told by the dealer that I do not need to check oil myself.

On the contrary, Corolla's manual suggests to check oil each time you fill fuel !!!

Problems may exist on all cars, it is anyway a matter of statistics.

However, it is important for the customer

(1) not needing to fight with dealerships/importers each time he faces a manufaturing fault

(2) to get solutions in reasonable time.

Unfortunately, first time in my life I felt the need to start searching through the internet forums for solving car problems. It was just three days after buying my CTS. We started with dash rattling which took 15months to hopefully solve it!

[SKG]

In the family we have had a 87 Corolla, the manual wrote the same thing, a 92 Carina E, the same thing, a 03 Avensis... guess, it wrote the same thing!

However, the fact was I never had to add oil outside the servicing intervals....