Toyota Reliability...(the Theory Of...)

October 3, 2009

Ah ha and now for my theory........Few brands of car are more or less reliable than each other, its their buyer profile! toyota tend to be bought buy more mature owners, Avensis...reliable, old corolla...reliable, carina e...reliable, yaris...reliable and the majority driven by older drivers!

The less reliable brands, Citroen, FIAT etc, the majority of their buyers are much younger!

I agree with alot of guys on here when they blame the younger guys driving style for the faults with the cars. But the flip side of that is toyota is only seen as reliable because it sells the majority of its cars to the older more sensible drivers and the others brands viewed as unreliable due to there majority of young drivers!

And if any of you old timers are having alot of problems with your cars, then clearly you have a youthful driving style.....

How do car brands improve reliability.....sell to old people!

October 4, 2009

If only... have to disagree with you on this one.

When I bought my first new car (after years of company Escorts and Astras which tbh were pretty trouble free considering) I bought a Carina XL 1.6. Had it 5.5yrs and had a new Battery, new back box, and an int central locking switch replaced. Did 60K+ in that one.

Then went to Audi... new A4 as it was then (1995) Would youlike to know the problems,

1.On delivery drivers electric window faulty... had to have a new motor assy fitted.

2. Int illumination of ABS warning light on starting... design fault, relay dropping out under low voltage starting.

3. Major electrical fault... I ended up fixing this myself, the dealer couldn't find it !! traced to a loose earth on passenger A frame causing all weird wonderful faults.

4. Passenger electric window steel cord frayed and chewed motor gearbox up.

5. One of the twin horns "failed", told by dealer... they all do that, don't worry.

6. Disintegrating trim such as the highly tensioned damped ashtray which never used. Had to extraxt and repair the gears.

7. Squeaky clutch pedal.

8. The accelerator pedal large pad "fell off" .... it has a plastic hinge (CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT)

9. Radio interference... again traced by me to the reversing light switch contacts that were arcing.

10. Recall... new oil pump required, could cause major failure.

11. Another recall... vibration damper to be fitted to camshafts.

12. Oil leaks.

13. Suspension trouble... rear shock absorber gaiters disintegrated, I fitted universal steering gaiters as replacement without needing any dismantling.

14. Creaky ball joints on anto roll bars. I injected with hypoid oil... they never creaked again... this was a common fault.

15. Oh yes... radio incorrectly wired, switch engine off with lights on and radio locked up with a Disco lights display.

16. Heated mirror element lasted a few weeks at best... design fault.

17. The evaporator for the air con developed a leak. That was the last straw, £500 for the part and 15 to 20 hours labour... no thanks.

18. The boot light switch was poorly designed... had to whack the lid to get it to activate.

19. Heated washer jets failed.

20. After the self destructing ashtray the cup holder also flew apart by themselves... a first year student would realise the materials used were under to high a stress by the "gate springs" used.

21. Thermostat failed... stuck open.

22. Burned oil too.

I'm sure there was more, thats the ones that come to find.

After all that I MUST HAVE BEEN MAD for believing reviews etc but I went and ordered a new A2 TDI.

After 3 weeks and careful running in the turbo blew (common problem) allowing oil to escape past a seal and causing the engine to continue running by burning it's own oil. To the resisdents of the small vilage where this happened I am sorry for wiping you all out in clouds and clouds of smoke. I rejected the car, had the loan of a new TT, got a full refund and went back to Toyota and ended up with a TSport.

Problems... One actually. I noticed 3 years ago a front shocker weeping oil. Paid to have it replaced £117 all in at Mr T and that's it.

So that blows that theory out of the water lol Other brands ARE unreliable in my experience. When I was a passenger in the recovery vehicle

with the A2 in tow I asked the mechanic what he reckoned. Most reliable considering numbers out there... Ford Focus he thought, obviously Toyota. Most unreliable. His words BMW. Many electrical and suspension issues causing the cars to be undriveable.

VW/Audi/Skoda BMW NO THANKS.

Just if your wondering, th TSport has just done 63K, it's still on the ORIGINAL brake pads and disks, MrT says the disks are fine but new pads probably next year. The trip computer is showing 45.3MPG, a bit optimistic the actual is nearer 41, and yes I drive carefully but have no hesitation in using the full 8.2k rpm rev range and usually enjoy the "lift" at least twice a day.

October 4, 2009

I'm 21, and i have had 3 cars of my own, and another car which i drive a lot additonal to these three..

First one was a 52 reg 1.7DI corsa - smoked like chimney, but 110,000 miles of use and it never once broke down, and it was really reliable - only a few small wear and tear items really....and servicing was only once every 20K miles!!

second, was a 56 reg 1.3 petrol yaris - which was unreliable enough for me to get rid of it after 15 months of ownership....many problems with the gearbox/clutch & other problems with the car, like leaking oil, water, horn not working etc etc

third - my new toyota aygo - only done 800 miles so far, but being the facelift model i hope it will be near-bullet proof.

the other car i have driven alongside all of these is a ford galaxy 1.9tdi auto, x reg -- this has also been excellent, but it might be worth mentioning its actually a VW under the skin.

So although brands do have many things attached to them, such as reliability, image & quality...its not a sure fire thing, and i dont think age reflects on the cars reliabilty.

generally, young people buy other brands, because they are cheaper to buy, cheaper to insure or run...most young people can only afford a sub £1000 car.

October 4, 2009

Well Mooly looks like your suffering from the bathtub effect with your cars, all your new cars have been unreliable but your older cars have not. well obviously, all the major faults have been fixed by the time you buy a car thats a few years old then they start wearing out by 4-5 years old

My histroy backs this up, first car, ford escort si (8 yrs old) everything was starting to wear out so had lots of problems, next car brand new stilo, EVERYTHING broke next car MGTF (2 yrs old) thrashed it everyday and never went wrong, nothing! and everyone said they were shocking reliability! pah!

then i buy a year old compressor, and, well its triggers broom, but the faults are getting less and less common. i'm guessing by next year it will make someone a lovely reliable car! typical!

October 4, 2009

They were all bought new, the Carina the A4, A2 and TSport. The Toyotas were as near as possible 100% reliable the TSport particularly so.

My dad had a 1.6 gl Carina (kept 5 years) that was 100% reliable, a Carina E that had recall for anti roll bar bushes and also had to have a new instrument cluster fitted (gauges kept dropping to zero) and a Battery, otherwise totally trouble free for 9 years, and his current 1.4 Corolla saloon (6 year old) 100% trouble free. All were/are dealer serviced.

I quite fancied a Stilo after the A2 blowing up... had a thing about wanting a diesel, but the dealer was useless, couldn't come up with a test drive.

October 4, 2009

I'm not an old man and i've driven Toyota since i was 20 and driven them harder than most. Never any major mechanical problems. My present car, which i bought new is 10 years old. The one i had before was 13 when i sold it to my brother, who kept it for a couple of years before selling it to my mother who then sold it to my cousins husband, who again sold it to another guy that i know.

The worst problem has been rust. Especially on the older models.

October 4, 2009

The reason why Toyota is so reliable is that they "invented" Quality Control. They found problems with their cars early on in the start, and they had to find a way to make them better so that they wouldn't get a bad reputation. To do this, they gave every one in the production line the authority to stop the production to solve any quality issue... production lines that don't run doesn't make any money, but bad quality neither does...

This is know as principle 5 in The Toyota Way

That's why I love Toyota... they know how to do real business!