toyota

[rancher1913]

it seams that toyota quality has fallen by the wayside. we have a toyota prius, hate to admit it but the wife has to travel 75 miles one way to boulder for class so we figured having a vehicle that blends in there would be nice. have just over 50,000 miles on it, all highway, and the ac stopped working in it. thought no big deal, it probably just needs some Freon. nope pressure is good and no way to check the compressor with out special toyota computer. spent 60 bucks to get it checked out at the local dealer, which I thought was bad enough for 10 minutes work until they gave me the report.

the compressor and condenser are bad, ok so I figure should be under warranty but they say no, warranty is only good for 30,000 miles, ok how much to repair, expect to hear 5 or 6 hundred but they say 3 grand because it is a special compressor and uses a special refrigerant. trying to see if toyota will stand behind their **** parts and design but don't have much hope.

anybody got a phone number for a higher up in toyota that I can annoy until they stand behind their ****, not getting a very warm fuzzy feeling about toyotas right now.

[lavenatti]

I used to love Toyota, had a Tercel that made it to 207K miles and never went to the shop for a single repair, had to do a few minor repairs myself but nothing serious. It even still had it's original clutch.
My Tacoma (2006) is another story. After numerous complaints about rust that were met with a "gee that's to bad" attitude they were finally forced to perform frame inspections and found holes in the trucks frame.

After putting it off for six months they finally replaced my frame and rear leaf springs for free.

Had they acknowledged the problem right away my last few cars might have been Toyotas instead of a Hyundai (never again), a Nissan (ok) and a Subaru.

[NSB]

One of anything going wrong with your Toyota doesn't mean that their quality is falling by the wayside. News Flash.....all car manufacturers have defects. I worked in automotive climate control for almost forty years and the single biggest failure mode in all manufacturers is compressors. It was as high as 12% in some manufacturers a few years back, and only somewhat better now. Toyota compressors are considered the best in the world for a large auto company. Far better than any domestic manufacturer. Look in the back of your manual and you'll find a number you can call for dispute resolution. When you get far enough up the food chain you usually get pretty good results. Your local dealer will NEVER do anything beyond what the basic warranty calls out in the owners manual. NEVER. They simply don't have the authority. There are Zone Reps who come into dealerships and review each case like this and can get the ball rolling in getting something done. I worked as a quality engineer for GM for many years and had to take them to arbitration several times over the years to get things done that the dealer wouldn't cover...and I won every time. Good luck.

[jakharath]

Mid to late 2000's Toyota was in a push to become the worlds largest vehicle manufacturer. Quantity suffered during this period. There has been a push to restore quality. I'm on my third Tundra. Love the things. Would be on my second but a lady driving face down looking at her cell phone t-boned me. Totaled the truck.

My boss at work is a Ford fan. We've had a bunch of Fords over the years. Last round we bought 3 Dodge pickups. Between the three, I'll stick to my Tundra. The Fords were made in Canada, the Rams in Mexico. My first two Tundras were made in Indiana, the third in Texas.

[bangerjim]

We have 5 “T’s” with mileage anywhere from 20K to over 170K and no, zero, zip, nada problems at all. That is a Tundra, Avalon, Civic, and 2 Lexus hybrids.

Try owning a FORD (fix or repair daily) car! Been there...done that TWiCE in my lifetime! Never again.

Latest car industry report: “90% of all FORD cars built since 2008 are still on the road. The other 10% made it home”

My wife used to work for Toyota corporate and if there were serious problems, she would have definitely (!) heard about it from customers over the past 14 years.

I would not call a one-off problem a “serious issue” for a corporation.

Good luck getting your a/c fixed.

Bangerjim

[marlin39a]

I was in the service entrance at a Toyota dealership last week. An elderly man pulled in and stated his AC had just quit. A service writer escorted him inside. Later the service writer exited with a mechanic, telling him he had quoted the man $1800.00 to "tear down" the AC system to find the problem. The mechanic smiled and replied he could do it for $1500.00. They had not yet even put the car on a computer. Other than warranty work, I'll stay far from a dealer.

[Sam Casey]

I have had new 4R's since 2010. All were great, but my 2018 is best yet. Reliable, will go anywhere I want to, plenty of space for dogs and gear and great resale value. Have good area dealership.

[jmort]

The idiotic notion that all Fords are bad and all Toyotas are good makes no sense. I have a 1997 Ford F 150, replaced air conditioning compressor at 152,000 miles and an alternator at 163,000 miles. Runs perfectly with 188,000 miles. I will take that any day.

[ShooterAZ]

I'm on my 3rd Tacoma now. The only thing I have ever had to do to any of them is put in a new battery.

[bangerjim]

The idiotic notion that all Fords are bad and all Toyotas are good makes no sense. I have a 1997 Ford F 150, replaced air conditioning compressor at 152,000 miles and an alternator at 163,000 miles. Runs perfectly with 188,000 miles. I will take that any day.

Notice I said in my post "Ford CARS"...............NOT trucks. Ford F150's and other models in the brand are some of the best hardest-working trucks out there. I would have no problem owning a Ford TRUCK.

CARS are a totally different story. I and many others I know have had more than our fare share of technical and mechanical problems with there line of CARS.

A good test of reliability is to go the a big dealership at opening time and see how long the lines are! Ford - around the block. GMC - not so many. Toyota - normally at least 2 out of 4 open bays and I can drive right in. Just saying.....proof is in the puddin'.

ShooterAZ lives in AZ like I do.....where we "lease" batteries! He is not as hot up there, but down here in the desert it get HOT. Even a good quality 80 month heavy duty battery will need replaced after 18-20 or so months. I just keep the warranty slip and pay the difference each time. Not much!

bangerjim

banger

[NSB]

The idiotic notion that all Fords are bad and all Toyotas are good makes no sense. I have a 1997 Ford F 150, replaced air conditioning compressor at 152,000 miles and an alternator at 163,000 miles. Runs perfectly with 188,000 miles. I will take that any day.

I worked for Ford as well as GM. Ford's better than GM as far as quality goes, but it's far behind Toyota and that's a fact if you do the research. Some people get really good Fords (I had a couple good and a couple not so good. Never had a bad Jap car yet, and it's going on nineteen years with them).

[Smoke4320]

There are good and bad models of every Brand.. Doing your research before buying will help a lot but even that will not stop you from having a failure of a part .. It happens .. US maker cars have on average higher failure rates across the board over Honda and Toyota
and Never ever buy the first year of a new model car/truck you will be asking for trouble
YMMV

[brass410]

at our house we're switching over to the newest old technology for transport we're thinking 1/4 horse for summer and maybe percheron or Clydesdale for winter oh and just for short scoots around town probably a small dog team (not more than 12 dogs) I foresee a downturn in the quality of autos and electronics in particular, which both are heavily dependent on each other. Have never been called out to pull a horse out of the ditch or to jump start a dog (although I have been accused of something similar) Any suggestions or ideas are welcomed

[jmort]

The worst Toyota is the Tacoma, but I have no doubt it is above average when compared to most non-Toyotas in general. Interesting to see KIA sitting at #3 and Honda down to #9. Chevy/GMC looks like a train wreck. KIA has come a long way. Buick is the biggest surprise. So Toyota is the most reliable Brand and the Tacoma is the least reliable Toyota and the 86 is the most reliable Toyota. The 86 is a joint venture. Learn something new every day.


Click through the brand or model names below for more details. ( you have to click on link to click on brands and models.)

2018 RANK CHANGE FROM 2016 BRAND NO. OF MODELS LEAST RELIABLE MODEL AVERAGE RELIABILITY SCORE MOST RELIABLE MODEL
1 ↑1 Toyota 14 Tacoma 80 86
2 ↓1 Lexus 8 GX 77 ES
3 ↑2 Kia 7 Sportage 71 Niro
4 — Audi 7 A7 68 Q3
5 ↑4 BMW 6 i3 62 2 Series
6 ↑5 Subaru 6 Impreza 60 BRZ
7 ↑1 Infiniti 4 Q50 60 Q70
8 ↓5 Buick 4 LaCrosse 59 Encore
9 ↑1 Honda 6 Ridgeline 59 CR-V
10 ↓ 3 Hyundai 5 Tucson 59 Elantra
11 ↑2 Nissan 8 Sentra 53 Versa Note
12 ↓6 Mazda 6 CX-9 52 3
13 ↑ 3 Porsche 3 Cayenne 50 Macan
14 ↑3 Mercedes-Benz 6 GLC 47 E-Class
15 ↑3 Ford 12 Focus 45 Fusion
16 ↑ 6 Volkswagen 8 Golf 44 Passat
17 ↑ 10 Chrysler 2 300 41 Pacifica
18 ↓ 3 Chevrolet 15 Camaro 39 Bolt
19 ↓ 7 Acura 4 ILX 38 RDX
20 ↑ 3 Jeep 4 Renegade 38 Cherokee<
21 ↑ 4 Tesla 2 Model X 37 Model S
22 ↓ 2 Lincoln 3 MKX 33 MKZ
23 ↓ 4 Volvo 3 XC90 33 V60
24 ↑ 2 Dodge 5 Journey 32 Grand Caravan
25 ↑ 4 Ram 3 3500 30 1500
26 ↓ 2 GMC 7 Acadia 28 Sierra 2500HD
27 ↓ 6 Cadillac 5 Escalade 26 CTS<

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-...they-stack-up/

[kingstrider]

My last Toyota was a 93 Tercel that had nearly 300k on the clock before it threw a crank rod. Haven't owned one since but my mom has had several. Hopefully they will stand behind you on the Prius.

[rancher1913]

I would not be so up set if this were a "one off" as a few posters have said but after doing some research on this problem, the internet is crawling with complaints of the ac compressors on the prius, most only have 60 or 70 thousand miles on them.

still need a few numbers to call, maybe some of you car industry insiders have a number that will get this taken care of before my wife has to drive 150 miles a day in 100 degree heat.

don't give a dang about this brand or that brand, but any brand should fix a known problem at this low a mileage count. we were thinking about a tocoma purchase later this year but I will wait and see how they handle this.

we knew about the possibility of the batteries going bad around 150,000 miles and planed to trade it before we got that far.

[skeettx]

http://pressroom.toyota.com/contacts/

[rancher1913]

thanks skeettx, but I am not interested in hyping their product, I want to reach someone that can take care of this rotten egg that they know they have a problem with.

[glockfan]

as said, the compressor for the ac unit is often the 1st part going cabong.

toyota has quite the best record for reliability. my wife drives a corolla,built like a tank, and surpisingly quiet inside the cab. much better vehicule than any comparable at hyundai ,mazda or nissan.

swapping an AC compressor is nothing, but yours seems overly expensive, probably not the ''regular''' compressor they put in their non electric cars.

[rancher1913]

your right, its an electric driven one, not a belt driven. even so 3 grand is way over the top. glad you guys are happy with your toyotas, we were too until this.