Toyota

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by Fuel Miser

Let's hope one hopeful will attempt to capitalize on the dearth of inexpensive, fuel efficient cars available to the American market.

If the demand is there, someone will take advantage of it.

[R.I.D.E.]

I experienced the Toyota "attitude" first hand when I bought a new 06 Corolla, that ate up the front tires in 12k miles.

First trip to the dealer they tried to tell me it was because I was not rotating and balancing the tires every 5k miles.

I reminded them of the two prior Toyotas that had been traded in to their dealership with 26k and 32k miles that had never had the tires rotated or balanced and still had even tread wear and did not need new tires.

I told them to check the alignment and was told it was fine, so I paid for a rotate and balance. The morons only balanced the tires they moved to the rear. At 18k miles I checked the tire balance myself and found they had never rebalanced the rear tires when they moved them to the front. Still had the original weights on the two fronts and the dealer replacement aftermarket weights on the rear.

I had a callous on my left elbow from the armrest and the vibration, and the tires that were moved from rear to front were now showing twice as much wear on the outside as on the inside, just like the ones that were now on the rear.

I took the car to a different dealership, whose service manager I have known for 25 years. He put it on his brand new machine and showed me the readings.

The total toe was off on the front wheels (individually in specs but total way over specs). The rear wheels were both pointing to the left of the proper direction.

The replaced the rear axle and it did not fix the problem. Then they took it to a frame shop and had the mounting points for the rear axle shifted, so the rear axle (solid type) would actually point in the right direction. Then Toyota gave me a new set of tires.

The car had 6 miles on it when I bought and had never been damaged.

Last Toyota I have owned, and probably the last I will ever own.

My VX has never been aligned, even though it was totalled and I just went to Costco to have the tires rotated and balanced after 15k miles, with no uneven wear patterns whatsoever and no indications of any imbalance.

It has 53,230 miles on it now, had 27,492 when I bought it totalled. No uneven tire wear, cupping, pulling, or any other misalignment symptoms. Original tires replaced at 37k miles, when they were 15 1/2 years old!

The right rear wheel was cambered in at the top almost 10 degrees from the bent uni body (before we fixed it) where the upper control arm mounts to the body, but it has never been on an alignment machine since I bought it wrecked.

regards
Gary

[spotaneagle]

have you seen the video of the senate hearings today, basically admitting they ignored many complaints.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRMcM...eature=related

just look at the old versions of the corollas in the 80s
this is where these guys came from
does this really surprise you?

[VetteOwner]

lol im loving this whole situation...brings Toyota down a notch and proves their just like any other auto manufacturer, no more pedestal that some people believe Toyota is amazing and perfect while other manufacturers are considered worse than hitler....

[ben98gs]

Time for Buick to shine... Buick already took down Lexus in 2009 for the top spot (tied with Jaguar) in the 2009 JD Power and Associates Dependability Study.

http://businesscenter.jdpower.com/ne...spx?ID=2009043

[spotaneagle]

well considering gm already has their paws on the prius id say they win , o wait their stock is worth 1$

anyhow chevy aveo is propbably safer than a corolla id buy an aveo over a corolla anyday and the cobalt over camry oh yea..

id say chevy and buick are linin up to crush toyota in sales, but, not sure what the motor liquidation corp has to say about that

but i have heard gm production is up

[spotaneagle]

Toyota's "black box" information is emerging as a critical legal issue amid the recall of 8 million vehicles by the world's largest automaker. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said this week that 52 people have died in crashes linked to accelerator problems, triggering an avalanche of lawsuits.

so what 700 have been injured?

i just heard today about a Matrix that was supposedly fixed that was still having the same problem.

[JanGeo]

Lets be fair here guys - I owned a VW Rabbit and a Geo Metro and they both had alignment issues right from the start . . . my xB has 31k on the clock and no problems with wear without any tire rotation. If a car is beat up on the transport trailer then there ya go . . . You think they don't get pushed a little to get up to the top of those trailers or bounced around with their chassis chained down to the transport?

[bowtieguy]

any truth to the idea that the accelerator fix is just a band-aid, and that the real issue is underlying electrical problems?

[bowtieguy]

does anyone suspect that toyota, because of their rep, has had this "problem" become magnified? i'm not certain of the recall issues of other manufacturers resulting in deaths, but surely there are. remember ford's fire issues recently?

i understand there have been deaths involved, but how many deaths in history have been caused by manufacturing, construction, etc?

the point is, we as consumers, take risks everyday. any vehicle can fail(and cause death), tho usually it's via lack of maintenance. i believe it's too easy to get a driver's license. i also believe there should be more stringent testing/learning, specifically that of defensive and emergency driving.

i do not support or condemn toyota, just making an observation.