From an article on the Toyota - BMW Supra/M4 collaboration,
"...BMW couldn’t believe how extensive some of our quality and efficiency studies were as parts came into shape one by one. We would take every bit down to a fastener or rivet, and put it through our stringent quality control and a dozen other testing, we’d ship thousands of parts back to Japan for analysis. That is normal to us."
http://club4ag.com/chief-engineer-tetsuya-tada-reveals-the-a...
I think you mean Z4
* I almost started to think if they had an infinite budget funding to the task of design. *
And it seemed like the opinion from Toyota was that Toyota has a body style in mind at first but BMW lets the body style be influenced its contents.
BMW's fundamental difference in approach was that they wanted to design a package, and from there they would naturally evolve a shape and size of the body from that packaging, a functionally oriented goal. ... Our company (Toyota) with my tenure and experience, the focus was always design elements being the priority. We would first spend a lot of time on the shape and appeal of the car from visual perspective ...
But let the article speak for itself. I kept my quotes short.
That said: I still do every scheduled maintenance, which helps tremendously. The main problem with older vehicles is that people stop following the recommended services as the car gets older. Which is of course the opposite of what you should do with an old car.
exactly this. I've been driving my Toyota for 15 years, never had a problem with it. But I still, to this day, have it maintained. The cost of that maintenance is pennies compared to purchasing a new car. If you can afford it, it's foolish not to.
Toyota is great about that. There was something in the steering column that needed replaced on my '95 T100 and and 15 years later they sent a notice offering to fix it for free. I never did get it replaced, it was a 'we gotta keep the vehicle for a couple of days' and we'd been driving it since it was brand new without issue so I decided to keep on since the risk seemed incredibly minimal.
>Toyota is great about that.
after you sue them https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/toyota-faces-class-ac... https://www.caradvice.com.au/780759/class-action-filed-over-... https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truc...
I see the .au domains and while I don't know how stuff is in Australia, the United States it looks like more than 10,000 class action lawsuits are filed a year [1]. Hell I just got an email about one this weekend where apparently Audible was sued for not making it more clear that credits expired if you didn't use them... I mean, as long as I can remember (and I've been a member over a decade) Audible has explicitly stated that you can only accumulate so many unused credits and that if you cancel any outstanding ones are nullified. Lawyers make BANK if they win a class action.
So did they get sued and then issue a recall, yes it looks that way but in the case of my recall it was voluntary and involved no lawsuit that I know of. They found some defect that happened under extremely specific (and unrealistic for 99.99% of drivers) conditions and issued a voluntary recall. When I got the notice the Truck was 15 or even 16 years old and we hadn't had it at a dealership in 2 address (I'd never had it at a dealership under my name) yet they found me to tell me and then sent the notice every few months for a couple of years until I notified them I no longer owned the vehicle per the instructions in the mailings.
[1] https://gettingthedealthrough.com/area/82/jurisdiction/23/cl...
But you know what? That damned thing ran like a beauty. It literally ran until their son started driving it and wrecked it.
I was impressed enough with it, that when it was time for me to purchase a vehicle, I went with Toyota. 15 years later and that thing has never left me on the side of the road, not even once (I do keep up maintenance on it). I'm considering purchasing another vehicle because it's time to get something larger, and when I do it will most likely be Toyota.
I've seen so many people say that at 200k miles Toyota is just getting warmed up, and there's some truth to it. You obviously have to keep up with maintenance on the vehicle, but if you do I can guarantee it will treat you right. And I'm not saying other manufacturers are any worse, but I am saying Toyota is a great vehicle to buy.
Then I took my father's '95 Toyota t100 from my mother when she got a new vehicle, drove it until 2013 and gave it to my half brother. It has 130k or so when I gave it to him and aside from having a really squeaky bed was in great shape, the only remotely major work I'd had to do was replace the fuel pump bracket due to rust which involved dropping the gas tank (2 man job). The ball joints and pitmans needed replaced in the next 10k miles probably but that's just a special tool rental and an afternoon sitting on the ground.
Then take my 2013 impala... I've got 68k miles on it now. I've had a wire harness malfunction which would randomly trigger ABS and traction control while you were driving, I've had to replace the evap sensor THREE TIMES and it is now throwing codes again, the factory rotors have already had to be replaced due to severe rust, any time humidity gets above 70% or so it throws another engine code because of more fuel/emissions sensors.... pinches bridge of nose
I had that exact same problem in a 2002 Buick. I can't believe GM hadn't fixed that yet.
When I put the key in the ignition position for on (without starting it) so I could read the codes, it complained that the battery was low, and to start the truck soon.
Oddly enough, my dad's 2001 Silverado always had the same problem (just a red battery light back then), 2 years of ownership so far and it's battery is still fine, same warning right before you start it that goes away once it's on.
When I told this to her she told me her old Jimmy did the same thing.
The code her truck was throwing was coincidentally the same code as my dad's 2001 truck, about the evap canister.
I was flabbergasted, 13 years age difference and this truck was no different.
When they went back, the car was still there. Still being used day in, day out, for 10 years. It still had the crack on the engine.
RAV4 for instance is plagued with faults while my 2013 Avensis ran quite ok the first 90000 kilometres I drove it before getting a tesla.
It did have to change brakes, a spring in one of the keys failed and the open/close window button on the passenger side broke. It also rusted under the chrome strips..
But compared to other cars I think it did quite well :)
https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truc...