Comment by celticmusic | Hacker News Reader

Comment by celticmusic | Hacker News Reader

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When I was in HS I had a friend whose family had this old beat up orange smallbed truck from the 70's (this was mid 90's). That thing was beat all to hell, ugly as sin. It was used as a truck.

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.

I was driving a '67 C10 in 2003-2004 and it still ran perfect. It needed a frame off restoration as the bed was severely damaged from decades of use as a farm truck and removing the bed alone was more work than I wanted to do (at least a 4 man job) so I ended up selling it for about 2 grand more than I had bought it for.

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

> Then take my 2013 impala... [...] I've had a wire harness malfunction which would randomly trigger ABS and traction control while you were driving

I had that exact same problem in a 2002 Buick. I can't believe GM hadn't fixed that yet.

Sounds about right, the evap sensor issue I keep having seems to span about 15 years of cars and a LOT of models. What really chapped my ass was that 'wiring isn't covered under warranty' um hi, your stupid wiring keeps triggering ABS and traction control, that's dangerous.

15 years does indeed sound like typical GM timeframe for a fix, as evidenced by Northstar disaster.

The other day I was visiting my sister and she asked me to scan the codes on her 2014 Silverado.

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.

UK Top Gear tried to destroy a hilux a few years back. They left it in the sea, set it on top of a tower block as it was blown up, and a few other things I cant remember. It still ran (to a degree) when they gave up and put it on display in their studio.

A friend of mine used to tell a story of a Mercedes Benz car he knew from the German embassy in Cairo. When they first went there, it was their car. It had a crack on the engine head that leaked a little bit of oil, just enough to make the crack obvious.

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.

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