Thread: Is Toyota the worst car company ever?

at Thanksgiving. Some of them are late-model Toyota owners. We all said there was going to be a lot more to the story, and it turns out we were right.

I've owned two Toyotas, a 1986 Camry I bought used and a 1995 Corolla that I bought new. The Camry was made in Japan and was a fantastic car. It was a tremendous deal since I bought it used and was incredibly reliable. It was totaled in an accident. The Corolla was not nearly as well made, fit and finsish-wise. I think it was made in Mexico or U.S. My next car was an Accord, bought new, which turned out to be a lemon (transmission) that they wouldn't fix.

I now drive a Nissan, which I love. I'll never buy another Toyota or Honda again. Subaru is probably the only brand other than Nissan I would consider now.

I think it was a plant in California that Toyota and GM partnered on. I remember hearing a lot about this when the GM bailout was going on. Think it ended up getting closed if I remember correctly.

I think this has been blown completely out of proportion and there is something political behind it. I am suspicious that is has to do with Toyota not being union.

The problem is simply not very serious, affects a relatively few cars, and has not resulted is too much serious damage in proprtion. I know there have been a couple of deaths but that is small compared to defects in other cars. Do people not know they can always shift into neutral or turn the car off if the accelerator sticks!

The bottom line is that Toyota makes good cars. They are much higher quality than GM or Ford. Honda is great too (I drive an Acura). Nissan is also good.

Toyota has not handled this very well but there is clearly much more too this. It has turned into a witch hunt. You can pick up a consumer reports any month and see dozens of recalls listed for ford and gm cars while there are very few for toy or honda. A single recall, even for something like this, should not be making the splash it is. I think it is just the union wolves jumping on this for political reasons.

and GM's government owner.

Originally Posted by jeffysdad

and GM's government owner.

You don't think our government would do something like that do you?

Toyotas and Hondas are overrated pieces of crap. Drove a Tundra for 6 months on a construction gig and it doesn't hold a candle to my F-150. Everyone wants to trash talk American made because they think imported goods are better. I tell you in my day and age folks bought Ford and GM trucks and cars because it was the right thing to do for the country. No ones got any loyalty to the red, white and blue anymore.

Quality/design problems with the Tundra are well documented. If I were buying a truck, I would go with an F-series, too.

That said, I think it's absolutely outrageous that GM and Chrysler were not allowed to fail. I expect Chrysler eventually will, and probably GM, too, but not before they've cost taxpayers billions. The greed/corruption of unions and management at both companies is an absolute disgrace, imo. Don't even talk to me about the jobs. No company exists to provide jobs for workers. Companies exist to produce products. Full stop. (I feel the same way about Citi, B of A, etc.: should have been allowed to fail. Too big to fail is bull****.)

As for Ford, I don't like their cars, but I hope they do well. They did the right thing by not taking a bailout and they deserve to be rewarded for that as long as they produce a decent product.