Recalls Strike Toyota In The Heart, Has Your Opinion Of The Brand Changed?

No, I always thought that it was a bit overrated...

Agreed- The victims of a reputation they can't live up to. They make a great product, but there has long been a aura of perfection in the press that I have deemed as suspect after owning several of their products.

Fans just have to face it that they are human and it is starting to surface. Would I recommend one? To the correct person most certainly.

and u are a victim of jealousy. but daddy i wanted the corolla with wood grain to impress my friends with the expensive cars they have wood grain why cant i have it too?

I used to view Toyota as this neutral company, kind of boring, but reliable none the less, but I think it has been people on this site that has more so destroyed my opinion of them.

No, it's the Toyota extremists such as yourself that are ruining my perception. I don't want to be at all affiliated to you.

I don't think Joe is a hater. But you have to admit a LOT of our Toyota fans are obsessive and compulsive.

^ it's comments such as this that keeps me coming back lol +1 badgewhore I laughed.

agent 009: "But you have to admit a LOT of our Toyota fans are obsessive and compulsive."

and i 'spose you'd consider ME one?

ok, i'll admit to being obsessive about COUNTERING LIARS AND HATERS.

even if i had never owned a toyota, i have read enuff not only in the automotive press, but in actual real hardback BOOKS about "the Toyota Way" and how they've come to dominate the industry in sales WITH their quality, reliability, AND cost-effective MANUFACTURING skills.

this is backed up by the CR summaries of OWNER REPORTED repair records.

AND this has been further backed up reported experiences of countless friends and family members.

AND backed up yet more, by personal experience of owning five toyota cars and trucks. i have ALSO owned numerous D3 vehicles, including a couple of cadillacs.

NO ONE else builds tougher, LONG-term reliable vehicles. and on top of that, provides state-of-the-art modern engines even on their cheapest cars.

most of the recent problems with toyota has been due to bad SUPPLIER PROVIDED parts.

all of the above are FACTS which only haters can deny.

Toyota is not a country.

Nope, this happens to everybody.

I.m scared to drive my 2010 Prius, and may trade in for another car..nit a toyota....why--the brake override softwear will not be in toyota line until 2011 model year...back to bmw for me !!

Toyota built its reputation on quality/reliability and they're known for that. However, I always felt that this special attribute they were known for was also overrated in the sense that there are other makes out there that also offer high quality and reliable cars.

Publications like Consumer Reports tend to exaggerate their findings in my opinion. What do I mean? If a Toyota has let's say 5.5 problems per year on average and a Hyundai 6.5 problems per year, the Toyota will be called "reliable" while the Hyundai will be labeled as "unreliable" (or something along those lines). There is hardly a difference between these two numbers in this hypothetical example.

My opinion of Toyota, however, has not changed. Good cars for the money, but incredibly boring and just not for me. I once owned a '97 Camry. It always but me to sleep everytime I drove it. It's amazing I am still alive! :)

Doesn't surprise me- their quality has been deteriorating a while now. Whenever someone (person, company, whatever) gets comfortable with their success they tend to falter- not the big "T" must return to their roots to get the qual back........

Hasnt changed my opinion; Ive always hated them and knew their reputation was undeserved. Each and every time something bad happens to them, I smile to myself, simply because they have it coming for being so openly arrogant. I knew when the push began to overtake GM, that they would take a slide. Now that I was right, and it's happening, I want to do my told-you-so dance.

F you toyota, and rot in pieces.

And the fact that you constantly get negative boost for your crap shows how sad YOU are. You bring shame to YOURSELF; go back and climb into whatever womb or dish you came from. As silly and immature as you are, clearly you werent done gestating when you left it.

The mess Toyota is in is not finished YET.
Toyota seems to have no clue what is going on at all.
First, they blamed it on the innocent floormats. Yeah, right!
Now, they blame it on the pedals. Don't think so.
When pedal gets stuck they DO NOT suddenly speeds up while cruising on highway. It does not!!! In worst case, it merely keeps crusing even with you foot off the pedal. Not the case.
It is the ECU that is capable of intervening the throttle, stupid. There is a bug in there somewhere, software or hardware(chips, components).

Stay tuned. More recalls are coming. Toyota is just "guessing" since people have died. They need to do "something".

My wife owns a Prius. She is thinking about trading it in.
No kidding, huu76. We own Toyota. We are abandoning ship.

Great Ceric,

Return the one car not in the recall.

I forgot to mention this.
Recalls do not scare owners, at least not me.
What is scary is that Toyota is no longer capable of fixing the problems quickly. On the contrary, it becomes arrogant and evasive (blaming it on floormats!?!).

They should drop this drive by wire bull, and maybe then the problem will be fixed. I hate that crap on every car that has it.

For the past 4 years, I've been saying Toyota isn't as reliable as people think it is. They still sell their cars based on the badge now more than anything. Kind of ironic but.. the brand has more badgewh*res than any other brand. When you ask a person why he bought it, he'd simply say " It's a Toyota "!

Nobody can deny Toyota's reliability is going down but it is still better than most. And Toyota should quickly fix these issues and return to the top of reliability charts with big margins over other makes as always has been the case. They shouldn't worry too much about who is number one in sales but just improve it's core points reliability and quality.

JUGNU

Toyota's brand equity is falling. It's their own fault. Their own blind arrogance are at the root of their current problems. The tragedy is they could've prevented this debacle by addressing their quality and safety issues much, much sooner rather than years of stonewalling with denials.

My opinion hasn't changed....

Bland Cars for Bland People..

My opinion of Toyota has not changed. Same with the majority of the American public. Their reputation is worth a lot more than what ppl are experiencing today. Toyota in the long run will be ok. I think look at them as one of the most reliable auto makers out there.

Everyone has recalls. Although the accelerator is a bit more serious, Toyota is definitely one of the most reliable brands out there and its why the Camry is the best selling car. More importantly, Toyota has become an American car with several models on or near the top of the domestic parts list. Maybe, it's because they are becoming more domestic that their quality has slipped a bit.

a good point i have long believed myself.

tundra camshafts -- american supplier.
bad throttle linkages --american supplier.
improperly rust-proofed truck frames --american supplier.


so many problems, just from toyota trying to be a good corporate citizen and patronizing domestic suppliers!

Toyota reliability, although down, is still better than all the other Automobile makers.

It's that kind of blind, uneducated blanket statement that has kept their unearned reputation where it's been all this time. They're hardly the most reliable, they've been slipping year by year for years. But thank you for proving the point, that all it takes is word of mouth from ignorant consumers to retain a false perception.

definitely true.

on a chart rating problems per 100 vehicles, there is little difference AMONG ALL BRANDS in the first 2 - 3 years.
if you draw a line across the 100 problems line, and read on the years axis however, there is this startling revelation:

most mfgrs. get to that point, where on average ALL cars have one problem, when the vehicles reach 5.5 years of age. fords get to 7 years. hondas are good thru about year 10.5.

the chart ends at 10 years, so one has to extrapolate to get the toyota figure. which turns out to be about SEVENTEEN YEARS.

Plus, the japanese are not known for resting on their laurels. As we speak, they most probably are fixing, improving, upgrading their products and systems. Only time will tell.

A huge PR campaign to improve public perception is in the works for sure!

OK, having actually been personally involved in at least FOUR unintended acceleration incidents, here's my take.

the first involved a (then brand new) 2000 ford focus. i was just cruising along at about 40 mph, when the car started to accelerate. braking worked, until i got OFF the brakes. so i shifted to N, and cut the engine when it revved up. on restarting, it ran normally and i went on to a friend's.
on the way home, it happened again. and this time would NOT reset after an engine shutoff. i got home safely anyway, and took the car to the dealer the next day. seems there was a bad cruise control module with a mind of its own (i had NOT used cruise control either time.)

a month or so later, it happened again. seems ford must've got a BUNCH of defective modules. (and from recent news, some even caused vehicle FIRES while parked!)

in another incident, this happened to a nephew on a freeway, with one of the family buicks. riding shotgun, i coached him to a safe stop. (he was truly in A PANIC! may well have CRASHED if i wasn't there.) restarts failed to reset anything. the car was towed to a shop.

turned out the throttle mechanism had STUCK in the WOT position. this had NEVER happened before when his parents drove the car. we figured it was because they never STOMPED the gas pedal to the floor, as young nephew apparently did. (and did AGAIN later, unsupervised.)

the crash that killed the off duty CHP guy and his family, also involved PANIC and suspension of cool thinking. i suspect HE probably ALSO MASHED the gas pedal just prior.

i'd venture to guess, that after the floormats diagnosis, most of the other reported cases were probably ALSO due to HEAVY FEET jamming the gas pedal. there are tens of millions of toyota drivers. only RARELY would any of these drivers MASH the pedal to the floor. hence, the difficulty toyota's had in pinpointing a GENERAL, widespread, common cause.

the most recent explanation of SOME vehicles having a sticky throttle linkage, could also be explained by HEAVY FOOTED drivers having damaged (partially or wholly) the throttle linkage.

i mite add, most damage and/or incidents from STOMPING ON THE GAS, would obviously ONLY OCCUR with certain drivers. (or their wild kids.) which would EASILY EXPLAIN the difficulty in finding the cause of ALL the unintended acceleration incidents.

of the 4 million-odd vehicles in the recall, i'd guess 99+% DO NOT need ANYTHING AT ALL DONE.

that toyota will spend ONE BILLION dollars ANYWAY, mainly to provide psychological reassurance to customers, only proves how much they care.

so, to all the haters, this actually STRENGTHENS toyota's rep!

You are blinded by your ignorance and bias. I hope that no danger comes to you or those who are driving these vehicles, but sadly I doubt that everyone will not be so lucky.

ignorance???

i am probably FAR MORE well read than you are. i am fully aware toyota has had some quality issues in recent years. i am also aware MOST were due to (american) SUPPLIER provided inferior parts.

with regard to the question of the thread title, not having owned a new toyota for more than 10 years recently, i can NOT MAKE a valid judgement on any alleged decline in reliability. (which is a completely different issue from their using cheaper PARTS.

but i CAN make valid statements of toyota reliability over the past four decades. living in california in the mid-60s, i was made aware of toyota no later than 1965.
in 1971, in the market for a new car, i cross shopped ALL the cars in the compact and subcompact class. i chose a Corona 2-dr hardtop, on the basis of: 1) it had the largest engine in its class, and 2) it was the most stylish.

(toyota had NOT YET established its reputation for reliability.)

over the 1st 7 years of ownership, it cost me less than $25 TOTAL to replace failed parts. all other replacements were of normal wear items.

fast forward: in 1997, i bought a slightly used 1994 toyota pickup. to date, 15, going on 16 years after its manufacture, the cost to me for replaced failed parts is $0.00. nothing. nada. NOTHING'S BROKE.

a neighbor bought a brand new toy truck ~2004. but he drives it only a few times a month. because his OLD toyota truck, a 1980s model, is STILL serving him reliably as his daily driver!

bottom line, toyota's rep is NOT mere hype or due to PR. it has been FULLY EARNED, over nearly half a CENTURY.

Not surprisingly, there are blind badge loyalists who ass-ume a Perfect World View towards their car brand regardless of whatever FAILINGS that car manufacturer is responsible for.

For one, I have never said that I hated the brand but you ASS-umed that I did. I am not a brand freak that will blindly follow a brand if there is evidence of malfeasance or neglect. Stop using nonsensical political analogies to rationalize justification for arrogance.

To all you blow hard Toyota apologists, why don't you just help your almighty Toyota end this controversy right now by explaining why they have felt it necessary to issue so many recalls regarding their vehicles Unintended Acceleration issue?

Better yet, why don't you go help them figure out what the problem is and post your solutions on here rather than wasting anymore mindless kilobytes of pantywaist repetitive excuses as justifications.

Absolutely.

In recent years, proof has come out that Toyota purposely hides important warranty information related to accidents. THEY ARE LIARS.

Also, in recent years, they have had many major recalls to their KEY products. If this were any other carmaker, their reputations would have suffered tremendously. But Toyota is trying to fight this so it does not happen to them. In fact they celebrated by recalling a few more million vehicles!!!

Toyota has ALWAYS been overrated in reliability which is the ONLY thing they can hold on too because their performance, comfort and styling are among the worst in the industry.

Go Ford!!!!

WOW! some press that is negative towards the Japanese? This is a first! Usually media loves the bash detroit and talk how the japanese can do no wrong.
Ive never been a fan of toyota. ive always felt you should enjoy what you drive. Of course enjoyment is relative to the individual consumer, but toyota does not offer one vehicle that can satisfy enjoyment, IMO.

Have you ever been to this website before?

jay001 is a big fat liar! No one goes out and buy a $30,000 2010 prius and not know what has been going on with some of the recalls Toyota has been having over the past few years....come on cut the crap! As for the rest of you haters, I'll be the first to admit Toyota never said it was perfect but Lexus said they are the relentless persuers of perfection...dont see a thing wrong with it, overachievers...no doubt!

My opinion has not changed one Iota!

One more thing...I'd take a bland high quality product over power, speed and outward bling anyday...

Yes