My american cars fell apart, my japanese cars have not; tell Toyota whatcha think of them.

www.toyota.com/about/community/index.html
maybe this link is better?
www.toyota.com/about/contact/index.html

Doesn't Toyota advertise their trucks in the gunrags? Might want to find information for the PR department of the truck side and also contact whatever gun mags are running Toyota ads.

Quoted: Personally I think guys who think American cars are no good are either not paying attention or just plain blind.   This isnt the 70s or 80s, AMERICAN cars are great machines.   My 95 Taco was no better in ANY way than any of the 1990+ american cars I've owned.   I will NEVER own another Toyota or any other japanese car EVER again.

My g/f had a Contour, it would just stop periodically because of some defect in the wiring harness (I assume) she bought the car new, took it back for warranty work which never solved the problem, after getting stranded by the side of the road on Long Island and NYC several times she had had enough. She traded it in (lost her shirt on it) and bought a Toyota Camry, which runs like a top.

I've rented many american cars over the past 5 years, the 2005 Sedan Deville was about the only one I thought seemed like a nicely made car, but it's probably a $ 40k car new.

I remember very well the shenanigans Ford tried when my 88 F150 had the paint peel off it, they had a bunch of cars that got shitty blue paint jobs, instead of just saying "Sorry bring it in" they would initially give you a bs excuse that varied by location (salt in my area, sun if you lived in the southwest, salt air if you lived on the coast) if you made enough of a stink they'd pay for a paint job (or maybe it was part) but by then the truck was a few years old so I think I still ended up paying something for "body work needed to prep the truck" I could give plenty more examples, I don't trust these jokers anymore.

My Infiniti ran like a top, the maintenance and small amount of work I had done on it was on average cheaper than what I had paid for work on my Fords and everything was either done right the first time or fixed immediatly without any attempts to bullshit me into accepting a 1/2assed job.  If a tree hadn't fallen on it I'd still be driving it, the cheapo used Izusu beater I bought quickly to replace it is still running and that one was rode hard and put away wet by the first owner.  Course now that Isuzu USA has just about gone tits up life could get interesting...

Quoted: Well, to be fair, Toyota just recalled about 800,000 trucks for ball joint problems... But we only buy cars from them, so...

To be REALLY honest about it, Toyota just initiated thiS VOLUNTARY recall with NO request for it
from the DOT or  NHTSA.   There is NO safety issue involved with the recall.   NONE.  The recall
is because some of the ball joint components may have been SCRATCHED during manufacturing,
and MAY cause the steering in these vehicles to become slightly heavy.   THAT'S IT.

Can you imagine GM, Ford, or Chrysler initiating a recall for something as TRIVIAL as THAT?


Not in this lifetime!!!


Toyota has passed Ford as the no .2 auto maker in the world.   And they're on the right track to
eventually surpass GM.


My family has three vehicles.  All are Toyotas, and we've previously driven everything else.

My Camry was made in Kentucky.    Sounds sort of American to me.


YES,  the American manufacturers are making much better cars now than they did 20 years ago,
and in fact I think the worst new car you can buy in America today is better than at least half of
the cars available 20 years ago.    

BUT...I've test driven new Chevys, Pontiacs, and Fords, and they have for the most part failed
to impress me.   They're not bad, but they don't give me the sense of being what I term a
"complete thought" in terms of their total package.    Ergonomics aren't right,   controls aren't where my hands
automatically fall to,   comfort is ....different.   The feel of the vehicles while driving isn't what
I've grown used to, either.    But if I take a Toyota (or Nissan or Honda) for a test drive,  it feels
pretty much like home territory right off the bat.    Controls are ergonomically placed,  the seating
is comfortable and supportive,   the road feel and handling are excellent and very different than
most American cars.

I'm not saying these are BETTER features and designs, but to me, at least, a Camry represents
a complete and coherent design that was created by a team of engineers who wanted the same
thing in a car and think the same.     In American made cars,  it's like they were designed by
engineers who were undoubtedly very compentent in their own fields,  but didn't think the same
or want the same things in the car.    It ends up being a collection of mismatched ideas that still
manages to get the job done.

American concept:  Design the part.    Japanese concept:   Design the whole vehicle.

That's what it seems like to me.

Incidentally....  German concept:   Overdesign the part, overdesign the vehicle,  and forget to make it reliable and affordable.  


CJ

Quoted: 70s and 80s rough for US auto makers, you guys are just stuck there.   I guess I must be imagining my trouble free times, so must the other guys with 400K+ miles on their american cars.... I guess we must have drank too much.    I'm sorry, you guys are right.   I'll run right out and buy Japanese, fuck the US economy.   Who gives a crap what happens here.....

Nice big Ford plant in Canada on the way to Toronto. If Ford gave a shit about the US economy why are there canucks getting ford paychecks for spinning wrenchs?

Given a choice between buying a Chevy made in Mexico by Mexican workers and a Toyota made in Kentucky by American workers,  it's no contest!   Toyota, please!

FUCK the unions.  FUCK the over-paid, 35-dollar-an-hour bolt monkey whose absurdly high wages
are part of the very REASON why the domestic auto makers send much of the work to other countries!

While I'm on the soapbox on that issue, fuck the aircraft worker's unions that didn't listen to
Eastern Air Lines when Eastern said "If you demand one more raise, we're going to go bankrkupt
and never fly again."   And that's what happened.

Fuck unions.  Fuck them all.    I wish they were outlawed.

There's more authentic US parts content in a US made Camry than in a Mexican made Ford or Chevy.
Add in the fact that the US made car is made with US labor even though the brand name is Japanese,
and the situation becomes very plain.

CJ