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Like many others, my parents stated buying Toyota in 2001 after having had their fill of problem vehicles from the domestic brands. They bought another in 2002 and another in 2013. They're still driving their first one and the 2002 is now owned by another family member.
I bought my wife a Honda Accord coupe in 2008. Then we traded up to another Honda in 2012, a Pilot because we needed something bigger. I'm kicking myself to this day for not just keeping the Accord for myself, as we liked it that much. I have a company vehicle plus my wife was injured and not working, so for years we just had the one vehicle.
I bought myself a Toyota Avalon a little over a month ago because now that my wife has been going to school along with working part-time again, I've found myself stuck without a vehicle at times on my days off. She'll be done school and working full-time again next year so I needed to get myself a vehicle.
Now I'll probably only put 5k miles a year on it because it's only used for pleasure driving. But I wanted reliability. Maybe reliability is boring, hence the claims that Toyotas are boring. In that case, I like boring.
I enjoy my 2012 Camry with the 3.5 V6 engine. I know it will last a long time with proper care. I liked the Impalas more but didn't feel like coughing up the extra money for one, plus they got a good 5-6 MPG less due to their weight.. I did a direct comparison when I was driving the loaner.
In the end I'm not that picky.. I have my V6 and my reliability.. part of me liked the "tank" feeling the impala had, part of me thought it cushioned me too much from the road but it was nice being able to coast over bumps without feeling them that will jolt me in the Camry... gravel roads it felt and sounded like you were almost on pavement, a big difference between the Camry and the Grand Am before that... Toyota at least the camrys have the "cut corners to make a bit more money" feel to them though compared to domestic makes, but I'm sure you make up for it with increased reliability at least that's what I see when I do my DD.
Granted a direct comparison to the Impala would really be the Avalon, not the Camry. In the end I don't care enough about little subtletys to waste thousands of dollars trading in or selling one vehicle to buy another.. beside the camry has passing power which makes it fun at least. haha.
Didn't they find out that the "unintended acceleration" issue was actually people driving with the floor mat covering the gas pedal?
As for what I think of Toyota, I think their reliability is wildly blown out of proportion; they are not "the most amazing and trouble free vehicle in existence" like people want you to think. I also believe they are extremely bland and overpriced (which they can get away with because people will gladly pay a premium for something they believe to be "the best and most reliable".)
Test drive some vehicles other than Toyota and reevaluate your decisions. My answer is just my opinion and if it is factual, it's by mere coincidence.
Edit: Case in point, see acercode's response at the top of this page.
The mat was part of it, but the majority of it was people pressing the wrong pedal. They were largely in unfamiliar cars and thought to have panicked and pressed on the gas and not the brake and couldn't figure out their errors (also explains why they didn't put the car into neutral, hit the ebrake, or hold the start button down (Malcom Gladwell has a very interesting podcast on the topic).
yep, toyota can "engineer" reliability but they can't make a decent looking car to save their life.
gt-86?
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