Hard disagree. Toyota has its lemons as well and people who bitch about problems far outweigh people who are happy and don’t say shit.
I’ve driven and owned Jeep (80-90 model), Eagle, Nissan, Mazda, Hyundai, and now Subaru and my vehicles have all been spectacular and lasted a long time with routine maintenance.
Do some model years or brands have some duds? Yeah. No one is perfect and plenty of other brands are just great.
This is the real key here. I have had vehicles that have lasted forever because I took the time to learn what to check regularly and do a lot of my own diagnosis and basic repairs.
The idea of modern automobiles is actually absurd when you think about it. It’s a massive combustion engine that starts up instantly, every day, multiple times and runs for thousands of hours, across huge distances at incredible speed and most of the time the operators never even think of it past refueling or cleaning the shell.
I owned generators and many other kinds of engines, and without incredible engineering they are a pain in the ass to keep running all the time. Heat and cold cycles, multiple fluids that have to interact, timing between components, a vast array of materials and different kinds of moving parts… we really take it for granted, and because of that the newer cars are designed to be more hands-off and harder and harder to actually maintain. They are now counting on people not giving a fuck and just buying a new one when it starts to “run funny.”
Yes, exactly this. Many people just don’t do the basics and part of that is money. The labor costs are what get ya. The complexity of narrowing down what’s wrong as the cars are more computerized and have more electrical components also makes it difficult to diagnose even for the pros.
Key detail is that routine maintenance is important. Spark plugs, oil changes, flushes, timing belt, radiator, tires, brake pads, etc.
My last vehicle literally overheated on the highway and the engine block warped because the thermometer broke but I had no indication that there was a coolant leak or it was overheating. It had a good, long run but now that I have a home office, I wholeheartedly agree it’s more of a waste of money if you don’t absolutely have to drive to work every day. I uber weekly, rent a car every couple months when I need to travel and still save a fortune on regular car costs.
Man, we had a Subaru outback for a while. Still miss the space, but the interior flooded every time it rained.
Turns out, the roof doesn’t actually have a place to shed water externally - it drains through the car before going out the bottom. Apparently part of regular maintenance involves cleaning out that channel… and where we live has enough tree debris that it always clogged up early, and backed up into the passenger compartment.
Now, I don’t know a lot about car design… but draining the roof through the body of the car, in such a way that you have to have a service tech see to it to keep it weatherproof? Makes me wonder what else might be waiting to go wrong.
I want to say 2014-2016? It was bizarre, but the dealership didn’t seem to have any notion that it was a real problem. Just kept hearing back “Oh yeah, sounds like it needs blown out again” whenever it happened.
And it was never a problem right after it was serviced, just in the month or two before it was due to be serviced again. It seemed like there was a SOP that could address it, it just required frequent maintenance to be able to handle rain falling on the roof.
That’s so weird. I know two people with that model year who don’t have that issue. Your comment spurred me to ask around. Very weird, sorry you had to deal with that.
Yeah, like I said, it sounds like normal maintenance is enough to keep up with the “typical” use case. We live in an area with a lot of trees, and had nowhere to park it where debris didn’t clog it fast, apparently. They did recommend we park it in the garage at one point, but… the car was longer than our garage! Seemed silly to renovate our house to expand our garage when the problem was that the car wasn’t built to shed dirty rainwater safely, so we sold it and got a shorter car instead.
Ask owners of new Tundras what they think about “reliability”. But, It is true, Toyotas are so fucking basic in design, there is not much to break or wear out. They are 10 years behind most other companies.
Idk I know they aren’t perfect. I kind of dislike them more that their executives are maga. Still I wouldn’t buy any other car because cars are too expensive to be buying dumb shit.
Volvo’s offering in my country:
No prices on their website, so I checked out used Volvos, year 2025 and an XC40 starts at 36k EUR with 10k km on it.
I don’t think this is a brand I can seriously get behind because I feel like they’re trolling me.
They are literally the only ones who make a decent car anymore. Every other brand is horrible and constantly breaks down.
Hard disagree. Toyota has its lemons as well and people who bitch about problems far outweigh people who are happy and don’t say shit.
I’ve driven and owned Jeep (80-90 model), Eagle, Nissan, Mazda, Hyundai, and now Subaru and my vehicles have all been spectacular and lasted a long time with routine maintenance.
Do some model years or brands have some duds? Yeah. No one is perfect and plenty of other brands are just great.
This is the real key here. I have had vehicles that have lasted forever because I took the time to learn what to check regularly and do a lot of my own diagnosis and basic repairs.
The idea of modern automobiles is actually absurd when you think about it. It’s a massive combustion engine that starts up instantly, every day, multiple times and runs for thousands of hours, across huge distances at incredible speed and most of the time the operators never even think of it past refueling or cleaning the shell.
I owned generators and many other kinds of engines, and without incredible engineering they are a pain in the ass to keep running all the time. Heat and cold cycles, multiple fluids that have to interact, timing between components, a vast array of materials and different kinds of moving parts… we really take it for granted, and because of that the newer cars are designed to be more hands-off and harder and harder to actually maintain. They are now counting on people not giving a fuck and just buying a new one when it starts to “run funny.”
Yes, exactly this. Many people just don’t do the basics and part of that is money. The labor costs are what get ya. The complexity of narrowing down what’s wrong as the cars are more computerized and have more electrical components also makes it difficult to diagnose even for the pros.
Key detail is that routine maintenance is important. Spark plugs, oil changes, flushes, timing belt, radiator, tires, brake pads, etc.
deleted by creator
My last vehicle literally overheated on the highway and the engine block warped because the thermometer broke but I had no indication that there was a coolant leak or it was overheating. It had a good, long run but now that I have a home office, I wholeheartedly agree it’s more of a waste of money if you don’t absolutely have to drive to work every day. I uber weekly, rent a car every couple months when I need to travel and still save a fortune on regular car costs.
A motorcycle is a better deal if you have somewhere to keep it safe. 3x the gas mileage and self repairable in a day.
Toyota CHR was a certified peice of shit.
and I say this as I post from work at a Toyota Dealer.
apparentley they’re bringing it back as either an EV or a plugin EV like the Rav Prime.
Uhhh… Subaru?
Man, we had a Subaru outback for a while. Still miss the space, but the interior flooded every time it rained.
Turns out, the roof doesn’t actually have a place to shed water externally - it drains through the car before going out the bottom. Apparently part of regular maintenance involves cleaning out that channel… and where we live has enough tree debris that it always clogged up early, and backed up into the passenger compartment.
Now, I don’t know a lot about car design… but draining the roof through the body of the car, in such a way that you have to have a service tech see to it to keep it weatherproof? Makes me wonder what else might be waiting to go wrong.
What model year was that? Never heard of such a thing. I suspect you had a defective car.
I want to say 2014-2016? It was bizarre, but the dealership didn’t seem to have any notion that it was a real problem. Just kept hearing back “Oh yeah, sounds like it needs blown out again” whenever it happened.
And it was never a problem right after it was serviced, just in the month or two before it was due to be serviced again. It seemed like there was a SOP that could address it, it just required frequent maintenance to be able to handle rain falling on the roof.
That’s so weird. I know two people with that model year who don’t have that issue. Your comment spurred me to ask around. Very weird, sorry you had to deal with that.
Yeah, like I said, it sounds like normal maintenance is enough to keep up with the “typical” use case. We live in an area with a lot of trees, and had nowhere to park it where debris didn’t clog it fast, apparently. They did recommend we park it in the garage at one point, but… the car was longer than our garage! Seemed silly to renovate our house to expand our garage when the problem was that the car wasn’t built to shed dirty rainwater safely, so we sold it and got a shorter car instead.
I don’t know anything about them.
Ask owners of new Tundras what they think about “reliability”. But, It is true, Toyotas are so fucking basic in design, there is not much to break or wear out. They are 10 years behind most other companies.
Made in the USA btw. If you want a good Toyota, you have to get a J VIN car. (From Japan) The Mexican Tacoma’s are ass too.
All RAV4 are built in Canada.
Not all of them. Some hybrids are made in Japan as well. My wife’s was. Granted, it was a 2016. From what I’ve read, they still make some there.
Idk I know they aren’t perfect. I kind of dislike them more that their executives are maga. Still I wouldn’t buy any other car because cars are too expensive to be buying dumb shit.
Take a look at Volvo or Mercedes
Volvo’s offering in my country:
No prices on their website, so I checked out used Volvos, year 2025 and an XC40 starts at 36k EUR with 10k km on it.
I don’t think this is a brand I can seriously get behind because I feel like they’re trolling me.
Also Volvo is as Swedish as Shanghai. Geely owns them and it shows.
Mercedes reliable? Not since the early 80s.
Dude Mercedes are garbage nowadays and Volvos are built by the Chinese. Honda is the obvious choice.