Yeah it was bound to happen.

:( sad to see so many people buy cars just to get from A to B..

these days it's about all you can afford.

I don't know why, but there seems to be a war against the Middle Class in the US and most of us can't afford anything outside of the Toyota price range. For what you pay for, you really get a great value.

The cars are still simple, they don't have 40 control units that chit chat with each other over a network like the German cars do, so there's less that can go wrong with them and keep them in the shop for days on end. What few problems are had are quick turn around times from the time the car is dropped off to the time it's ready.

I think Toyota's only flaws are in their styling.

I'm really starting to think that if you want a great car, there is a simple formula to follow:

Let the Germans style and engineer it, let the Italians do the powertrain, and let the Japanese do the programming. ship it all to the US and let them assemble it.

Better ship it all to Japan and let them assemble it. Much better build quality. :wink:

point. hmm. there really isn't much the Americans can do other than build the optional V8 power plant :lol:

5 million recalls in 5 years? Anyway, yea, nothing quite like hiring a token amount of US workers to stick a bunch of japanese parts together (they are still mostly japanese despite what any tundra ads might try to convey). Last I checked, the most "American" Toyota was made up of 48% US components and the rest Japanese. That info is a model year old now.

Toyota did well in two places in particular. They shrunk GM's US lead (yes, GM still sells more in the states) and they outsold GM like mad in their own country.

My dad told me about this. Im part of that statistic, actually no because i bought my Scion last year heh

HA!!






I have been noticing lately that the Vehicles we have built in the US are better than the ones built in Japan and The Canadian ones are on par with the Japanese ones. now the difference isn't that huge but it can be noticeable to someone who sees them on a daily basis. the Accords (TSX here) have trim pieces that aren't always on all the way from the factory.
And the damn RL's (Legends) have electrical problems like a mother for the exact reason ZFRK mentioned they have too many CAN Modules all trying to talk to eachother.

Why? We can't all afford to buy fancy automobiles.

Toyota has such a broad selling market that it was bound to outsell GM. GM's sales are also not as dominant as they were previously, especially in foreign markets. This trend is seen in Australia - people are buying the Toyota Camry over the traditional Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores.