Loved Ones - Toyota

[timswi]

My opinion is that the perceived quality of the Japanese cars is much better than actual quality. The perceived quality of US made cars is much worse than the actual quality is.

Well put..That's what I was trying to say, but couldn't get it out of my thick head

 

[SpringHollow]

The local shop our vehicles go to can tell you what the cost per mile is for repairs performed at their shop.

When I asked them what were the cheapest cars to run they indicated some of the smaller GM's and Chrysler products were usually in the bottom category. The repair frequency was greater but the costs were low. On others the costs tended to be higher.

My local repair shop always answers that it is in the shop's best interest to have their customers buy Chrysler, GM or Ford, in the customers' best interest to buy Toyota. They do have a few specific exceptions to that rule. With routine repairs, their experience is that Toyotas are routinely 200K+ cars before major failures, the others are typically 150 - 160K which correlates exactly with our own experiences.

Ken

 

[studor]

I find it interesting that people seem to be trying to hold Toyota to a higher standard than other manufacturers. I wonder if that is because we expected more from them?

 

[timswi]

I find it interesting that people seem to be trying to hold Toyota to a higher standard than other manufacturers. I wonder if that is because we expected more from them?

Isn't it interesting that the domestics are made out to be junk right out of the showroom and Honda/Toyota can do no wrong (at least until the last few weeks). The domestics have made monumental improvements that they have never received credit for.

 

[Egon]

My local repair shop always answers that it is in the shop's best interest to have their customers buy Chrysler, GM or Ford, in the customers' best interest to buy Toyota.

Cost per mile???

The fellow who I was talking to was talking about cost per mile. Right at his fingertips on the computer.

 

[studor]

The domestics have made monumental improvements that they have never received credit for.

I agree -- the domestics have made monumental improvements but you must admit they had a long way to go-- Losing consistently to competition and going broke will kinda drive you to do things differently
Incidently, predictions were a couple of years ago that the Koreans were going to dominate the vehicle market next -- we have a Hyundai that my wife inherited from her Father -- it has been recalled for a new subframe! It has however been a very reliable, cheap to maintain car.

 

[SpringHollow]

Cost per mile???

The fellow who I was talking to was talking about cost per mile. Right at his fingertips on the computer.

They were referring to total cost of ownership - purchase, maintenance, repairs, fuel, residual value at 150,000 miles. Not sure about insurance although they do tell you the differences in insurance premiums that you will see for each model. So i guess that is complete cost per mile.

Great group of mechanics too. Trustworthy - didn't replace a radiator when a friend said that's what she needed - it was just a loose hose clamp. So many places would have said, she said new radiator so lets charge her for one (with hopefully installing one but i am not sure that would be the case at some places). And including when i was a used car dealer, they always managed to fix everything i took to them and at a fair price.

Ken

 

[Egon]

They were referring to total cost of ownership - purchase, maintenance, repairs, fuel, residual value at 150,000 miles. Not sure about insurance although they do tell you the differences in insurance premiums that you will see for each model. So i guess that is complete cost per mile.

How do they track the outside variables for each individual vehicle?

 

[SpringHollow]

They do it for the GM, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, and Toyota models they see most. They said the hard part is predicting what will happen with newer models, that it was much easier to make recommendations on used vehicles. On new models, they had to go by how similar they were to existing vehicles, what parts were common.

Ken

 

[Egon]

So your say there are no hard numbers?