And you still don't understand the difference between anecdotal evidence and facts. Data. Statistically significant differences.
To say reliability doesn't matter is is saying you don't understand what it means or you simply are in denial because your favorite brand is unreliable. Reliability is like insurance and warranties, only better. You don't think about reliability until you miss it. Don't want my wife or daughters driving a POS whether it has 10k miles or 500k miles. When your vehicle is in the shop 10% more than average, that means someone cannot get to work, or worse, is stuck on the side of the road in a bad neighborhood, 10% more often.
I don't have some mindless attachment to the Toyota brand. I am not denying the Tundra like mine get bad mileage. I don't make silly statements like mileage doesn't matter. I also don't make silly arguments like 'my neighbors cousin had a Tundra that got 36 mpg'.
I would not pit the other "Japanese" cars in the same class as Toyota anymore. Nissan fell down about 25 years ago. Honda has been slipping for the last 20. They are still better than many makes, but Toyota shines well above all in reliability...from day 1, not just with high miles.
I know what you're saying. I used to be an import guy when I was a kid. I remember showing up to the TF&TF premier in my Integra GSR thinking I was the bomb. I used to push the, " imports are way more reliable than domestics" crap. The reality is my 95 GSR burnt oil like a straight mofo, and literally had a cylinder go out on my way to the dealer to trade it in on a 99 Mustang GT. This car had 124K miles BTW.
My wife's 2010 Civic EX coupe was the biggest lemon I've ever seen. At less than 90K miles that car already had both CV joints on the axles go bad. It had the engine mounts go bad and needed to be replaced. The transmission needed to be reflashed. We were dating at this time, and I tried to get her to trade it on something else, but she liked her car. Then it started acting okay until around 200K miles (which by this point it became my problem as we were married) when the A/C clutch went bad, and also killed the alternator. This equaled new car time. I fixed the car in the garage and gave it to her dad. I think it's run reliably for him since then. I will say my old 93 Civic DX with no power steering, no A/C, non-VTEC 1.5L engine with a manual 5 speed was ultra reliable, and built like a mini-tank. Way better than the 95 Integra GSR I replaced it with.
Let's see. My domestics that I've bought and own/owned:
-99 Mustang GT - Thermostat housing cracked, which required an intake manifold replacement. No other issues in 3 years/50K miles.
-03 Mustang Cobra - No reliability issues, but like every Terminator it had its certain quirks, and gremlins that you had to deal with. My cars biggest issue was that it was a stubborn staller. 3.5 years/32K miles.
-03 Ford Lightning - bought it in 2010 with 90K miles on it. Never a serious issue that I personally didn't cause by leaving a 1/2 ratchet on the end of the crank after a serpentine belt replacement, or over-hosing the engine off during a wash. I did put new seals in the rearend in 2018 and around 180K miles as I noticed they were leaking a little. It once had an idler pulley on the blower belt system get noisy. I just bought a Timken bearing off Amazing and replaced it from start to finish in about 30 minutes. Still runs like a top at 208K miles. Best vehicle I've ever owned.
-02 Camaro SS - Had a slave cylinder go out, but I bought the car with a new clutch, and the reused the old master and slave cylinders which is a no, no in a Fbody. You "ALWAYS" replace the slave cylinder in these cars if you break into the clutches hydraulics. This was a warranty fix. Other issues were the LS1 alternator went out, and a much better truck alternator fixed this issue. The thermostat locked open. The gas cap stopped sealing completely which threw a "service engine soon" light. These were cheap and easy fixes. I bought this car in December of 2015 and DD it for nearly 4 years. The alternator was the biggest issue and I bought one out of a junkyard 04 GMC Yukon with 165K miles and it never missed a beat.
-13 Taurus SEL - The factory SYNC2 infotainment system went out. Replaced it with a SYNC3 system off Ebay. It was about a $700 fix. No other issues. Well over 100K on this car. It replaced my wifes Civic.
-2019 Camaro 1SS 1LE - Never an issue, but it was a new car. Had it for 1.5 years.
2018 F150 XLT 302A FX4, crewcab, 5L truck - No issues. Keeping Andriod Auto connected can be a biatch. I hate Andriod Auto. I need to set it up to connect wirelessly like I had it in my SS 1LE. About 45K miles on it. I daily it on E85, and with the AML tune the stock/pathetic 6K RPM redline has been bumped to about 7,200 RPM. Many funs in a 5,600 lb truck that's stock other than a tune and a drop in K&N.
Reliability is overrated, unless you're used to driving unreliable vehicles. I don't buy new vehicles I feel will be unreliable. I will say to give you Yota people something to get excited over is I knew a guy who bought an 21 Silverado LT Z71, and Chevrolet had to buy him a new L83 at only 3,100 miles. GM's AFM/DFM system has been a straight clusterF since they introduced it in 2005 in the LS4. I will say Yota is better than the domestics when it comes to investing in fixing the issues their vehicles have, where Ford/GM/Chrysler have been known to let them linger, and they play the odds, and hope these issues don't occur until the vehicle is out of warranty.
Still I've known people with Yota issues, and some pretty costly and serious. Let's be honest here GEN2 Tundras were very frowned upon by a large portion of Toyota fanboys until the first one that hit a million miles got posted on the internet. The way people claim that the GEN2 Tundra is the best truck ever made nowadays, that was absolutely not the narrative until 13/14. For years after their release Yota fanboys biatched and whined that the GEN2 Tundras while larger and more capable were nowhere nearly as well built or as reliable as a GEN1 Tundra. This was a very common complaint by Toyota fans. I literally (in 2016/2017) had a used car salesman point me away from a 1-2 year old Sequoia, and pointed to a GEN1 Sequoia parked next to it. According to him anyways the GEN2 Sequoias have issues, but the GEN1's are rock solid and GTG.
But Toyota fanboys are stupid. This is why I come down hard on them. I'll give you an example: I was driving home from work about 3-4 years back, and my Lightning which I was driving that day broke down about 2 miles from the house. This guy who'd seen my truck around, and knew where I lived, stopped and offered me a ride home. This was nice of him, and I appreciated it very much, but he drove probably a 16/17ish Tundra 4x4 that was lifted, and the whole way home all he wanted to talk about how crappy, and unreliable, and poorly built Ford trucks are so it was no wonder my truck was broken down on the side of the road. I'm sitting there thinking, "WTF? Did this guy not understand when I told him that I hit some dumbarses old wire cutter that they likely forgot that they left sitting on their rear bumper, and it straight up shredded my right rear Toyo (Japanese) tire?" This kind of arrogance about how reliable Toyotas are compared to everything else gets really old. Toyota fans literally think that their vehicles will never break, and that everything else that's not made in Japan is a straight unreliable POS. Then if a Toyota ever does have an issue there's always this extreme answer as to what could cause such a reliable vehicle to break. "Well your fuel pump went bad because you probably filled your engine oil with water," or some dumb chit like that. It's always an excuse, and never that sometimes a vehicle regardless of brand can and will experience an issue, and being man made it's not perfect.
