</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I have been driving Toyotas for years, what first impressed me was the engineering under the hood. No spark plugs trapped, everything easy to get to, etc.
I tried a Chevy S-10, biggest piece of crap I ever owned.
Now I even insist that my Toyotas are made in Japan. )</font>
My experience was the opposite: My Chevy S-10 was more reliable than my Toyota Pick-up. I even kept my Chevy for 40,000 miles more than the Toyota, and it still required fewer repairs. Heck, my 7 year old Ford truck had fewer and far cheaper problems than my Toyota had at 3 years. The magazines stated that Toyota was the most reliable. Did they lie? Are our personal ownership experiences insignificant when compared to the aggregate? Maybe, my Toyota was a Friday truck. Do they have Friday trucks in Japan?
I also have a hard time understanding Toyota fanatics, or any brand fanatics for that matter. When your Toyota breaks down and leaves you on the side of the road, like mine did, do you say it's a Japanese truck, so a similar American truck must have broken down three times already? I'm not a buy American fanatic either; I own a German car, a Japanese SUV, & an American truck with a Mexican engine. Are any of these the absolute best vehicle ever made? I doubt it. Will I feel compelled to repeat purchase if one of these runs perfectly throughout it's life? I haven't so far. There are a lot of great cars and trucks out there, please don't let twenty year old prejudices against certain brands prevent you from giving them a look. The Toyota brand isn't number one anymore, and hasn't been for several years. The fact they may be overtaking Ford in the near future shows that they are just another big car company joining the ranks of Ford and GM. If you hate Ford and GM why in the world would you like Toyota? They are all becoming the same thing. Toyota has Lexus, but they also have Scion which ranked near the bottom in quality. They kind of sound like Chyrsler, Dodge & Plymouth to me. Build one nice, build one for the masses, build one cheap. Say it isn't so.
BTW, the my above thoughts apply to tractors too. I have a NH now, but who knows what I'll buy next. This doesn't reflect poorly on my NH. I'm very happy with the tractor, but brand XYZ may have something that make's it a better fit for me in the future. I'll get to shop all of the brands next time around, and the best tractor for me will win.