The biggest problem with a Prius lasting 386,000 miles is that some poor soul has to drive it that far!

Good friend of mine whose son works as wrench at a Toyota dealership says their service bays are full of broken Toyotas every day. Same with Honda, a dude I went to high school with was a Honda wrench at a Honda dealership for close to 30 years, broken Hondas every day. His personal vehicle is a Dodge Ram 1500. Japanese cars aren't too bad I guess, they're just really overrated.

Yep Dodge dealers are just as bad with the scam. Wife took her jeep with 2008 with 1010 K mile on it for an oil change. Called from the dealer ship telling me they said it had numerous problems the needed attention. Told her to have them give her a written estimate and come home. Total repair estimate was close to $4,000. When she got home I put the Jeep on the lift and went through their list. Found no problems. So no repairs were made. They figured they could scam her because she wouldn’t know the difference. Next oil change I took in to the same dealership. Surprise surprise they found no problems.

One of my daily drivers is a 2000 Toyota 4Runner. Great rig, has 240,000 miles on it and it runs like a champ. Doesn't use any oil, still has the original exhaust system, factory installed shocks and springs, etc. Basically trouble free for 24 years. Had to replace a wheel bearing at 200,000 miles and had to replace the valve cover gaskets at 220,000. That is about it.

Not sure about this hate for toyotas. Made in the USA with a made in the USA powertrain, not one from Mexico. Ours has had surprisingly little work after 12 years. Only thing not routine was the struts started leaking about four years ago. That was at 115k I think. I did plugs at 110k, but it didn’t really need them. Mpg never dropped and it idled well, I just thought they had to be cooked…nope. Did four rotors and pads after 120k. Two batteries and two sets of tires. The paint did die after 7 years is only real issue. Oil changes at 10k miles when I was racking up miles all the time. Then yearly when my wife took it over and drove less. Then I quit even bothering with that and it goes about two years on a change for least the last four years. Nobody I know has trouble with these cars. It got over 30 mpg by hand when I drove all interstate, still gets about 25 in mixed use today. What exactly are you guys doing to fudge them up?

Wifey has a 2012 Subaru Tribeca with about 130,000 on the clock. I've religiously maintained the old girl and other than the normal consumables like antifreeze, tires, lubricants, plugs, and the serpentine belt, haven't put a nickle into it. It seems every time that I tell people she has one they start with the head gasket problems and transmission problems. May be. But until it takes a dump, we're going to keep driving it.

Thanks, I about spit my coffee all over the keyboard on that one




In Regards to owning a Toyo. or any across the pond import for that matter. Thanks but no thanks FAR TO damn expensive to fix them when they break

I'll pass.


But I will buy one to flip it if I get the chance. I aint THAT picky

LOL. Don't tell me...you read about the cost to repair on the internet? I have owned both American and Imports. In my experience, its quite the opposite of your generalized statement. Right now I have 5 Imports (technically not imports anymore) and 4 American variants. In my experience, the imports have been WAY cheaper to keep on the road with far fewer intervals between repairs. But, what do I know.

We bought a 2010 Lexus ES 350 (fancy Toyota) about 8 years ago. It had 20,000 miles and we have over 165,000 on it now.

It is one of the best, most reliable cars we have owned and is reasonably comfortable for my 6' 2" frame.

It doesn't use a drop of oil and the only thing I've had to do (other than normal oil changes, transmission service and brakes, tires, battery, etc.) was replace the passenger side axle assembly due to a boot tearing on the cvc joint. $100.00 out of pocket and took me less than 45 minutes.

My wife has driven Toyota Highlander Hybrids since 2009. She wanted something that was easier to get into than her 300m and would get equal or better gas mileage. It was the only thing we found.

She drove the 2009 for 100,000 miles then got a 2017 that she drove for 76,800 until it was recently totaled after being rear ended. I cannot speak to repair costs because we never had any.

She is on a waiting list for a new one but it will be months before she gets to the top of the list.

Do I prefer driving my 2007 Magnum R/T, sure I do, but the Highlander is a comfortable, safe and exceptionally reliable car.

What is it that costs more to repair on them?

Its a long perpetuated myth. I will admit that the Lexus dealers think their work is somehow gold....but most Toyota dealers will work on the Lexus variants for a bunch less.

I honestly don't hate Toyotas. (I do prefer all American stuff, but lost that battle a long time ago) But I have driven the flip Camry for a week, drove a rental Prius that I got stuck with in Philly, and I drove a 73 pinto for fun just before I scrapped it. They were all similar in feel, ambiance, and driving experience. My moms old boyfriend had a Toyota that he constantly bragged about having 200000+ miles and still going. He picked me up at the airport one time. I felt sorry for him, driving that awful thing. There are SO many vehicles that are SO much nicer to drive.

There is a Toyota mentality, and a Honda mentality that they are so superior. But they aren't.

When you never have a repair that is needed, it's kinda hard to gauge that expense!

That’s why I wanted to know. That basic stuff I’ve dealt with was no worse than any other brand, and I’ve had a bunch of stuff.

I’ll say this, I’ve seen Toyotas beat on like no other person here. Only way we could hurt one at the plant was to never change the oil and have some team leaders sit around with them idling on day and night. That will coke one up and blow it up. Reasonably nobody is doing that to their daily.

These things got beat on by different drivers all day and all night, driven like stolen especially by night shift. I don’t even know how the doors lasted that long.

Id rather drive the pinto. No Toyotas for me.

Now I’m searching another little grimlin, high gear at around 50, 2300 rpm, it DROPS 400 rpm like I touched brakes (didn’t move gas pedal) then back to 2300 on flat road, sporaticly. Kinda like a cylinder dropout but shows no misfire? When I first bought it showed crank position sensor on a code but not since I erased it. ? Any thoughts

When I met the wife she had a Toyota Paseo. Put 326k on that car. Only junked it because it got in an accident and was only worth about $600. 36mpg out of a 1.5L, but the new headlights were 300 each, new hood and a radiator pretty much did it for me. What problem did I have. Windshield wiper switch was rewired to a toggle. That's it. We have since had 3 other Toyota's. 2004 Camry got 311k before we traded it in. My 2009 Corolla has 157k and going strong. 2014 Camry became an oil burner at 280k needing a quart every 500 miles. Figure stuck rings as I tried fixing everything else. Replaced that with a 2020 Camry. She loves the car. Me, it's okay. Can't get used to the port and direct injection. Lag on tacking off but so far,no problems. Had more problems with my 96 GMC Sierra and a dropped valve but found out that might have been due to someone's driving.

The only hate I have for any Toyota, Honda, or any of the rest of them is pretty much on the owner bragging. but when someone wants to tell me how great their car is, then wants to compare the repair and maintenance fees against a vehicle that actually performs real work, I'll speak up. The example given was about a consumer appliance car owned by "intelligent people" and the guy wanted to compare it to the cost of maintenance and upkeep on a truck that caries 3x the trucks weight on a regular basis, thousands of miles a year. Apples to oranges, the appliance car (or a Toyota truck) would never survive doing what Rhino's Ram truck does daily.

Any Dodge Dart I would ever buy would be one that has been out of warranty for 50 years. The newest vehicle in my fleet is an 04 Turbo PT, it was a year old with 5,600 miles on it when we bought it. It has done pretty well for us for the last 19 years we have owned it. At a little over 160K miles, the rust will most likely kill it before anything mechanical will. In all those years, its pretty much never been back to the dealership, just one time for an injector recall. When Chrysler wanted to replace the injectors, I was OK with that. The PT is an appliance that takes my wife where ever she wants to go. She chose it, she pretty much is the only person that drives it, and she likes it. I will do whatever it takes to keep it running. Happy wife, happy life, the PT makes her happy. What ever she chooses to replace the PT when the time comes will get the same treatment.

My main driver is a 49 Dodge pickup. I built it from a pile of parts, I am the service department. I put about $10,000 into it between July 21 and June 22 (cost to build), and I expect to get 10 years out of it. What ever it costs to maintain is not much concern to me. It is my appliance, and I really like driving it everyday. If I choose to sit around and eat popcorn while someone else works on it, its my choice, but it probably isn't going back to the Dodge dealership to get anything done.

25+ years ago, i bought a toyota corola off the doper neighbor punk for a whopping $35.00 because the local junkyard would only give him $25.00 for it.
the front was slightly munched, and it looked like a rotten banana, yellow with lots of black spots on it !
however, it ran good, the interior was ok, although it looked like someone took an axe to the dash to install an aftermarket radio, and there was [unbelievably] no rust on the body except for a few spots on the paint [banana peel ? ] that were bare.
i drove it home, and even though the front was munched, it drove well, and the radiator was ok.
i searched a few local junkyards for a front clip, but nothing was out there.
i finally decided a celica front clip was close enough i could make it fit. this was long before roadkill was even thought of.
anyway, that clip cost me a whopping $40.00 !
after a couple of extra holes drilled in the inner fenders, the celica clip was on. the bumper brackets needed a little "heat and beat" to fit, and now the car was whole again.
it looked pretty neat as well, a corola coupe with a celica front clip. it was now a corelica ? or maybe a celola ? anyway, it now needed paint.
i DA'd it with 80 grit in my driveway, then drove it over to my buddy's house for a "beer paint job"..............
we looked it over while consuming a couple of beers, then decided it would look best by mixing up a bunch of leftover paint he had on the shelf, thereby creating a "custom" color.
as it turned out, it was kind'a close to panther pink, but a bit on the reddish side. we called it "fox pecker pink".
a couple hours later, the "rotten banana" was now bathed in a fabulous new coat !
it looked so great, we decided it needed a nice rusty chrome exhaust tip he dad in the corner. this was long before the giant fart can craze came about.
when we went to stick it on, we discovered the muffler was missing ! it was there when i left my place, but the exhaust note never changed as i drove over to his place, so i never heard it fall off.
i found it laying on the road going home, so i stopped and picked it up. unfortunately, it had been run over by something, so i couldn't re-install it.
after it got back to my driveway, i decided it needed snazzy wheels to go with that great "fox pecker pink" paint.
"chrome in a can" to the rescue ! wheels looked great now !
as for the muffler, i dug around in my "stuff" collection and came up with a used cherry bomb glass pack and enough pipe and adapters to make the first "fart can" !
i squared up the "axe hole" in the dash with a nice aluminum plate, and installed an am/fm radio i had on the shelf. the car was now complete, so on the lawn next to the street it went with the for sale signs in the windows.
all told, i was into the car for $125.00 and change, including the beer my buddy and i had during the fabulous "pain job".
it was there only a few hours with a $900.00 price on it when a couple of guys stopped. they took it for a ride, then beat me down to $750.00 !
i couldn't believe it. my one and only toyota experience.