Why Do You Buy Toyota?

[chrisj]

I have been sold on Toyota since 1990 (20 years), when I got my first Corolla I drove the hell out of. Ever since that is all I have bought.

Why did I buy mine? Because I was tired of going through cars like pairs of socks, losing more money with every trade. I wanted a car that would last, and one that I could beat the hell out of with very little worry about tweaks, tuneups, and general maintenance.

I wanted a car I could easily keep for 10 years with no worries. I am terrible at taking care of cars. The last car we had we drove for 9 years, only did regular oil changes, and only washed the damned thing 2 or 3 times. It sat in the driveway and was at our beck and call whenever we needed it, and it always came through for us.

I wanted a car that I could see roll over to 100,000 miles and not gasp in horror that I needed to hurry and trade the f*cker before it blew up (which was the case with every single American car I ever had). I am at the point now that if Toyo stops making cars, I stop buying cars. After owning 30-odd vehicles in nearly that many years, it was nice to finally have something of quality. I have not been disappointed.

Why do you buy Toyota?

[fnkngrv]

My answer is simple. I grew up with Toyotas in the yard. They NEVER let us down. EVERY time we went out and turned the key they started and ran. It could be -40 F and the only thing to worry about would be the battery. We always used Die Hard or Interstate batteries so that was never other reason is that no matter what Toyota I sat in the driver's seat of it just felt natural for some reason....can't explain it. The only other cars that were that way for me was my 66 Mustang Coupe and my 60 Pontiac. It is the same to this day. Out of all over my local friends I am the only one that has a Toyota. They all have Ford or GM Brands and when I take their car/truck somewhere it just feels uncomfortable. The only domestics that ever felt right to me was built pre 1970.

[jamal1984]

My is simple they are the smoothest ride for the price n of course never worry about liability.

[ricepower]

coz I'm infected with Toyota car virus which no cure till now...



Mabuhay Toyota!!!

[STC]

Cheap! Reliable! Efficient! Stylish!

Cheers!

[DebbyM46227]

This is my first Toyota. I bought a Toyota (specifically a Yaris) because:

1. I owned three Honda CRX's back in the 1980's and I regretted the day I sold my last one, a red 1988, to buy a 1997 Chevy Cavalier. *I still see my 1988 CRX being driven around town - 22 years old and still going strong*. I only bought a Cavalier because my brother works for GM and I got a good discount. Buying American was a big mistake, that car was a nightmare from 94,000 miles on the odometer until I got rid of it in June this year. (it only had 104,000 miles on it when I traded it in). I kept it 13 years - that was at least 3 years too long.

2. Toyota's reputation - before the acceleration issue. There may have been a few sticky accelerators, but I think some of it was made up by our Pres & Govt Motors wanting to knock Toyota down a notch.

3. Toyota deals like the free maintenance and 0% APR.

4. I loved my Honda's and the Yaris is made in Japan like the CRX was.

5. There are very few new cars in my price range (cheap).

[chrisj]

^ Debby, my wife and I have been married since 2001. When we got married she had a new Cavalier with only 10,000 miles on it. The thing died in the middle of the road and the passenger door handle came off. NEW car! Unreal.

[BailOut]

I always bought used cars, and cheap ones - less than $2k. As such I was used to dealing with issues and changing cars fairly often.

I once owned a 1987 Celica GT, and enjoyed its surprising level of durability and what I call "inherent ergonomics" or "natural comfort". I bought it for $750 and sold it back to the couple I bought it from for $600 when the clutch blew out at 185k miles.

In a roundabout series of events I ended up owning the same car again a year later (complete with its new clutch) and drove it for quite a while longer, the longest I'd kept any of my cars.

I eventually got another car, another American, and found myself right back in the world of shitty ergonomics, slapped together interiors and failing mechanicals. Against my better judgement I next bought a more expensive American car, a $12k 1999 Dodge Stratus with 19k miles on it, because I thought the deal was just too good to pass up.

What a dark adventure that car was. Failed transmission sensors, disintegrating water pump that took out other components, wandering alignment despite no accident history, failed master brake cylinder, dismal mileage that dropped significantly each consecutive year, failed cam sensor thanks to oil leaking from every possible engine orifice, bulbs burning out often and randomly, etc... all before 120k miles.

When I gained a new job with a rather extreme commute that includes a 2 lane mountain highway with no shoulder for much of it I knew I needed the most reliability and fuel economy I could find. I went through my mental rolodex of vehicles I'd owned and quickly dialed in on that old Celica as my best overall experience.

So in February of 2007 I went to the Toyota website and discovered the Yaris. I liked what I read there and elsewhere, and of course I had Toyota's reputation for reliability in mind, and located a local dealer that had what I wanted in stock. I purchased my second Toyota, my Yaris, the next day. I have been pleased with my purchase thus far, having neared 70k miles in a rather harsh environment with no issues yet.

[chrisj]

^ Well said, BailOut!

[yariphilia]

i buy toyota in the hopes that they bring their sweet diesel models stateside

[DebbyM46227]

Originally Posted by chrisj

^ Debby, my wife and I have been married since 2001. When we got married she had a new Cavalier with only 10,000 miles on it. The thing died in the middle of the road and the passenger door handle came off. NEW car! Unreal.

WOW! I will have to say the first 10 years were trouble-free except for brakes & tires and for the valve cover gasket needing replaced 3 separate times. I guess I was lucky! The last straw(s) was the radiator springing a leak and blowing the head gasket in 2009. Once my warranty for the head gasket job ran out it was time to trade it in.

[Kal-El]

Should be moved to the off topic forum (not Yaris specific)...

I buy Toyota first for unmatched quality/reliability/longevity.
Secondly, the usually superior fuel economy (others have caught up though).
Thirdly, smooth, refined ride.
The rest of the reasons is for styling, simple ergonomics, overall best value, and excellent resale value.

[auxmike]

Reliability
Hatchback is my "poor mans" wanna be GTI
Good looking
$14k with auto,power windows, etc.
Fantastic MPG's without even trying (32MPG)
High seating position, easy to get in/out of
my Yaris!

[chrisj]

^ I like the hatch too. We regularly put those back seats down and use it as a sort of pickup truck...never hauling anything dirty though! :)

[djct_watt]

Reasons Why I Love Toyota
I abuse the living snot out of my Toyota's yet they still last longer than I care to keep them (meaning despite extreme negligence, I've never been able to fully render a Toyota undriveable and need to have it towed, and I've gone through many). . .

. . . here in Thailand, resale on Toyota's is still great, service and parts are by far cheapest, and (contrary to other markets) they had the most options available for a manual transmission model. It's damn near impossible to get a manual transmission Honda, Mazda, or Suzuki (Swift) here.

Reasons why I try to AVOID Toyota:
-Less and less exciting after each redesign (except for the Camry/Corolla models which hit their markets perfectly).
-Their 4 cylinder engines are NOT competitive for some markets
-Usually Toyota is a better value than Honda and many other makes due to the content/dollar ratio, especially here in Thailand. But this is becoming less the case in the global market, especially with increased competition from Korean manufacturers.

Reason #1 I try to avoid Toyota
-The dealership network STINKS. Toyota quite possibly does the worst job at supervising and maintaining its dealer network. Never do I encounter such useless, scamming, lying, and cheating sales/service reps than at Toyota dealers. They are not directly run by Toyota Motor Co., but they do represent the company. Yes, there are SOME examples of good Toyota dealers, but they are definitely the minority.

[detroiter]

How I ended up with a Yaris is a strange turn of events. Got it in Dec 07

I was driving a 1993 Honda Del Sol that was getting up their in
miles so I decided to put it up for sale or trade.

After getting rid of the Del Sol, I wound up with a 1992 Honda Prelude
with JDM H22a engine swap. It was a really nice car that, as far as Hondas
and even many other cars, had some balls to it.

Well I only had it for 2 weeks and some bastard wasn't looking where he
was going on the freeway and cut in front way too close, basically causing me
to spin out from the wet road, going across 3 lanes and head on colliding with
the dividing barrier. Thing that bothered me the most is no airbags or anything
came on. So basically hitting a wall head on at 60 mph and no bags. I was livid.
Besides a very sligh bruise on my shoulder from the seatbelt, I came out totally
fine considering it was at night, half of my car still sticking out into a freeway lane
with no headlights, facing TOWARDS oncoming traffic. Someone was definitely
looking out for me that night.

So the next day, I had to go get a car. I had to have one by the end of the day because
around Michigan, if you have no car, you don't get anywhere. Next to no public transporation at all. So I stopped by Chevy and Ford dealerships, and these guys would
not deal at all. They pissed and moaned about "Buy American", and even though they
were hurting for sales like hell, they would not budge. So I told them forget it then, I'm going to Toyota. They literally chuckled and thought I was kidding, they stopped as I walked towards the door. Yet they still wouldn't deal.

Buying an Import is like a sin here around the Detroit area but I really don't give a care. My wallet, my choice. As much
as the detroit 3 and UAW would like to bully people into buying their cars, it didn't work. They cry nonstop about it around
here, it's quite pathetic.

Next stop was Kia. They had some really nice cars. I was looking at the Kia Rio 5, which
I guess was their top of the line model. For the price, it was an amazing car, they also
offered to throw in a ton of stuff for free like remote start, oil changes for life and a few
other goodies. The thing was for some reason, something just didn't feel right. Maybe they really were trying to make an honest sell, doing anything they have to to get a customer. I'm just not accustomed to that, most dealerships will do anything they can
to screw you, not help you.

So a bit further down the street and their was Toyota. My gf had just bought a Yaris sedan 6 months or so prior and getting to drive that car, I was really accustomed to it. I started thinking, maybe I should get a Yaris but a liftback because I have to be different from the gf lol. So I was there for about 6 or 7 hours haggling back and forth, when it was all said and done, I got the car for 400 dollars under invoice. I really worked them sales and banker people too, so I really have to give it to them for making the deal.

Honda was never an option for me. Their stealerships here have a no haggle policy
and their prices for the vehicles are outrageous.


So far I've enjoyed my Yaris. I think it's an amazing first timer's new vehicle. I especially like how easy the thing is to do self work and maintenance. My brothers 99 escort is a PITA like you would not believe, even my sisters 02 Focus. The way those Ford engineers designed even things like oil changes, are a joke.

Hoping to pay off the Yaris by next summer. Not sure if I will keep it and get a new
car or if I'll trade it in. My next car is either some sort of Subaru, Hyundai Genesis Coupe or a Mazda Rx8.


Oh, the other thing I really like about the Yaris is how innocent it looks and if you have springs, shocks and sway bars...it's a real sleeper that can ruin quite a few peoples day :)

[chrisj]

* Sorry about putting this topic in the wrong forum. :/

[wooverstone8]

My primary reason for buying Toyota is for reliability. I had a 94 Corolla that ran trouble free until it was involved in a collision @ 122k miles. I had the car fixed, but it never ran the same and had problems. I drove the Corolla up to 129k miles and gave it to family who needed a car and I bought a new 2009 Yaris. I was originally going to buy a new Corolla, but the car was too big for my taste and I didn't need all that excess material to drive to work and back, so that was the reason why I choose the Yaris Liftback over the Corolla.

My Yaris turned out to be unreliable. I had the water pump and water pump belt replaced @ 16k miles. I had to bring my Yaris back to the dealership three times after the water pump replacement due to coolant lost. I have to refill the coolant reservoir once a week. The dealership have not been able to fix or explain the problem yet. After my forth visit to the dealership I've been carefully documenting everything and I've kept all of my service papers from my previous visits.