By William Suarez
Good question-
I once read an article where an American car company said that if they did all the things Toyota did, they would go bankrupt
why?
Toyota never overworks their engine unlike other brands. You can say that they underpower them. A camry with a 2.5 engine displacement has 201 hp. Thats 80 hp per liter. Compare that to the 1.5 liter turbo engines with 220 hp; thats overworking the engine
they tell their vendors to make parts that can last 100k-150k miles otherwise they return the whole box of parts if one part in that box is faulty
the lowest low ranked worker in the assembly line can stop production if he finds something wrong
they make their motors specifically for longevity
toyota is great and the Lexus line is even more anal about quality.
of course this is true for Japanese assembled made Toyota cars for sure-
toyota is nothing fancy but reliability is their brand image
Synthya Wylder
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I think an exception to this “sticks to their proven technology” would be the Prius. I bought a new Prius in 2004 & currently have >177K miles on it. Toyota also does quite a bit of extensive research & engineering in their products; the Prius is an excellent example. Although the Prius has been available for purchase since the late 90s, it’s still one of the preeminent hybrids in the auto industry. My own has proven extremely reliable & needed only regular maintenance parts & service – & this HAS NOT included brakes, exhaust, shocks etc. Those are STILL original, & still going strong! It burns ~a quart of oil in ~20K miles. I’ve replaced the on-engine coolant circulation pump ~150K miles. Yes, it’s still using the original traction battery pack & I still get ~50-55 MPG on a cruise without trying. If I ever felt the need, I can even connect an inverter to the traction battery & provide a limited amount of electric power to my home in an emergency. So for me at least, when that time comes for a replacement car, I’ll be buying another Toyota Prius!