I’ve bought Toyotas for decades. They are extremely reliable. I don’t think I’ve had one in the last 30 years (Camrys and Tacomas) that was not assembled in the U.S.
Even Toyota has clunker years. I bought a new Corolla during a “bad engine year”. With the constant topping off of the oil, it was like driving my old Vega!
I bought an ‘04 Tacoma, the year of the rusted frames. Mine was fine but huge numbers of those frames rusted in half.
I remember the old Vega Promotion: Buy a Chevy Vega and we will throw in a free bucket of rust.
2004 Tundra here, with 210,000.
I have replaced an alternator, and some front sway bars and the tailgate metal rope (North Dakota salt rusted the last two through).
That’s it. Prolly $500 in repairs over 20 years.
I maintain everything at a high level.
I had a Toyota CoroNa in the ‘70s in Alaska, and ran that sucker into the ground. During Jimmy Carter’s gas shortage random people would stop me and want to buy it. It looked terrible, but was a good car with good mileage.
“I bought a new Corolla during a “bad engine year”. With the constant topping off of the oil”
Us, too, only it was a Sienna minivan that we bought brand new from a reputable dealer. HORRIBLE experience. You could have used that car to lay down a battlefield blue smoke screen thick enough to cover a battalion.
Engine was FILLED with sludge. We sold it at a deep discount and a few months later the buyer had transmission failure. They called us and asked why the VIN on the transmission didn’t match the VIN on engine and car body. We never had any transmission work done and only took it to the dealer for service. That remained a mystery. Fortunately we didn’t get sued and the issue faded away, but, to this day, I cannot image how that happened.