Should you buy a Toyota? Are they still reliable?

today we answer a very important question does toyota still make reliable cars we all know the older cars they are very reliable and people love them but with all the complexity and the craziness of cars today are they really still reliable well today i will share with you my honest to god and humble opinion as a toyota master diagnostic technician with over a decade of experience exclusively working on toyota currently working at a toyota dealership 85 40 hours a week all i do is work on toyotas so to give you the short version of the answer our toyota is still reliable today as they were in their previous cars the short answer is yes and no let's dig into the video and you'll find out why so did their quality drop over the years well of course it did around the end of 2000 2000s into the 2010s things dropped a little bit we started with recalls cars had significant problems and people were not happy and kind of things didn't look good you remember the 2007-2009 camry and many other models started burning oil they had a massive thing and people were not happy and there was all these recalls and problems and everybody had a big question mark about toyota but the truth is toyota has one secret weapon in its arsenal kaizen if you're not familiar with that term that means continuous improvement they don't just make one thing good and leave it alone start making another thing they take the same thing they make it better till the end that's true folks that's not just a some some cliche saying it's truth they took that same engine that was bad that was burning oil and people were going crazy about it and they improved it they found a solution and not only that they went back and and did a campaign a goodwill campaign to fix those cars that had the issue because they improved it and then they went into other engines and other issues and they fixed it and that's the whole thing about the recalls there's two ways to look at recalls are they a bad thing that they're messing up or is it a good thing that they are taking responsibility for their mess-ups and make them right for you the owner another example of their quality having issues the 8-speed transmission when the 8-speed transmission first came out in 2017 in the highlander in the sienna there's no other way to put it it was a disaster cars were coming back with problems right away and toyota went on a frenzy and a frantic jump to address these issues get to the root cause and start improving and they did do that here's what they did they found the problem they fixed it but not only that didn't leave people with the problem cars hanging they issued an extended warranty to cover these people if they ever have an issue in the future so they can know that toyota's got their back that's another example of kaizen not a lot of companies do that another example in the olden days the frames there is no company crazy enough to replace a frame on a truck do you know how much a frame cost it cost fifteen thousand dollars plus with labor with everything but toyota didn't care they cared more about their reputation than spending fifteen thousand dollars on every truck that some of them were worth 500 bucks so are the new cars as reliable as the old ones well the answer for that is simple you must compare apples to apples and when you compare apples to apples the new toyotas even though that you think they are complicated and everything they're still behind and not as cutting edge as other manufacturers and that's by design that's not because toyota's falling behind they just don't rush things still just like they did in the past their cars lingered behind didn't have the latest technology and the greatest they just lingered behind but you know what they do best they manage to find ways to make this technology better in reliability not just work for three three thirty six thousand miles in three years as soon as the warranty runs out boom it's all broken toyotas don't do that that's why they're behind they take their time they do everything right and uh that's why they have their reputation and toyota still uses kaizen very well with their drive trains and with their new cars let me give you an example one of the legendary engines for reliability the mz series engine the 3.0 one mz the 3.3 3mz everybody was very sad when it went away and toyota had to move on from it but the truth of the matter is that engine had a very rough start people seemed to forget this this engine had an oil gelling problem and toyota did at the time also go out and take care of it do all that and then that engine that started life as a problem became the hallmark of reliability because toyota continued to improve on it didn't just ditch it and go get a new engine but then when they did they started the 2grfe engine which now is also another hallmark of reliability but you know what i still remember when the 2gr started and it was a disaster the first few years it had so many problems with variable valve timing it was not even funny these engines were very expensive to fix you got to drop them out of the car but still toyota didn't just give up on the engine they kept improving it until they got it to a point where super reliable and now with the new engines like this one the a25a and then the v35a don't say this to toyota but that's the new engine for the tundra look at the lexus ls500 for that but those engines are basically the same they are one of them is four cylinder one of them is a v6 but they share the same technology and they've been in development for a while now and again you're going to see those engines for a very long time and any little problems they have they're going to continuously improve them until they get to a point where the emissions won't allow them anymore to continue using this engine then they'll come up with something new and then where this cycle just keeps repeating you see how three generations of engines are basically did the same thing so are they still reliable well if you're uh comparing apples to apples not dinosaurs to horses toyota is still very well reliable however people seem to be in a race on who can maintain their car less people always complain about cost of maintenance and reliability and all this stuff but i'd like to take you on a small journey where we step back take a step back and look at the whole picture from far away let's look at the coveted most reliable toyota that people swear by the 1993 to 1996 toyota camry well if you have over 60 000 miles on that camera you would have done so much maintenance that it almost makes the new cars feel like maintenance free with over 60 000 miles the old camry you would have done a timing belt spark plugs replacement and the spark plug replacement also included wires rotor and cap and all this stuff and a fuel filter and multiple oil changes and they love to leak oil here and there and and just you've done so much to them but let's compare that to the 2018 to 2021 the current generation camry at over 60 000 miles the biggest maintenance was a transmission fluid replacement if you even want to do that you see my point here their maintenance is already less but people want it to be even more or less people back in the day they didn't have a problem over maintaining their cars today people have a problem doing the most basic maintenance and they call the cars unreliable well i'm sorry you're not taking care of your cars they're not going to be reliable and then somebody will jump in the comments and say well they took the technology of fluids and all this stuff have changed you don't know what you're talking about oil analysis says that this and that but you know what cars are still cars the only thing i've changed is the maintenance they just keep going longer and longer just to make you happy but then when you have problems we're back to square one you blame it on toyota so people used to love old toyotas because they were simple and reliable but guess what if you count in the inflation of life and complexity of life today they are still simple and reliable when you compare apples to apples look folks if you've been watching this video this long this is not an advertisement for toyota here are some things that they don't do too well back then and they still don't do too well today even with their best efforts their cars are not thrilling to drive and i think that should be by design they're made to be reliable cars and i wish toyota would stop listening to journalists complaining that a toyota doesn't handle the nurburgring like a ferrari does well guess what it's never gonna and that's how we want it to be we wanted to stay a simple reliable car with some creature comforts which they do have creature comforts now but the main thing is reliability you don't buy a toyota because you're gonna race it around a track unless you buy a uh this or maybe this but then again most people don't people buy toyota's sort of reliability and i wish that they would stop putting bucket seats and try to make these cars drive better and just make them less comfortable for average joe who just wants a reliable car and then the thing about that is they're trying to apply kaizen to it they get feedback from these journalists and they're trying to improve things but they just they're kind of straying away from what they need to be focused on which is your voice your voice is the most important voice the owners the owners need to get out there and say things to toyota what they want because journalists don't own cars they take them from the manufacturer they take them and spin around for a few weeks and then be very harsh on them and toyota has no choice but to okay well let's listen to what they say but if the owners speak up better toyota will actually listen toyota listens they will take what you say and apply kaizen to it and try to improve things to make the car better another thing that people always complain about is their option and trim distribution it's not great for lack of better work it's not good because some people want certain options and certain trims and now you have to special order one well why don't you make your options a little bit better not just these fixed trims that has random options at times so as an owner i encourage you talk to toyota directly not through the dealership you can try the dealership but good luck with that talk to them directly when you have a solid concern about design not reliability now all the other stuff but design when you see something that's not right tell them so they can make it better for you or potentially for you in the future toyota will have a number that you can call in the united states as a customer experience center call them give them your opinion they appreciate that they need that more than they need some journalists complaining about soft touch materials on the door and folks lastly before we wrap up this video i have been shouting my lungs for over a year on youtube and over a decade in the field take care of your toyota and it will take care of you maintenance it might have been less maintenance now but that doesn't mean you can skimp and not do it you gotta maintain your toyota because i work on these things and i still see people ignoring maintenance and not prioritizing it and then when things go south they complain to toyota and even then toyota will say all right we'll take care of you even though it's your fault you didn't take care of the car folks take care of your toyota and it'll take care of you if you don't take care of it you're on your own and you're not going to have a reliable experience with your ownership if you do not want to spend a lot of money on maintenance do the maintenance yourself myself and many other content creators on youtube we make videos diy videos for you i'm a professional i don't really need to do this i make my living working on cars at the dealership and by someone doing work themselves i'm actually cutting into my paycheck however the world is a better place when we all help each other so please do the maintenance yourself if you want to save a buck use high quality parts toyota original parts are the highest quality take care of your toyota yourself if you want to cut corners on cost but don't cut corners on the maintenance itself i hope this video was helpful informative i hope this helps you make a better judgment if toyota is still reliable or not or they're just writing an old reputation my personal opinion is they have changed a lot however they're still reliable they're still simple they're still good considering everything else especially when you're comparing apples to apples if you like this video consider giving it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing to the channel check out some of my other videos and until the next video folks may the lord bless you and keep you and you have a wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut

Views: 310,496

Rating: 4.9022527 out of 5

Keywords: Should you buy a Toyota, should you buy a lexus, toyota, toyota problems, toyota recall, toyota recall crisis, toyota camry, should you buy a tundra, should you buy a tacoma, should you buy a camry, should you buy a corolla, should you buy a rav4, should you buy a toyota hybrid, the car care nut, toyota mechanic, toyota technician, the truth about toyota, toyota maintenance, toyota repair, Toyota recalls, toyota camry trd 2021, toyota prius problems, toyota gr86

Id: BuGDUwG4AFU

Length: 14min 4sec (844 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 17 2021