Toyota's Reliability Secrets REVEALED

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Give us the diesel Toyota hilux and I will be happy.

👍︎︎ 22 👤︎︎ u/THELOSTABBEY 📅︎︎ Dec 18 2020 🗫︎ replies

I feel like modern Toyotas are not as good. When we sold my boyfriend’s small Toyota pickup it was over 400,000 miles. It still ran and we see it around town every now and then. My mom drove her 90s Toyota Camry across the country almost every year she had it in heat and over mountains. The motor went out at over 200,000 but could have been repaired if my parents had not decided to get a new car. She cried when they sold that car.

The mid 2000s Carolla she has is not terrible but it has had issue and I don’t see it going strong at over 200,000 miles. It’s also been driven much more gently that the other 2 were.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/Forsaken-Piece3434 📅︎︎ Dec 20 2020 🗫︎ replies

The old tundra was a lengthened Tacoma frame with Hilux running gear.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Dec 20 2020 🗫︎ replies

Three Toyotas are excellent cars that last forever. Every other car they make is junk. I've worked on them. I've seen the insides.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/[deleted] 📅︎︎ Dec 19 2020 🗫︎ replies
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(groovy music) - For more than 50 years, Toyota has been the go-to choice for fuel economy, simplicity and reliability. When compacts from Detroit were having problems like breaking down at random times, overheating or catching on fire, the Toyotas just work. And it's not because they had found some secret technology or because they were using different materials. So why? Why are Toyotas so reliable? Today, we're going to look at three different ways that Toyota prevails over the competition, how their philosophy is different from American and European manufacturers, how their mindset produces some of the most reliable cars on the planet, and how you can apply it to your own life. That's right, you can be as dependable as a Camry. Big old thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Let me tell you, I do not miss the days of sitting in classrooms like this one, listening to the Peanuts-esque drone of a topic I'm not interested, and seeing my GPA tumble as a result. I got a 2.0 in high school. What can I say? I'm a hands-on learner. Skillshare is an online learning community where millions have come together to expand their creativity. They offer literally thousands of inspiring classes that will fit into anyone's schedule. Say I want to learn more about filmmaking. We got all kinds of classes for that, like Cinematography Basics by Zak Mulligan. Maybe I want to expand my guitar skills so I can end up here. (chuckles) Whoa, that'd be pretty cool. Maybe I'm trying to find a new creative outlet. Hey, don't judge. Knitting is calming. Or so I hear, I have no idea what I'm doing. No matter what creative path you're on, Skillshare has a class to help expand your creative journey and use these skills in real life. And guess what? You can take as many classes as you want and it's only 10 bucks a month. So what are you waiting for? Expand your creativity today. And the first 1000 people to use the link in the description will get a free trial of Skillshare's premium membership. Now let's get back to it. I'm going to figure this out. I just want to start off by saying that this is not an advertisement for Toyota. They're not paying us anything to make this video. We're just fans of them, and what they do. Toyota is successful for so many reasons, but their philosophy on design and production are what set them apart. One of the main principles of the Toyota production system or TPS, is jidoka, which based on the limited Japanese I've learned from watching Initial D, translates to automation with a human touch. The way jidoka works is that every design, every process, and every component starts off hand-built. Think about that. Toyota engineers build each part to exacting standards until it's perfect. Then automated assembly slowly gets incorporated, until the engineer can be entirely phased out for that part. Then, and only then, does it become part of the full production line. Now for other manufacturers, the process is a bit different. Most manufacturing processes are designed to be automated from the very beginning. This means the parts can be designed by a computer and then assembled on the production line. Toyota's process is a slow one for sure, but it ensured that the parts work, and that they fit together, and that the engineers fully understand each component. Toyota only does this for new parts and assembly processes, which is why they use so many of the same components across multiple models. That's also why Toyota doesn't offer many optional extras. Parts bins aren't anything new, it's just that Toyota makes super high quality, simple parts for their bin. The more customization and stuff they have to add, the more parts they have to build. And maybe they've got to find a new way to make that part fit, which means a new process, for getting the two pieces to match up. Jidoka can snowball really quickly. Because of this, Toyota reuses a lot of the same parts, especially the parts that work well. Toyota's 2GRFE was a simple V6 engine that's made its way into the Avalon, the Camry, the RAV4, the Sienna, and the Venza, and the Lexus RX 350, and the Lotus Exige S, and the Corolla Super GT. A race car. Other companies reuse parts as well, but it's mainly a way to keep costs down. In a weird way, every Toyota is a parts bin car, 'cause Toyota spent so much time and energy building the parts. Do you want to see what happens when Toyota builds a car from the ground up? Take a look at the LFA. If you want to know more about the Lexus LFA, check out the Bumper To Bumper episode on it. (engine revving) It may not be the most sexy solution out there, but it's how Toyota has built up a reputation of reliability, not just in a few models, but across the entire dang brand! The Toyota production system and the fundamentals of jidoka have been adopted by other companies as well. Next time you go down to Chipotle, take a look at their assembly process. That's how Toyotas are made. (funky music) Kind of. But Toyota's not going to make you go into debt because of their guacamole. Seriously, 2.30 for guac? Come on. Principle number two is called kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that promotes change for the better. The idea is that it's always worth it to change something to make it better, even if that slows down the process. Now I know that sounds like it flies directly in the face of what we just talked about, but here's how it works. Any employee, at any level of the manufacturing process can stop production, if they see an improvement that can be made or a problem that is occurring in the assembly. The assembly stops, the team evaluates the issue, makes the necessary changes, and then restarts production. At Toyota, no one is going to get punished for stopping production. In fact, they promote what is called just in time production, which basically means if you finish ahead of schedule, that's time you could have used to make the car better. Finishing early is a bad business practice for Toyota. But apparently not for my ex. Western manufacturers, however, are always driven by deadlines and units produced. That's how they evaluate how well a project is going. Companies like Ford want to know if you can have it done on time. (buzzer) Companies like Toyota want to know if you can have it done well. (sparkle) In the mid-2000s, the Ford pickup truck assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan would stop an average of twice a week. At the Toyota plant in Kentucky, employees would stop the production line 2,000 times a week. At Donut, we also use a little bit of kaizen, which is why no matter how early we finish one of these videos, we're still tweaking it the night before it comes out. But kaizen isn't just a way to slow down the process for the sake of it. After years and years of practicing kaizen, Toyota has found that many problems with assembly are caught long before the car goes to market. When employees have the freedom to raise concerns, they do. The team can work out the best solution together, and as employees get more comfortable with that, they solve problems earlier and earlier in the process, therefore saving money on retrofits and recalls. For most other manufacturers, if a problem with spotted on the assembly line, they'll tack on a fix after the car is done, but the underlying problem is still there. Have you ever heard your dad say, "Measure twice, cut once"? That's kaizen in a nutshell. Except they're measuring, like seven times. It's a little neurotic. But, worse. Kaizen has proven to be such an effective mentality that companies like GM and Ford are now trying to integrate it into their own production lines. Toyota have also gotten companies like Subaru and BMW to implement kaizen into their production lines. And that's a big part of why we see those collaborations in the Supra and the 86. But there's another reason that Toyota is having other companies build their sports cars. And it's something that might change very soon. While all this management philosophy stuff is interesting, it does result in one major drawback. Toyota has never been known for chasing performance numbers. While their most popular sports cars like the Hachi-Roku, the Celica and the MR2 are very fun to drive, nobody would argue they're fast. Even the great Mark 4 Supra, which is famous for being able to hold tons of horsepower, did not have great performance stock. That's not to say that there aren't fast Toyotas. I mean, they have a whole racing department, TRD, and now GR, which is Gazoo Racing, that make very fast, very successful racecars and trucks. But most of the 8.8 million vehicles produced last year would not be considered fast. This is thanks to the idea of practicality over performance. Function comes first. Fast comes second. Toyotas are built for long-term cheap ownership and fuel economy. In fact, Toyota is so dedicated to this that many tuners will know that Toyota ECUs are some of the toughest ones to tune for. On top of that, Toyota is very slow to implement changes to their engineering. They make small changes over time, small steps to make their already existing engines even better. And that makes sense, because why mess with a good thing? Take the iconic 22R-E engine, for example. Toyota produced these inline four bangers from 1981 all the way to 1997, with barely any revisions. This engine is famously bulletproof and can be found in vehicles like the 4Runner, the Hilux Surf, and one of my favorites, the Celica GTS. This 2.4 liter four cylinder was actually sharing podiums with the six cylinder BMWs in the 80s. Can you think of, like, an American four cylinder engine from that era that can say the same? Like, there's the Iron Duke, and that wasn't famous, it was infamous. Ugh. It's not uncommon to see 22R-Es with 300, 400,000 miles on the clock. And that's thanks to a few things. One being that Toyota made them incredibly robust. They're over-engineered, chunky iron block boys, and they don't rev very high. The 22R-E has a rev line of 5,700 RPM, which is unusually low for a four cylinder engine. It's possible that the ceiling was higher, but the reduced rev line means exponentially less stress on the engine over the course of its life, increasing its lifespan. They just don't make that much power, that's all. But that falls in line with Toyota's philosophy of practicality over performance. And that's one of the reasons they have such diehard fans, is this incredible longevity. I mean, some families like Joey's, for example, only buy Toyotas. I mean, Joey has like four of them. He just bought another 4Runner. I don't know where he's keeping them. But it's entirely possible to get power and reliability because Toyota is just that smart. The fourth gen 4Runner's V8 option, the 2UZ-FE is a super durable iron block engine that can also be found in a Land Cruiser, Lexus GX 470, the Tundra and the Sequoia. They made such a good engine. They're just like, screw it, let's put it in all of our cars. The most power puts out from the factory is 324 foot pounds of torque, and 282 horsepower. That's enough to get you over rough terrain, but they're not exactly bragging numbers. But you want to know what is brag-worthy? Taking your business beyond cars. In January of this year, Toyota announced they'd be taking their principles of jidoka and kaizen to the next level, and build not just cars, but an entire city. Now I've, look, I've mentioned this thing before on past episodes, but now I have an excuse to actually get into it. They're calling it the Woven City, and it will sit at the base of the tranquil Mount Fuji, the coolest mountain to be named after an apple. There aren't a lot of details at this point, but the idea is to have an entire city powered by next generation tech, to see how those technologies hold up in the real world. The Woven City isn't some giant lab, where if it doesn't work, that people can go home. It's going to be an actual city where real people live. And they'll have to contend with any flaws in the infrastructure. It sounds daunting, but how else are you going to see if hydrogen fuel cells are an actually viable renewable resource? How are you going to fine-tune autonomous vehicles to make roads safer? How else can you make sure that AI-driven smart homes aren't a totally terrible idea that will only escalate the world's surveillance state and drive us down the inevitable path of dystopia? These are the questions that need answering. I truly wish the Woven City the best. It'll be interesting to see how the tenets of jidoka and kaizen hold up to city planning. Life is not a product, so I'm not sure how tools meant for production will affect the quality of living. But if the infrastructure is as reliable as their cars, then Toyota will probably pull it off. All right, so autonomous cars and hydrogen fuel cells aren't super sexy, but don't think for a second that Toyota is going to be content with being seen as humdrum. You had another think coming, pal. The new boss over at Toyota got onstage at the Detroit Auto Show and said, "No more boring cars." At first, we all just thought he meant the Camry would get side skirts and a spoiler, which it did. But then we started to see some other stuff, some cooler stuff. Toyota built a sporty hot hatch from the ground up. They call it the GR Yaris. This car is not practicality over performance. It's got the highest specific output of any Toyota ever. Specific output refers to horsepower per liter of engine displacement. So the GR Yaris with 1.6 liter engine and a specific output of 167.5 horsepower means that it makes 268 horsepower. The engine is powerful and brand new. The all-wheel drive system is also brand-new. And if the principles of jidoka and kaizen have been applied to this little hatchback, it'll last long enough for me to eventually import one, 'cause it's not coming to America. But I heard they might put the drive train in a Corolla, so there's some, there's some hope. So here's my theory, okay? Toyota has spent so much making their cars reliable, that it's become ingrained in their engineering and practices. And now, now that they've got that down, they're starting to chase performance. A decade ago, they made boring economy cars for people who just needed to get from A to B. Heck, they made the Prius. But in the last few years, they've won Le Mans twice, and won the WRC. And yes, you've got to be fast to win trophies. But you've got to be reliable too. If you don't already know, we have a podcast called Past Gas that's available everywhere you get your podcasts, as well as YouTube. We also have a membership program called the Donut Underground, you get behind-the-scenes videos, you get access to a really cool Discord channel. The community is super nice, and we pop in there every now and then. We're not putting any videos behind a paywall. Just, this is just for like the hardcore fans. Check it out, follow Donut on all social media if you haven't already. Follow me at Nolan J Sykes. Be kind, see you next time.
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Channel: Donut Media
Views: 2,028,816
Rating: 4.9370503 out of 5
Keywords: toyota, toyota tacoma, corolla, celica, jidoka, jidoka toyota, woven city
Id: 4E793WS72aU
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)
Published: Mon Dec 07 2020
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