If the 6th gen is built anywhere other than Japan, I'll buy another 5th gen. And to those who say location doesn't affect build quality, you're spewing nonsense.

I won’t buy any Toyota product that isn’t made in Japan.

I agree with this comment 100% !!!

BTW, I also have a 5th Gen Camaro SS. Its a 15' SS/RS 1LE. (if Toyota made the new Supra with a Toyota engine & a manual transmission, I would get rid of the Camaro to buy one)

Nice! Mine is an SS/RS manual and I had the gears changed to 3:91's. If the Supra was manual and had a Toyota engine I would be very tempted, but I really like 5th gens.

6th gen Speculation Thread | Page 5 | Toyota 4Runner Forum [4Runners.com]


Smells like the New 4Runner will be built in Mexico.

Quality Issues? We Have Support Available at Toyota Guanajutao!

Jobs Available if you want to work there lol.

Program: 610L(2) | January 2024 – December 2032 (4Runner)

I posted this on David Chow's (Automotive Press) YouTube channel when he said the 6th gen would be made in Japan... no reply. This seems pretty convincing to me.

I can't speak to Japan, but this has come up a lot with GM with the pickups because some are assembled here in the states and others in Mexico. What I can say is we seem to see better attention to detail and more consistency in the Mexico assembled vehicles than US. It's the little things like how tight the seat material is put on, how clean the wiring is done, how well the bed is aligned with the cab etc. Maybe that's newer equipment, more oversight, etc.

I've always wondered if part of that is also employee satisfaction. For example I looked into it. The median wage in America is about $55k, the average union auto worker makes about $50k (not including benefits, bonus, OT etc. just their median salary x 2080 hours a year). That means the average American putting a vehicle together isn't even making the average wage working 40 hours a week.

However in Mexico, while it seems ridiculously cheap to us, the median wage is only $1600 a year, however the average auto worker at GM is now making about $5000 a year. That's over 3x the median wage, so what i've wondered is if in Mexican assembly plants those workers are much happier and thankful for their jobs because their salaries are so much higher than the average. Meanwhile here in the states the average auto worker is getting paid below the median income and they are probably more likely to be less thankful for their jobs.

It probably doesn't compare to Japan because they have a very strong sense of pride in their work and clearly asian built vehicles/companies sit at the top of the reliability list. Even those that are US build but from Asian owned companies.

I have been retired for a while now, but I worked for Toyota at the Georgetown facility. I visited the assembly plant in Mexico and worked often with the people at that plant. The workers I met in Mexico were as dedicated to quality as any other workers in Georgetown. I would not hesitate to buy a vehicle made in that plant. Those workers are grateful to have a job there and they know there are people waiting in line to get a job. Aside from their pay, Toyota gives them extra benefits, like providing lunch and busing them to/from the plant. Toyota spends a lot of time on quality at every plant.

I have owned a 1991 Camry built in Georgetown, a 1989 Toyota pickup built in Japan, I still own a 1999 Sienna made in Georgetown, a 2004 4Runner built in Japan and a 2012 Corolla built in Mississippi. All of them have been great vehicles and much higher quality than the GM and Chrysler products I owned in the 60s and 70s.

Line workers have no say in the quality of the parts that go into making a vehicle. The Purchasing department does that. They set the defect rate that will be acceptable from the part manufacturer. More defects allowed means lower cost. Toyota puts a lot of pressure on part manufacturers for a low defect rate. Toyota has the best suppliers, coveted by other manufacturers.

Line workers are trained to assemble various parts on multiple vehicles. Their quality of work is checked by every downstream worker and if there are multiple defects coming from any area there will be retraining. Workers are trained to look for and report problems in their assembly process. Example: if a part can be installed in two different ways (one being incorrect), that information will be sent from the line worker back through the purchasing process to the manufacturer to design the part to be installed in only one way.

If you have a quality product from a company, it's because of the company's quality directives to its employees, from design to build to sale. It has nothing to do with the location of the build.

I mean, the newer Highlanders have been rather well built and the fit and finish had been impressively consistent from what I've noticed over the years; they're made in North America. The NUMMI plant was cranking out pretty good quality Tacomas and Matrix when it was operational and the Texas facility seemed to do decently with the Tacomas and Tundras for a while. Though I think the moving production to Mexico, COVID and Toyota seemingly rushing the 3rd Gen Tundra out the door no matter what has resulted in poor QC (seriously, the new Tundras make me cringe when I look at them closely with how poor the QC is and how many DPRs it feels like we're making on those issues.)

I'm a little hesitant about production being possibly based out of Mexico rather than Japan... but I'm more concerned that Toyota will repeat the same story with the 3rd Gen Sequioa, 4th gen Tacoma, and 6th gen 4Runner; in that they'll push hard to get them out the door that QC will be abysmal no matter where they're producing them.

Well said. I had a Suburban built in Mexico and it had a history of problems.

I guess for me it doesn't matter as long as it's built well.... but can toyota do it

The latest from this popular Toyota Youtuber... he seems to be conceding that the 4Runner will be built in Mexico, at least for the Americas.

7 REASONS WHY 2024 TOYOTA 4RUNNER IS DELAYED AGAIN - NOW THE 6TH GEN INTRODUCTION IS EARLY 2024? - YouTube

Perhaps, or is he is simply parroting what he is reading on these pages:

Not sure where he is going with that. The 4Runner is ONLY sold in the Americas. No right hand steering 4Runner exists for an Asian market.