I got all that from your first post, but you didn't explain how the two "Million" miles engines could still have the honing marks on the cylinder walls if the piston rings have more friction they would wear the cylinders walls faster and there wouldn't be the honing marks present after a million miles, how do you explain that fact?

IMHO more friction equates to less durability, so I would think that Toyota engines have less friction rather than more.

I don't have an explanation for that. I could be wrong.

The answer to 'how' is lengthy.

"Q-D-R" is quality, durability, reliability--they are goals and values that every division in the company adheres to like a religion.

They have corporate "ethics" that enable or drive the QDR focus:

The Toyota Way - Wikipedia

In manufacturing they have the most robust, efficient, and capable systems in the world and it isn't close. On top of this they continuously improve them in small increments.

The systems deploy many of the same processes and machines to manufacture components that are used by other oems.

The "secret" is in how the whole system is managed.

One small example: instead of having a defect lot at a plant, they allow themselves only 5-6 spots. If these spots are close to or exactly full they initiate major shutdowns.

At Toyota you are "in trouble" for not finding problems. Most corporations thrive on people hiding problems to make their division and boss look good. This gets you shown the door at Toyota.

The thinking in management is dramatically different from all other corporations.

On the design side, Toyota only deploys technology that can be shown to be manufactured in their system.

They will stubbornly stick to older technology because it works and can be manufactured with quality and cost effectiveness.

Toyota will make improvements incrementally and new designs are thoroughly evaluated. This is why Toyotas will lag in new features compared to the competition.

This is why Toyota is extremely slow to adopt the EV approach, among many other, dozens, of examples.

The traction control system is a good example. Other manufacturers were busy packaging LSDs, lockers, Torsens, IWEs etc. Toyota wanted to use the open diff concept for longevity. But they created a hydraulic system that uses existing brake system to manage traction problems using the open diff concept.

It was way more cost effective and didn't degrade the differential QDR. (Yes they have lockers deployed fairly wide now but likely only after a long bout of testing and evaluation.)

Engineering perfection, high quality parts and high quality assembly

"Let's Go Places ".

Don't go with a Volkswagon. My 2016 Golf now burns almost 5 quartz of oil in between oil changes. The dealer says this is normal and within specs. I am doing an oil change in-between oil changes.

I’m going to go with the engineering and R&d is why Toyota’s are so reliable, with the exception of the Previa.


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What makes a Toyota Reliable?
All the maintenance you do...
Chevy's wish they can say the same.

I really think Toyota is headed where they all are, profit over quality. The 4Runner has great mechanical quality, but the interior quality is the worst I’ve ever owned. That stuff is always the first to go.

Ford actually fell off the mechanical quality right after interior really hit a high. Chevy I can’t figure out. I had a Trail Boss that could have been the best truck you can buy for the money, plagued with stupid stuff like a clunking slip yoke, poor programming on cold idle, and other simple and stupid stuff.

I have a friend who is a life long Toyota fan, who currently drives BMWs and Porsches, and he think Toyota can do no wrong. He has an old Landcruiser. Based on Toyotas my parents used to own, I see Toyota going down. But really they all are. It’s all about “new and shiny” now. Manufacturers figured out drawing in new buyers with new and shiny far outweighs quality and loyalty. You see it across the industry. Even Toyota dealer materials are constantly pushing dealers to accept fewer and fewer claims on Toyota’s dollar. That’s because your loyalty does not matter anymore, so don’t be surprised when you get the shaft.

I know all our aluminum block engines have nitride coated cylinder sleeves (I've been surprised a couple times tearing down 200k+ Camry engines for the oil consumption CSP that still have crisp, clean crosshatching), though I honestly have no idea if they ever applied that technique to the UZ family of engines. IF they did, I'd guess that with regular service like the million mile engine saw you could probably still see factory cross hatching.

My older fellow mechanics told me they felt that Toyota was getting too big back when I started in the industry many years ago. Having been doing this for a while now, I have to agree. They're pumping out a ridiculous amount of models now trying to squeeze them in just about every category and in between categories that really don't need to be there. They're starting to play a little fast and loose with new technology where they used to be a bit more cautious and would iterate things over long spans of time. One of the biggest, most critical, and detrimental changes has been how the Toyota empire functions from a communication stand point... It doesn't. Over the last decade or so I have noticed that the inter-departmental squabbling, secrecy, and outright lack of communication has just become worse and worse. It's gotten to a point now that the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing, nobody tells anyone anything until something happens basically. It causes so much frustration at the tech level but also causes a ton of issues all along the way too and it just seems to be getting worse and worse. It feels like Toyota doesn't seem to want it's own technicians to know how to fix their vehicles some days.

I also would lay a lot of the blame squarely on environmental and fuel economy standards, for better or for worse; because Toyota has to meet these standards and design for them it drives a lot of complexity and underpins a lot of the weird decisions they make. For example pumping out so many different models with similar gas mileage flattens their overall MPG rating so they can justify vehicles like the 4Runner, Tundra, Sequoia, Tacoma, and Land Cruiser. They don't want to adopt EV tech until they absolutely have to because Mr. Toyoda was burned by Elon Musk when Tesla and Toyota partnered up years ago and it left a bad taste in his mouth. I honestly wonder at what point is Toyota going to be less reliable and poorer quality than Chrysler...

In college we studied Toyota in my production lecture. One for things that makes them unique is the integration of worker input through the whole process. Let me explain, In a traditional production environment, processes are modified on a as needed basis to fit within stringent budgetary parameters. Thus creating an environment where efficient doesn’t always go hand in hand with quality. One thing Toyota does is that they encourage anyone from a line worker to and engineer to fill out a special form if they have input on how to do something better. Be that the position of a machine, a process, part placement, etc. granted that not all these suggestions get implemented but it creates an environment where you are encouraged rather than punished for your input. This allows them to spend less resources on production chain logistics and more time in R&D.

I’m sure there’s more factors I’m not listing here. Another one could be many parts get reused across platforms so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time a new car comes out. Instead they use already engineered and time tested hardware. But look at the new tundra with its waste gate issues, their not perfect, no company is.


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Following up on that is Toyotas price point. They know that people are willing to pay for a quality truck and don’t we f@$?#n know the used market is wild right now. Why?? Because the trucks are engineered more throughly and have more time put into failure analysis thus justifying a higher price. My point being there’s a reason you see a lot of minicoopers at a junk yard and only 1 or 2 4Runners. The sad fact is that most of the 4th gens that didn’t rust out are still on the road.


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Keeping a Toyota 4Runner maintained exactly as designed will allow for hundreds of thousands of miles. Additionally, responsible driving habits should allow for long-life. I've seen some people drive their Toyotas, as well as non-Toyotas, and totally rag them out.

Like Honda, they keeps things simple. Parts are decent quality and more importantly, they do not constantly switch suppliers to save a few pennies per part. American manufacturers do that, and maybe outsource way more to the cheapest supplier.

On the downside, their vehicles are much more basic at times. That also turns people off them.

If you’re reading this thread, the This American Life episode on New United Motors Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) may be of interest. Here’s the description: “In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI as a joint venture. Toyota showed GM the secrets of its production system: How it made cars of much higher quality and much lower cost than GM achieved. Frank Langfitt explains why GM didn't learn the lessons—until it was too late.”

I found the story itself fascinating plus I had always wondered about the huge NUMMI plant along the 880 in Fremont. I passed it every day between ’89 and ‘91 on my way to work at San Jose International Airport (I lived in Newark, CA) and knew it was some kind of car plant but not much else. Remember, no Google back then.