Well, angry this morning. I was cleaning out my truck last night and the Carpet in the rear cargo area began to pull-up in several new areas. I had a problem with it pulling up near the front a few months ago. Now it's along the sides and back. It's almost looks like its not even secured, just kind of tucked-in under the plastic side panels.
So, now my 34,000 miles truck has hazy headlights (that the dealer is being complete a**holes about fixing), a carpet that's coming up in the trunk and beginning to look prematurely worn in the front footwells IMO, and my rear hatch weather-stripping pulled off a week ago.
Now, I know that carpet and weather stripping is not a huge deal. But this is not what I expect or have experienced in the past from Toyota, and I'm disappointed.....heart-broken even, as I'm a huge Toyota truck fan. So, I've decided to start thinking about ditching the 4runner before things get worse. I'm sure it would last a few more years, but in what condition?
I started to think about what else to buy and realized THERE ARE NO ALTERNATIVES! Everyone else has built trucks this way for years and Toyota has just lowered their standards and started playing down to their competition. Why should they put so much effort into building a product that can last for 10-20 years when everyone else is building disposable cars? Besides, most people buy a new car every 3-5 years anyway. But I don't want to do that. I want to keep mine for a very long time. Unfortunately, I can't think of another company that builds a high-quality off road capable SUV that's still reasonably comfortable for a family. The best I can think to do is look for a used Toyota......you know, from the good old days when you could drive your Toyota truck forever.
I'm not interested in starting a 4th vs 5th gen argument here, but my 8 year old 2004 V8 4WD Sport Edition has held up damn well, even with the minor issues I've come across.
That being said, the carpet really is just held down by the plastic trim. It's been like that as far back as my 1982 RX7. There are often a few plastic clips or screws that may hold it down, but the main carpeting is pre-molded and is mostly held in the vehicle by everything else that bolts into the car. So it is not uncommon for the carpeting to bunch or pop out under a healthy amount of use. Its not a quality issue, its just a common manufacturing process.
As for the reduction in quality of the 4Runner (and some Toyota Products in general) it has to do with competition and profit. While I don't agree with it, making your product only slightly better than your competition is a common practice these days. Have you ever tried to buy a late 90's or early 2000's Camry or Corolla? Even with over 100k they call for rather decent prices, why? Because they were well built cars for their segments and they are far more reliable and efficient than most vehicles their age. In this difficult economic time, its bad news for a car manufacturer.
Good advertisement that your vehicles hold up for a few decades and make people want to get them even close to 20 years later. Bad news when you're trying to sell the 30k+ new version of that vehicle and most people either can't afford it or would rather buy the 20 year old model because it runs as good as your current model (in their eyes).
So is it surprising that Toyota like most Manufacturers only makes their cars "Good" instead of "Great?" The majority of the World is run by corporations, not by consumers, many times people talk about how "crappy products will run companies out of business" and honestly? It doesn't happen often, Chrysler Excluded, (and god knows they did a good job at stretching how much crap product and service you can push on a consumer and get away with) the consumers often don't want to boycott or fight against the company to improve their quality because then they don't get the short term result of having their toys now. This is a far far more in depth topic that would be wasted on this thread, so we'll just leave it at consumers are irresponsible, spineless, and over all complacent towards large corporations and as a result, allow the companies to lower their quality of product and still inflate prices (on average.)
I think lots of the issue we see as reductions in quality are also tied to the fact that the MFGs must try and eek out every single extra MPG they can get to meet .gov standards.
So, they are trying to make everything lighter, thinner, etc. Hollow sounding doors, easily made better but takes adding weight (soundproofing). Thin sheet metal on the hood, skinny tires w/ 7" wheels (LTD). No auto gas cap - saves weight and cost of the mechanism.
Also, keeping in mind, the cost of T4Rs has not risen comparably over its like like lots of other cars either. In 2000 I think new LTD was $37k, now they are $43-45 - not much in comparison to many other autos. On this side, folks here that know and understand are stating that Toy does not seem to be scrimping on the quality of safety and the mechanical side, so they are pushing cost down on the interior finish side.
This is also part of the reason why vehicles such as the Yaris or Corolla are more expensive than they used to be, its also the reason why you will buy a car around 17k and end up paying the same repair costs you would on a 30k+ vehicle. Thanks to irresponsible and lazy people we've made the government force large quantities of safety equipment and standard features that raise the price of even the cheapest cars significantly.
TPMS, ABS, TRAC, Multi-Stage Adaptive SRS Systems, Multiple Emission Regulations, a stupidly restrictive obsession with CO2 compared to the other harmful greenhouse gases. Some of these are valid and welcome additions to our vehicles, while others are simply there because some idiot didn't want to accept responsibility for their mistake and forced it on someone else. This is again another topic that is far more than we need to get into this thread currently.
All these extra things cost money, and the public doesn't want to shell out the extra 5-10k it could add to even the cheapest vehicle in terms of R&D, production costs, and so on. So manufacturers cut other things to reduce the cost of the vehicle for us; such as content (auto release for gas cap, tap the key to start the 4Runner feature, ect ect) and quality of components and such.
Do you do a lot of hauling around of things in the back? Just curious if there is a reason for this? Wonder if they had an issue with whatever sprays the adhesive (if there is any used) to hold it down on yours. If for some reason it ran empty mid way through your assembly? Just a thought.
There is a TSB for this, they can be a**holes all they want but they still have to fix it.
I am really happy I purchased the extended warranty! I don't expect things to go wrong, but my 3 years will be up in November, that time has flown by with only just over 22k right now.
TSB's don't mean that the vehicle gets automatically fixed, often they are covered under factory warranty and should not have any issues. But there are times where a vehicle exhibits a similar complaint outside of the TSB's constraints (i.e. mileage, date of manufacture, VIN Range) and thus could lead to a TSB NOT being applied to a vehicle without further deliberation with the factory (depending on the expense of the part and warranty situation) and many TSB's may not be covered under warranty. TSBs are not Recalls, they are more like notices with useful information and updated parts list.
Just because the vehicle does have a TSB does not mean that part needs to be or will be replaced. Just wanted to make that clear.
Now, as for the dealership being skittish about the headlight issue? I think they're just being stupid, its covered under factory warranty and doesn't cost them a thing, so just pressure them to fix it, or file a complaint with Toyota HQ.
