Place your vote

[Schargedtaco]

I want everyone to cast there vote! I'm a die hard toyota fan having owned several 4runners, a carolla and 3 tacomas. I personally think although toyotas are great cars they just dont build them like they did in the late 90s to early 2000s. The older tacomas 96-2003 where bulletproof same as 3rd gen 4runner. They dudnt really have nussence failures and few major problems. Then came along the 2004+ tacomas. I have not owned one but know several people who claim they've had one prob after the other. Not only that toyota has just gotten cheap in materials throughout vs a limited 2000. Obviously have to cut somewhere in this economy.

On a 2nd note ive never been a fan of jeep qualit and my 1996 grand cherokee v8 along with about 20 other family or friends have had the common tranny replacement under 100k among other things going out. Supposedly the American manufacturers like dodge and jeep gave supposedly really stepped up there quality the last few years, supposably on par with toyota.

As committed as I am to toyota or at least older model toyotas I'm really digging the new grand cherokee specifically the summit air ride model. Is it me or does that thing look bad ass! Especially the front end! I've always felt the 3rd gen runner was one if the best looking suv,s despite its age but I think this new jeep has it beat. I obviously don't have the 50k to cough up but If I where buying I think I would seriously consider it despite the poor track record. I just think it looks that much better than the 5th gen runner. I'm obviously not the only one as I love seen an obsurd amount of new ones driving around prob 10 or more to every runner.

I'm sure the majority of you will not part ways with your yota but do you think Jeeps playing hardball with this new design and quality revision. If not what the heck is jeep doing to sell do many if toyotas are obviously known to be more reliable? I dont believe its price like it used to be as these jeeps are not cheap now and most im seeing are the limited or summit models at 50k! What's your take?

On a 2nd note could toyota have really lost a good majority of there cust base? I would bet toyota isnt selling anywhere near as many 5th gens since they rolled out the new style as 3rd gens in the same timeframe. Is it the ridiculous price that's driving people away or the fact it just seems kinda blah and not really eye candy unless you go with the limited that is! ?
Or am I just way out of line here and are either blind and just never seeing them and sales are great!

 

[Schargedtaco]

Jeep

Grand

 

[BucknutBob]

This is the same old fight, just in new wrappings. The people in this country desperately want to believe in their domestic "name brands" (they're not really domestic vehicles, since hardly any of them are actually built here), and they're looking for any excuse to turn away from the Japanese brands that have trounced them in the last couple decades. It took many years for the Japanese makers to win over such a large following, because Americans just didn't want to admit that their own brands had been arrogantly feeding them junk all their lives, knowing they'd buy it for the name alone. Quite frankly, those like Toyota are probably having issues because they've been getting too many castoffs from the domestic makers who are bringing with them the cheaper-is-better mentality, getting away from the we-must-be-best mentality that has served the Japanese so well over the years. I doubt the domestics are better now, but any change upward for them compared to perceived downward moves by Toyota is going to make people jump ship just so they can say they're back in a domestic again. People WANT to believe in their own brands, so any change for the better is seen as a "new dawn".

 

[dorton]

Toyota still produces great vehicles. Jeep vehicles may be better than previously, but to say they are"on par" with toyota is wrong. When you are at the bottom, there is no where to go but up. The vast majority of repetitive repairs on Toyota's are, unfortunately from my experiences American made goods.
Pick any Toyota store, call and ask them how many Transmission guys they have, then do the same for Jeep. What you will find is Toyota doesn't have enough failures to train techs on their repair. Jeep on the other hand will have dedicated techs that all they do from open to close is rebuild trannys.
The electronics are junk as well. A couple years ago the editor for 4wd Sport Utility magazine wrote an article stating until Jeep could step up the game in the reliability dept he would no longer take his then almost new Rubicon into the backcountry, as it had left him stranded multiple times(that is biting the hand that feeds). On a personal note 3 weeks ago, my 4runner had clicked 315k on the way to go wheeling. While there, a 2 week old Rubicon in our group suffered a tcase shifter linkage failure, so I had to drag him over all the obstacles.
Domestic owners in general seem to give their vehicles a pass when it comes to how they've held up. When they say "haven't had any problems", they usually have purged from memory things they've had to repair, until I start suggesting known issues with whatever model they own. One such was a guy who had "no problems" on his ZR2, until I mentioned door hinges, heater core, water pump, fuel pump, radiator, and heater core. His answer “oh, well those things just wear out, I didn't count them".

Domestics are just held to a lower standard, to a place, where they can deliver

 

[Jgonz]

FWIW, my friend and his wife just bought a jeep and within 4 days of the purchase, it already had to be brought back for service. Apparently the shifter knob fell off?? I personally have never been a fan of jeep/Chrysler and have always believed that they are not built as well. My wife had a dodge journey and that POS was in the shop every month for transmission/radiator/electronic/etc issues.. I guess the peace of mind being in a toyota is good enough for me.. Thats just my .02 cents though.