Are Honda/Toyota/Mazda/Subaru overrated?

[BugleMeTimber]

Subaru is the largest corporate donor to ASPCA. Sorry Subaru, driveway is full.

 

[zrodwyo]

My 2001 Tacoma has 250k miles and runs and drives perfectly. Never an issue. I’m going to be shocked if it doesn’t go to 400k miles.

I bought an eco boost f-150 and I started having trouble with the transmission while towing immediately. My dealer refused to do anything because the check engine light wasn’t on. A drunk driver destroyed the f-150 so I never got a resolution to the transmission issues.

 

[nobody]

Bottom line, my answer is an unequivocal yes for Honda and Toyota. Dad’s job as a salesman has him putting between 30 and 40k on vehicles per year. Before his company started providing a fleet vehicle (a 2023 F150 that lost the turbos on the way home from the dealership immediately after purchase), dad drove Accords of many flavors. The first one had almost 450k on it when he got rid of it. Every other one has had +/- 200k when he got rid of it. Nothing but tires, brakes, oil changes every 3 weeks, and a timing belt every 90k.

They’ve also had a few Pilots, first one they traded in at 170k, the next one they kept until 80k and then traded it in on a Tahoe (which spent a couple weeks in the shop with an electronic braking issue immediately after purchase). The first pilot needed a valve adjustment job at about 130, which cost them $700 bucks. Other than that, it was nothing but maintenance on either one.

My wife and I drove twin 06 corollas in college, both with over 150k when we bought them. We ended up trading hers in on her current CRV, but we still regret ever trading mine away. It was cheap to drive, comfortable, paid off, and cheap to maintain. Neither one ever needed anything major, which was great for some broke college kids.Before that she had a 98 Corolla that lost compression at 120k. But after some reading apparently that generation of corollas had some known issues, so we chalk that up to more our own negligence in research.

Brother and his wife owned twin civics through college and never had problems. They were 2009’s ish I think? Just oil changes, brakes, and maintenance.

We are currently shopping for a new car for my wife to replace her CRV, and you can guarantee it’ll be a Honda or Toyota. It’s not just hype, they live up to the reputation.

 

[7mm-08]

We've been strictly Toyota drivers since 2005. And for a reason - gas, oil, go! Never a major repair and never a breakdown in those 18 years. We take care of our vehicles as well, which helps with these issues. I'd buy a Honda in a heartbeat, a Subaru (if I had to) and then a Mazda. This is based on our foreign car mechanic's advice. He especially likes the Toyota vehicles that continue to be made in Japan and shipped to the U.S. (4Runner, etc.).

 

[SWOHTR]

I’ve had two VWs, no issues. Purely anecdotal.

Two GM 1500 platforms, both have had issues. Nothing so egregious it wasn’t covered under warranty (including the 2012’s 5.3 that was replaced under warranty).

I am a GM fan overall but would be unlikely to buy a car from them.

 

[5MilesBack]

In our lifetimes, my wife and I have had 7 Toyota's, 4 Nissan's, 2 Honda's, 2 Ford 7.3L diesel's, and one Subaru. Of all of those the worst was the Honda Odyssey minivan, and it wasn't horrible......just some transmission issues, some broken motor mounts, and paint started peeling off after about 14 years. My sister had an Acura and she said the same thing happened to it after several years in regards to the paint peeling. So I don't trust Honda's paint jobs. But those issues have been the worst issues we've had with vehicles........period. Everything else is just maintenance, which I do myself for the most part. Also, nine of those vehicles had/have manual transmissions. And we still have 7 of these vehicles including the two our daughters drive.

 

[dapstuck49]

We've been strictly Toyota drivers since 2005. And for a reason - gas, oil, go! Never a major repair and never a breakdown in those 18 years. We take care of our vehicles as well, which helps with these issues. I'd buy a Honda in a heartbeat, a Subaru (if I had to) and then a Mazda. This is based on our foreign car mechanic's advice. He especially likes the Toyota vehicles that continue to be made in Japan and shipped to the U.S. (4Runner, etc.).

The Mazda cx5 is made in Japan too.

 

[Stache Attack]

Wife will stick with 4Runner’s, I’ll stick with a pickup. Have a great 2005 5.9 Cummins which treats me decent. 2500 GM and fords do well. Wouldn’t buy an f150 have had way too many issues since 2015-2023. Work can supply them but I think we are going 2500 gas possibly diesel this fall.

 

[fngTony]

I’m just gonna go one record and say I hate Honda. Yes they make some quality stuff but their line up sucks, redesign everything every two years (this is a pain on the repair side) and working on them can cause fits of rage. They have more egotistical owners than bmw. All that said I would consider buying a Passport.

Subaru, juice not worth the squeeze with their awd system for most people. The loss of fuel economy and faster wearing tires isn’t worth it. It is a great awd system but they should allow it to be selective or at realize that it doesn’t need awd on pavement in July (Ford does this well).

 

[dapstuck49]

I’m just gonna go one record and say I hate Honda. Yes they make some quality stuff but their line up sucks, redesign everything every two years (this is a pain on the repair side) and working on them can cause fits of rage. They have more egotistical owners than bmw. All that said I would consider buying a Passport.

Subaru, juice not worth the squeeze with their awd system for most people. The loss of fuel economy and faster wearing tires isn’t worth it. It is a great awd system but they should allow it to be selective or at realize that it doesn’t need awd on pavement in July (Ford does this well).

How are Honda owners more egotistical than BMW owners?

 

[fngTony]

How are Honda owners more egotistical than BMW owners?

Not more so individually but as a whole Honda has a higher percentage of owners with egos. It’s usually an engineering superiority complex either in the performance category (civic tuning) or just the general build quality (their body and electronics are not on the same level as their drive trains) and a touch of tree hugging.

 

[Old Dog]

I've been driving 4 runners since 1996, all gen 3 and had great luck with all of them. I'm going to need an upgrade soon, mainly because I want one and it will be a Toyota, probably a 4 runner.

 

[fngTony]

I've been driving 4 runners since 1996, all gen 3 and had great luck with all of them. I'm going to need an upgrade soon, mainly because I want one and it will be a Toyota, probably a 4 runner.

New Land Cruiser looks interesting

 

[Yoder]

Not more so individually but as a whole Honda has a higher percentage of owners with egos. It’s usually an engineering superiority complex either in the performance category (civic tuning) or just the general build quality (their body and electronics are not on the same level as their drive trains) and a touch of tree hugging.

I love the reliability of Honda that's about it. The interior sucks on the lower tier cars. The seats are complete garbage.

 

[MattB]

In my experience, the 5 Toyotas and one Acura (Honda) were all at different level of quality than the American made vehicles we have owned. My wife’s Chevy Volt has been back to the dealership more times in 75K miles than my past 3 4Runners which collectively had 300K+ miles.

 

[Fever Buck]

I switched over from a 2017 Chevy Colorado to a Toyota Tacoma after experiencing 3 major failures before 50k miles on the Chevy. Pretty much all highway miles too. The last straw was when I was in the mountains in Colorado and it was -7°f and my Chevy wouldn’t start. Luckily my family had driven to the same spot as me and all of their Toyotas started up and drove me to a shop where I could get my truck fixed. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened had it been hunting season and I was down an isolated NF road with no signal.

My Tacoma has been perfect for 4 years of pretty hard use. You can’t beat reliability and I’ll never own anything but Toyota as long as they keep building bomb proof vehicles. Just wish they made a 3/4ton.

 

[Sapcut]

No question Toyota is the better than any American company. The only manufacturer better than Toyota is Toyotas made in Japan.

My family has daily driven Land Cruisers and LXs since 1996. All four kids got hand me downs with 200-300k miles. They rode in car seats in them before that. They didn't really "get it" until their college friends ooohh and aahhhed at their 80 series beasts.

We've owned and daily driven 13 and still have five. All over 260k miles, four over 300k, two over 400k and one at 503k miles. All original trannys, no major work at all.

Yes, Japanese made Toyotas are better than unionized American disposable vehicles.

 

[2531usmc]

Kinda sad that no one responded with positive comments about American made cars. Oh well, it’s been that way for a couple of decades now…..

 

[feanor]

Overrated. Give me a Chevy Volt any day.

 

[Maki35]

I have Toyota's and Honda's. From my experience they are more reliable & trouble free.
MIL had a corolla with over 200k. It starts right up every day.

I've had Chevy's, Pontiac, Buick, and Olds. they all had issues. My last Amer. vehicle was a Tahoe.

A friend brought a jeep wrangler new. It's been in the shop numerous times for various things. It has less than 70K on it. He's now shopping for a Tacoma.

Another friend and a relative both brought Ford explorers new. Both said the engine needed to be replaced around 50K. Both said they would never buy Ford again.