I hear ya, but I will say this, pretty much every Toyota I've ever owned never required any major work. The exception to this is a '92 3.0L Forerunner that blew a head gasket, but it was deemed a manufacture defect and covered under warrantee. I've done all the work on my '92 Landcruiser, but even then it's just been general maintenance work, suspension lift, bumpers, etc., nothing major has been needed.
I did most of the work on my 1st gen tundra. Basic maintenance to front end rebuild, suspension, thermostats, etc. I paid someone to redo the timing belt. Just didn’t have many problems with it that required a lot work.
Fabulous vehicle, but in Idaho you'd have to take a second mortgage out on your house to buy one.This.
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I've never had a major failure on the 5 I've owned. Biggest repair was a couple of timing belts on a 4.7 (due to age and mileage and it being an interference engine) and it wasn't bad at all. Brakes/shocks/struts and fluid swaps are simple and appear well engineered with service in mind.
Everything on our 3 Toyotas. 410k combined and nothing I couldn’t do with basic hand tools. I don’t think I’ve ever owned or worked on a modern gasoline powered car that didn’t have an in tank fuel pump.
We had a 2009 AWD Explorer. It had 120,000 miles on it when I got rid of it. Other than routine maintenance, the only thing I had to do is have the alternator rebuilt after it sat for a year during COVID. The only reason I got rid of it is because we live in the snow belt and they put a lot of salt on the roads here. It finally rusted out and wouldn't pass inspection anymore. I was really hoping to pass that one down to the kids when they started driving.
My '03 Dodge Cummins came stock with the lift pump located on the back of the fuel filter, but after it went belly up at around 60k miles, the dealership relocated it to inside the tank.
This is pretty much the pinnacle of outdoor vehicles!This.
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I had a 2004 RAV4 that I took immaculate care of but at 53,000 miles and six years of driving, the head gaskets started leaking because of the disimalar metals with the head bolts and aluminum heads. The bolts would work there way out causing the leak. I beleive it led to a class action lawsuit or something. I sold mine as soon as I found the issue and it caused me to loose faith in Toyota until I bought my 2007 4Runner last July. It has 252,300 miles on it and runs great. I did just change the spark lplugs and coil packs but that was easy. I like the roominess of the engine with the 4.0 Land it has plenty of power for my needs.
That was my goal to buy but the realized, reluctantly, for daily driving, the 4runner would be best. Maybe someday I'll get one. That's a beauty for sure and set up very nicely.This.
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It's funny you mention Volvos, because we bought a '05 XC90 for our daughter about a year or so ago (her first vehicle), and I was just thinking the other day that if I could be guaranteed safely exiting the car, I would drive that SOB off a cliff. I'll admit that it gets around very good in the snow and it's definitely a tank (the two big reasons why we bought it for our 16yo, but man is it a POS! It has less than 140k miles and the transmission is going out, won't stay in 4th gear on the hwy, it'll down shift into third and the only way to get it back into fourth is to stop, turn it off, and restart it. But as soon as you get it up to speed and into fourth, it down shifts again and you're back in third, doing 60mph and tach-ing about 3100rpm's. Now (just started last week), there's a short somewhere and the auto locks no longer work, inside lights flash on and off constantly when you're driving and make a turn using the turn signal, then when it's parked and off, the inside lights stay on and drain the battery. One problem after another with this damn thing. Oh, and I just replaced the radiator because it all of a sudden started leaking profusely, and what a major PITA that was.
Like I said above, the fuel pump was located on the topside of the fuel tank so you had to lower the entire gas tank to access/replace it, as opposed to some vehicles with side mounted fp's that don't require lowering/removing the gas tank at all. That was just one of many things on my 4runner that were a nightmare to access. Fuel injectors required taking the entire top half of the motor off to replace. Timing belts suck too, at least some newer Toyotas went with the chain like 2010+ Tundras.
