Why are American branded trucks and most American branded vehicles so unreliable?

[Dejhavu]

country of origin does not dictate quality.

If that is true then most items coming from China should be rock solid instead they are fragile and inferior of quality.

 

[WRO]

2006 Tacomas were definitely under-engineered. They started the leaf spring recall and were most definitely rust buckets.

Toyota also warrantied frame replacements for 15 years, something the big 3 hasn’t done to date.

My ford had 10k in common issues that were never covered under any recall.

The newer chevys lose transmissions at 90-120 and roll the cams at the same time with the middle finger being the response from GM.

 

[Thinkingman]

So, you post a link up to an article about a freaking shock that failed on a Tacoma? Toyota doesn't build shocks, in case you wanna back up and try again. Wtf does a Bilstein shock failure have to do with Toyota quality? Bilsteins are on a high percentage of vehicles being built. If you don't like Toyotas, that's one thing. Posting links to garbage articles like that is another thing entirely.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Who spec'd those shocks for Tacoma TRD?
Toyota engineers...The same people who spec'd the leaf springs that required replacement under recall and the same people who spec'd the c-channel frames that twist, twerk and rust requiring a recall.
Just curious why such an awesome vehicle would fail spectacularly on a simple washboard road and need support from a Ridgeline?
Pretty sure that's not a 'garbage article'.
The fact is Tacoma TRD is weak sauce.
I have 8 years of experience in one and couldn't wait to get those TOYOTA TRD parts off of it.

 

[Thinkingman]

So, you post a link up to an article about a freaking shock that failed on a Tacoma? Toyota doesn't build shocks, in case you wanna back up and try again. Wtf does a Bilstein shock failure have to do with Toyota quality? Bilsteins are on a high percentage of vehicles being built. If you don't like Toyotas, that's one thing. Posting links to garbage articles like that is another thing entirely.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Here's another 'garbage' video.
-trigger alert-
Toyota engineering

 

[5811]

It's crazy how defensive some poeople get about brands. It's not like they are paying for your loyalty, it's the opposite of that. I guess that's just human nature, we want to be loyal to our tribes, but some take things way too personally.

It's not like when someone says, "I had a ford break down on me once" that they are saying "anyone who buys a Ford is dumb and accepts substandard trash because that's who they are."

People like what they like and are free to choose accordingly. No product is perfect. But based on some of the responses, it's like arguing tikkarbage vs bergawesome.

 

[CorbLand]

It's crazy how defensive some poeople get about brands. It's not like they are paying for your loyalty, it's the opposite of that. I guess that's just human nature, we want to be loyal to our tribes, but some take things way too personally.

It's not like when someone says, "I had a ford break down on me once" that they are saying "anyone who buys a Ford is dumb and accepts substandard trash because that's who they are."

People like what they like and are free to choose accordingly. No product is perfect. But based on some of the responses, it's like arguing tikkarbage vs bergawesome.

The biggest problem with items like vehicles is that some people drive like a bat out of hell and others use them to drive to church on Sunday. There is very little standard of measure and ability to objectively gauge anything.

I blew through a set of Bilstien 4600s in a year and half (~7000 miles) but I also drove that pickup like a bat out of hell on backroads.

I love my first gen tundra. Toyota needs to build it again. Mine does have issues and there are things I don’t like about it but I didn’t help it by fixing everything as cheap as possible and doing oil changes every 15000 on it.

People have an issue with one item and think it’s indicative of all. In reality, mass produced items have an acceptable rate of failure and it’s just the way it is. The hard thing for manufacturers is sifting through the manufacture defect and user error.

 

[CorbLand]

If that is true then most items coming from China should be rock solid instead they are fragile and inferior of quality.

Price point is probably a better measure of quality than country of origin. Not a perfect measure but neither is country of origin. Give the Chinese quality components and they could produce good stuff. Just won’t come with that Chinese price tag.

The US has produced some shitty products too.

 

[WRO]

Here's another 'garbage' video.
-trigger alert-
Toyota engineering

Huh, with that revelation they must have fallen apart.

Longest Lasting Trucks On The Road

Want to see 200,000 miles? These pickups are more than likely to get you there.

www.motortrend.com

 

[widnert]

Most of the time, if you take care of a vehicle, it will last. As has been mentioned above, there are exceptions as with any product rolling off of an assembly line but really, like Corbland mentions, don't judge the entire brand by a few subjective experiences. And blasting an entire brand because you had a bad experience - I mean come on - really? With vehicles it really comes down to regular servicing. And fixing things before they become a problem. YMMV

 

[Bighunt531]

Personally I really like the looks of the new Trail Boss Chevy, but I'll never own a domestic truck, period.
In 1992, my (now late) wife and I piled into our newer GMC safari minivan for Christmas visits and I smelled that sickening smell of burnt coolant. Head gasket blew at 48,000 miles. We had two little kids, cancer bills, worst possible scenario with a vehicle. I swore I'd never own another and haven't. Never will.
Nowadays the big three makers are largely woke, spoiled creeps and don't get me started on corrupt unions. Arguably, there are good Americans working making American-made vehicles, but the truth is they are unreliable crap.

Thos things were notorious for head gaskets and sucked for mechanics

 

[Tjdeerslayer37]

That's a pretty shitty generalization. I understand that there can be problems with union politics and bad apples, but I've worked with UAW folks and a few other unions and the vast majority of them were good hardworking people.

As a UAW member myself, working for the big 3, when anyone says "union folks are lazy bums" i wholeheartedly agree. the vast majority of the people i work with are those bums. all the union does in either plant that i have worked is protect the lazy and find ways to get them out of trouble. zero accountability anywhere for any union members. if it werent for fear of repercussion from the cult, i mean union, I'd opt out of paying dues and supporting the nonsense.

 

[Boxerboxer]

As a UAW member myself, working for the big 3, when anyone says "union folks are lazy bums" i wholeheartedly agree. the vast majority of the people i work with are those bums. all the union does in either plant that i have worked is protect the lazy and find ways to get them out of trouble. zero accountability anywhere for any union members. if it werent for fear of repercussion from the cult, i mean union, I'd opt out of paying dues and supporting the nonsense.

That's fair man, and I think that just shows that it has to do with the leadership at each site rather than some inherent quality of union workers.

 

[Tjdeerslayer37]

That's fair man, and I think that just shows that it has to do with the leadership at each site rather than some inherent quality of union workers.

And that's a very union thing to say. Leadership cant do anything if the union sticks up for the bums as they do, its a vicious cycle for sure

 

[Boxerboxer]

And that's a very union thing to say. Leadership cant do anything if the union sticks up for the bums as they do, its a vicious cycle for sure

What? I'm saying it sounds like UNION leadership was a problem where you were. I wasn't in the union where I was, I just was around the union guys in the shop all the time and they were on top of their stuff, which leads me to believe their union leaders on the shop level were NOT sticking up for bums. Either that or they magically got lucky and hired only motivated guys, but that seems unlikely in a shop that big. I agree with you that unions can end up protecting guys that should be getting fired, I just think it's BS to try to paint every union worker as lazy.

 

[Tjdeerslayer37]

What? I'm saying it sounds like UNION leadership was a problem where you were. I wasn't in the union where I was, I just was around the union guys in the shop all the time and they were on top of their stuff, which leads me to believe their union leaders on the shop level were NOT sticking up for bums. Either that or they magically got lucky and hired only motivated guys, but that seems unlikely in a shop that big. I agree with you that unions can end up protecting guys that should be getting fired, I just think it's BS to try to paint every union worker as lazy.

Sorry, misunderstood that part. Ive been in two plants, 100 miles apart, both unions behave the same, as if it is their duty to keep anyone and everyone from getting disciplined all the way up to firing and rehiring many. Personally work with a guy who is on his 5th rehire lol, such a joke. 2500 people in my old plant and 5500 in the current one and I don't think its out of the ballpark to say ~10% are motivated and conscientious workers that give a damn about the product they turn out. Otherwise the majority are very entitled, spend the day sleeping, letting quality issues fly on by, etc etc etc.

Anywho, I drive a (domestic) competitor's vehicle because my last one from my employer's company was a pile that I was sick of working on all the time As a whole in metro detroit its rather frowned upon to drive anything foreign, especially when you work at one of the big 3, but the VW TDI I had was absolutely the best most trouble free car ive ever owned.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I only wish to add perspective to a multidimensional pissing contest. I have a 1944 caterpillar D-7. The individal parts have high design safety factors. The overall unit is well within balance so one part doesn't cause other parts to fail. Underpowered ? Yes! As they fixed that it created a series of models with component failures until they came to a balance in a model that could be depended on by industry.

That in itself is a failure from company perspective because of too much success resulting in too long of life and diminished sales.

I see similar issues in vehicles. With todays engineering, I believe you can design and build a vehicle at a price that is competative in sales with a scheduled death at a designated time / miles.

If you design them too well they will likely cost too much to compete in sales and won't die creating an overstock in supply.

As I have said before- I don't like fords ! Personal experience. I have had a number of Dodge 3/4 ton trucks. Very similar to Caterpillar. You need to know which model has what weakness for planned failure. Everytime they bring a new model on - which part that they didn't change will fail because of the part they did change. That's mainly drive train.

The interior parts are interesting but are like your wife's clothes - they are time dated and have personal limits.

I had land cruisers in the 70s. Underpowered but relatively indestructable. Some were rebuilt with chevy 327s to replace the metric 235s that they came with. That gave you enough power to pass things on the highway.

At this point I have found 3/4 tons in American trucks supceptable to design changes and safety factors in design. The one tons not so much.

I would guess the foreign vehicles balance sales price with cheaper labor. Hence that is their edge in the market. It's all a balancing act. Most of these are too small for me and my needs.

Everything out there is designed to fail. The balance is cost. Reliability is back to the safety factor of individual parts in their design related to cost.

Labor / unions, etc is a whole nother topic.