Why is Consumer Reports basking in the sunshine after ****ing up the bought off Toyota brand?

Andres Milagro

I'm an older guy, but I know that Consumer Reports magizine has been boosting Toyata vehicles for at least thirty or thirty five years. What's the deal? Did Consumer Reports suddenly get an infusion of cash to perpertrate an illegal burnishment of Japenese vehilcles over our American offerings? I've asked similiar questions before, but only received one legitimate answer. I would love to hear from that well informed prodigy again. Where did the money come from in the early days to give Toyota such a shining report; in some of those early days Toyotas were peices of shit; literally. Answer me, Prodigy

Desert Rat PAUL

Back in the early 60's Toyotas actually WERE a P.O.S.. My neighbor had a "Corona" and had nothing but problems with it.































That is not the case NOW though































Now, I know that any answer you don't want to hear will be considered ILLEGITIMATE, but you have to face facts sometime.































Look, the Saturn was a well known P.O.S. and is now out of business. Fiats sold here in the 60's and 70's were crap and they finally quit trying to sell them here.































Come on now. You don't become a major player in the industry by selling junk, so how did Toyota become a major player, with B.S.????? I don't think sooooooo.

yankeegray_99

consumer reports doesnt just do that with japanese cars,theyll give a rave review to anything for enough money.most likely the money came from all the tariffs we have to pay if we send something over there,yet costs them nothing to send something here.

don r

Supposedly Consumer Reports takes a product and tests it in standard ways. They don't examine every atom, but they look at all the important things needed to judge quality and performance.































You have your opinion about Toyotas based on your own experience, which sounds to me like hearsay and prejudice. I've owned several Toyotas and know they were the most rugged and dependable cars I've owned. I've had Fords, Mercurys, Pontiacs, Fiats, Oldsmobiles Chevys,, Dodges and Mitsubishis. I drive my cars hard. I'd stand my Toyota against Mopar, but not in a drag race and expect them to run side by side up to about 100,000 miles, then have the Toyota leave the Dodge behind for the next 100,000 miles.































Do you know that a Certain American car maker surveyed salvage yards to see which parts on their cars were still good after their cars were junked so they could cheapen those parts. I feel like your question was just to be provacative instead of a pursuit of real knowledge.































If you want to start buying only American Made products, Toyotas and Hondas are built in the USA. Many Fords and Chevys are built in Mexico. The best Buick is a German design and some Buicks are being built in China right now. There is no television in the world for you if you only want American made products and your Apple computer was assembled in China by wage slave children. Sears and Roebucks used to be where America shopped for value and Montgomery Ward is a paragraph in history. I hope that flag you're waving was made here, but you need to go check the label. Learn a craft if you want "Made in the USA" to have the meaning it used to.

ringo

Toyotas have been HISTORICALLY very reliable. I think that they want to continue thinking that but honestly if they should be boosting anyone it should be Ford, GM, and Chrysler. They need it, Toyota doesn't.

Michael

Consumer Union has a very long history of quirky testing procedures and strange conclusions. If you want to know whether a 2003 Belchfire had worse than average reported electrical problems they do okay, but if you want to know whether a car is going to last you 20 years without draining Fort Knox they don't offer any clue. Their focus is on their own favored aspects of performance and short term complaints. The dependence on self-reporting or ability to determine whether their reported vehicles were properly maintained makes the results statistically unsound. And, as you have noticed, they develop odd loyalties... or dependence on defending their earlier evaluations. In any case I ignore them as irrelevant. There are far better sources.

kevusaborn

Sometimes the truth hurts.































1995 Camry Owner 122k most reliable car I've ever owned. Even over my 68 Chevy Nova.















68 Ford Ranchero, 76 Pontiac Bonnevile, 78 VW Rabbit , 78 Trans Am, 85 Oldsmobile Delta 88,















There's 7 more but I can't remember them all...LOL...

American Idle

I'd like to point out the false information don provided.































"If you want to start buying only American Made products, Toyotas and Hondas are built in the USA. Many Fords and Chevys are built in Mexico."















GM, Ford, and Chrysler have the most American jobs, in that order. Some Toyota's and Honda's are built here. Some are also built in Japan, or Mexico, or Canada. Just like every American company also builds some of their cars in foreign countries. The bottom line is by buying ANY American car (Gm, Ford, Chrysler), you're supporting all of the jobs they provide here (and elsewhere). It's great when foreign companies create jobs here, but the American companies still have the most. And not to mention, when you buy an American car, your money stays here.































"The best Buick is a German design and some Buicks are being built in China right now."















GM owns design studios capable of creating an entire vehicle in the USA, Germany, and S Korea. The Buick Regal was engineered in Germany as the Opel Insignia. The Opel Ampera sold in Europe was designed in America as the Chevy Volt. The Chevy Cruze was designed in S Korea and sold worldwide. It's a global industry. It's more efficient to use one design and sell it across the world, rather than have every market design their own cars.















It's true some Buicks are being built in China, but what it critical to that fact (which don conveniently left out) is they are for the Chinese market. ZERO Buick's (or any other GM car) sold here is made in China. Of Buick's 3 models sold in the USA, 2 are made in America and 1 in Canada. The reason they're building Chinese market Buick's in China is China has a 100% import tariff. Basically, if they imported them from America (or anywhere else), the price would double and they would no longer be competitive. EVERY major manufacturer, including Toyota, Honda, Ford, Chrysler, BMW, VW, Audi, and Mercedes has factories in China. So why are you not admonishing any of them?

hollow chocolate prius

Consumer Reports is a car magazine for women.The editors slant the content to their customers like most magazines.Consumer Reports is just a sign that women greatly influence opinion not the magazine.Grumbling about it now is thirty years too late.































Consumer Reports is middle class white collar professional that hates unions.Directing people away from American cars was a way to destroy labor.America had a vicious class war between white and blue collar so the present class war is a yawn.

Terrence B

As someone that has worked in the automotive design field for 12 years, I can honestly say that Toyota has been making good vehicles since the 70's. In fact, I bought a 1974 Toyota Corolla 1600 Wagon in 1993 for $475. That car was amazing. The gas mileage was in the 30's and it was reliable. I did have to replace the alternator once, the fuel pump once and the carburetor rebuilt once. Other than that it was a matter of changing the fluids and normal wear and tear items like brakes and tires. I bought it with 228,000 miles on it and kept it for 6 years. When I graduated from college in 1999, I bought a new Corolla. The old one I sold for what I paid for it with 412,000 miles on it. Yes!! 184,000 miles in six years in Southern California traffic commuting to school, to work and back home during the week- driving over 100 miles a day. Funny thing was that the compression was still good and the automatic transmission still shifted well.































The newer Corolla was a big change and it was nice, but the quality was a bit short compared to the 1974 I had. todays Toyotas aren't built as well as past Toyotas from the 70's, 80's and 90's. My guess is where they are made. Most Toyotas sold here in the US are made here in the US. My 1999 was made here in California; The 1974 was made in Japan. The ones made here are just not as well-built. Look at all models with recalls, they were either made here and/or the defective part was. In fact, none of the Toyotas with a "J" as the first letter in their VIN were recalled. Don't believe me? VW used to build here as well, but they stopped production in the US at their Pennsylvania plant in the mid 80's due to quality control problems. They moved it to Mexico of all places and they claim that QC is better there than it ever was at the US plant. Like another answerer said, those popular imports that you cringe at are usually made in the USA while many domestic brands are made elsewhere.































What I like about Consumer Reports is that they don't judge reliability just on two or three years of ownership. It's like they state in their magazine, Japanese brands tend to hold up better than other cars as they age. Designing vehicles has taught me that. The domestics making good stuff now, but it's because they are finally listening. No more you're gonna buy this POS because it was made by us. Blind allegiance gets the consumer nowhere. I used to own a 1992 Jeep Wrangler that I bought new that gave me nothing but problems. That 4.0 inline 6 was bulletproof but it was everything else that had issues (slave cylinder (twice), master cylinder, clutch, brake light switch). I bought the 1974 Corolla because I was lucky to get 15 MPG in the Wrangler. I ended up getting rid of the Wrangler in 1998 with 54,000 miles on it.































Word of mouth says a lot for a business. My late mother in law was a devout buy American person. Someone stole her Ford Taurus and she was determined to get another domestic car. I told her Toyota Camry. She made up every excuse not to buy a Toyota. After looking for about two months, I told her to try the Camry. If she didn't like it, I would never speak of it again. Well, she test drove one..... She had owned two Camrys before she died earlier this year. I remember her telling me that the Camry is the best car she had ever owned. Her first one was used and it was actually older than the Taurus she once had- which she loved. However, even she admitted that the Camry was a better car. I know this isn't what you want to hear but it is the truth. With so many import brands being made here, why not drive one? BTW, both of her Camrys were made in Kentucky. You can't get more American than Kentucky.































The anti- Japan sentiment baffles me while the German makers tend to get respect. Just remember that our brave soldiers fought them too in WWI and WWII and many died in the name of freedom.































Edit: To the poster who said that Saturn was crap. Actually, Saturns were actually quite reliable Initially GM let them have their own designs and to some degree let them follow a different philosophy from the assembly line to the showroom floor - remmebr no haggle pricing? In fact, they were so reliable that the mere comment that a Saturn and a Chevy were related made Saturn sales staffs cringe. Sales started dropping because the design was getting long in the tooth and people wanted something new. GM decided to try to refresh the product line, but the new cars were rebadged versions of other GM cars and they sucked. GM misjudged the public and with poor timing, Saturn failed. I remember the President of Toyota calling out GM back around 2000-2001 saying that GM should get rid of Pontiac. That Pontiac was actually a money pit. GM ignored and got rid of Oldsmobile- the oldest brand name in the US. Still losing money, they finally axed Pontiac a few years ago. They ruined the Oldmobile name. That was a piece of our history that should've been better taken care of.