1994 Toyota Camry LE review from North America

Fourth set of rotors for front brakes in >120k miles; air conditioner failure at 70k miles; fourth engine idle control motor in 130k mile ($400 repair each incident) ; 2nd set of motor mounts in <100k miles. (Please note: This car is driven by my fifty year old wife who is a very cautious driver, not Dale Earnhart Jr.)

Today I am replacing – for the third time in 130,000 miles – the engine idle control motor, at a cost of four hundred dollars. This is the fourth such part that has been in the vehicle, and the third that I have had to replace.

The only ‘silver lining’ to this semi-annual expenditure is that I finally encountered a Toyota mechanic who was honest and forthright enough to tell me that the part’s effective life could be greatly extended by an annual service of the throttle body assembly.

The idea that there could be a problem of this magnitude, and not have a single mention of the preventive maintenance procedure in either the vehicle manual or a subsequent technical service bulletin is, in my opinion, completely irresponsible and utterly reprehensible. It is a mystery to me how Toyota Corporation maintains its high rankings for maintenance costs and incidence of repair.

I would never own another Toyota product, and am telling everyone I know that same thing.