2002 Toyota Tundra SR5 from North America - All Comments

A while ago, I explained in detail how a few of us drove 4 cars to camp, and both Fords broke down.

As I started typing this, I got a phone call, the end result being that my girlfriend and I have to go pick up her parents, two hours from here because the SAME Ford Explorer that overheated last time is now sitting on the highway on top of a puddle of burnt transmission fluid and is not going anywhere unless it's being towed. They're not even towing anything. I guess they don't call them ExploDers for nothing. Under 100,000 miles, and maintained. So, a Ford is still ruining half of my day yet again, even though I don't own it.

We will be leaving in her 14 year old Civic, with 170,000 miles on it, to go pick up where the Ford left off. This kind of thing is why I laugh my head off when someone claims that Fords or Chevy's are anywhere close to as reliable as an import.

Now, most likely, her Dad will have to pay to have it towed 100 miles back home, and then pay to have the tranny rebuilt or replaced, another 1000 to 3000 dollars, depending. The rest of the family has switched to Toyota's and Honda's, and have had a grand total of zero dollars in repairs. You can bet her Dad will be selling that piece of junk, and he'll be switching to a Toyota truck.

13:14.

Thanks for pointing out the Consumer Reports Article. They are so unscientific, agenda driven and biased against American manufacturers, I do not even consider them to be a serious publication. But, even they are starting to reluctantly publish articles such as the one documenting the quality of Ranger, to save what little credibility they have left after being naively recommending Toyotas for so long, which contrary to their "ratings" are now self destructing before their owners eyes all over the place.

I am not surprised the their top vehicle was a Ranger either. My brother's Ranger has 403,000 trouble free miles on the original engine and transmission, runs great and burns no oil.

The tired Domestic vs Import - which is sort of vague anyway since I assume we're talking more specifically about Toyota and Honda versus GM and Ford, is not going to have much relevance soon anyway. As anyone can see, GM's stock is worth 1/3rd of what it was last year. Both GM and Chrysler are stopping their leasing programs, which is a very bad sign in of itself. Ford just reported their worst quarter. Ever.

To give you an idea of just how bad GM is doing, their stock is now worth less than half of what Toll Bros stock is. So an automaker is under-performing a homebuilder, which as we all know are getting royally pounded to bits due to the housing crash.

To be fair, all automakers from BMW, Toyota, Ford, GM, and Honda are seeing lower sales in the US. But these companies are at least still earning income. They also have an attractive portfolio. GM and Ford have neither. GM and Ford both lack competitive small and mid-sized cars. They also both lack small or mid-sized trucks, which is almost fatal in a truck market these days.

Additionally, both are very late to the game with a real hybrid vehicle. GM has also been bragging about this new Chevy Volt plugin hybrid. But at the same time, Toyota has a redesign of the Prius coming out at the same time, and they're being totally silent about it. If history serves as a reminder, Toyota will likely have a superior hybrid with little fanfare. It'll simply work, and work well, and GM will be left behind again.

Hmm, I saw someone talking about Corvette and that imports don't have any fast cars.. how they are all slow... well let's see, the Corvette does a 0-60 in 4.2 seconds and the 2009 Skyline does it in 3.5 seconds... hmmm... and he was saying the Cobalt does 0-60 little under 6 seconds... Come on! A Camry can do that!!

Look at the Evolution X! Oh my... and you guys say imports are slow... look at the WRX... and again you guys say they are slow...

Domestics do not have any thought put in their engines. They just put a big V8 and make it fast and suck gas. Now imports spend years developing their engines to get maximum power out of a 4 cylinder...

Consumer Reports biased? If you say Consumers Reports is biased against American cars, they must have a reason for it. They report on quality, reliability and owner satisfaction. It must be that owners of American made cars are not completely satisfied with their cars.

BTW, I have owned around 12 cars in total, 10 GM's and 2 Ford's. I have been satisfied with these cars but the newer models just don't have the reliability as Honda's and Toyota's!

The proof is in the slumping sales of American cars.

For example take a look at Oldsmobile, OUT OF BUSINESS.

Look at Buick, they had to rename ALL of their cars to try to convince the public they have better quality now, you know what? Still the same issues of quality.

The same with Pontiac. All the classic nameplates have been replaced with G5, G6, G8.

GM, Ford, Chrysler have all had transmission, engine issues that they don't want to admit have engineering faults.

My 99 Bonneville SLE has the 3.8 litre Series ll engine that has been produced for years with a plastic intake gasket that melts, causing antifreeze to leak into the engine causing it to seize. GM has never compensated any of the owners for this. Transmissions are now a replacement item! GM's 3.1 engine is notorious for intake failures. SO DON'T TELL ME GM, FORD AND CHRYSLER are quality made.

The poster claiming American cars are superior to imports should consult the statistics and every Automobile magazine.

Also, stop blaming Japanese and German car makers for taking away American jobs because if GM, Ford and Chrysler started building quality and reliable cars, they would be producing more and thus more people would still have jobs at those plants!

Wish my Honda could have gone to 100,000 miles without 3 transmission replacements. What year is the new Ford Explorer that has 100,000 miles?

Well, again we run into typical "import logic". An article reporting on a Ford that goes 488,000 miles somehow shows that it is not as reliable as a Honda that goes only 200,000??

15:34 This information in that magazine is a direct result of what actually happens to vehicles that CONSUMERS own and are surveyed about. Which is why they are accurate in stating that imports are more likely to have over 200,000 miles on them than domestics; because THAT is what happens in reality. Just like their lists of 'used cars to avoid', which have always been filled with more Fords and Chevy's than anything else.

I guess we're to rely on YOUR opinion, and NOT the information printed in a major publication?

How is it that every old Civic I see has 2 or 300,000 miles on it, and the Fords don't last that long?

I recently went to the local fair in my area, where they had a stand of Toyotas. The new Tundra, Sequoia, and the FJ Cruiser.

I was astonished at the horrid interior quality of all these vehicles. The fake, plastic wood trim on the doors of the Sequoia Limited are flimsy and feel as if they were just set on there.

They creak, flex, and can easily pop out of place on the arm rest. Most of the door, save for a small strip of leather-like-stuff, is hard, cheap, flimsy plastic that flexes when you pull or push. That is totally pathetic.

Trim pieces on the dash were mis-aligned, and once again, poorly assembled, i. e flexing, creaking, etc.

The interior of the Tundra was the same way; after all it is basically the same interior.

My neighbor owns a 2005 Sequoia, and its interior is worlds ahead of that of the new Sequoia in terms of build quality and the materials used. Plush materials, rigid quality, etc. The interior of his Sequoia was impressive.

Even worse, the FJ cruiser. Its interior was even more downgraded and shoddy, with the yellow painted plastic pieces (to match the exterior color) only set in, they move freely in their enclosures. The doors are even thinner, rubbery plastic, that if you push on with your thumb, will recess into the door about an inch, if not more.

The rest of the interior pieces were hard plastic, and rattly as well.

While playing with the climate control knobs, I ended up with one fallen out and in my hand. I quickly put it back on so someone didn't yell at me.

Of course, the representatives there were boasting about these vehicles as if they were Gods of the truck world, I was totally shocked at how they could blatantly up-talk these vehicles, but upon close inspection, they suck.

I walked away totally unimpressed with new Toyota products and their quality. I simply couldn't believe it at first.

I'm no fan or loyal customer of Toyota, but I did have respect for their quality products, a long time ago.

Do yourself a favor and poke and prod around a new Toyota.

This first-hand experience really opened my eyes about the quality of new Toyota vehicles. It's laughable at best.

I am still driving my 2001 Dakota Extended Cab V8 company vehicle now touching 190,000 miles. Does not burn oil, ice cold A/C and stops starts many times daily. All original drivetrain. I highly recommend this vehicle.

As it is not mine, I could care less other than to say it how reliable it is. It has a noisy power steering pump still functional. It's annoying to listen to on turns and I will have them fix it soon. It also has a nice ride for a pick up and plenty of power.

I feel reading about company vehicles is the best as brand loyalty means nothing to the user. I am in and out of Jiffy Lube every month, and keep all filters and fluids done on schedule.

I've had the same experience as 20:34. I was able to compare different brands at a car expo. The Ford and GM products were much better built, and far higher quality than the shoddy Toyota models on display. The fit and finish on the Ford Fusion is some of the best I've ever seen, as was the Saturn Aura and Chevy Malibu. The Tundra was a joke compared to the Ford F-150 or Silverado.

Obviously those who think import quality is better have never looked at newer models or compared them side by side.

As for long-term reliability, none of our domestic cars or trucks has ever had a mechanical problem.

20:34 I have poked and prodded in and around new Toyota's, and as usual, they are top of the line. Much better than Ford, Chevy, or Dodge, as well as the rest of the imports other than Honda's.

You may call it 'laughable', but then I guess a Ford or GM would have to be 'extra-laughable', as the Toyota is obviously built better. Any Toyota. It's just the way they're assembled, and the design in the first place.

Lift the hood on any Toyota; let's say a 1985 Corolla. Lift the hood on any brand new domestic vehicle. As always, the engine and components, to anyone with a trained eye, are well thought out as far as placement, and even have an aesthetic value in their arrangement.

Open the hood on a domestic. It looks like a 12 year old kid stuffed a bunch of parts and wires under there and slammed it shut. Which isn't too far from the reality of it.

Same goes for the rest of the car. Take a long look at both. With the Toyota, under the hood and underneath the vehicle, you'll find a bracket here, and hanger there, that you won't find on a domestic. Because they're built cheaply and they cut costs where Toyota puts the extra time, money, thought, and simple consideration for the future owner of that vehicle into the design.

I recently changed front brake pads and rotors on my girlfriend's '95 Civic (do the math, a 13 year old car), and the design is so much better than any domestic that Ford and GM should be embarrassed. Unlike a domestic, where the caliper just hangs there by the brake lines, the top caliper bolt on the Honda is permanently fixed, and the caliper swivels up and stays in place; you change the pads, and rotate it back over the rotor.

If you know the details that make the difference between a good vehicle, and a throw-away domestic, you will find things like this all over a Toyota/Honda, and never on a Ford or Chevy. So.. if you're telling me a Ford or Chevy is better built than either of those imports, you are simply wrong.

In regard to the comment about brake pads on a Civic. Here again, we have clear evidence of a complete lack of real knowledge of domestic vehicles (or imports, for that matter). I've changed the brake pads on numerous vehicles (including the Civic) and virtually ALL of them (yes, even those "crappy" domestics) swivel up. There is virtually no difference at all except that the older Civic pads are much smaller and under-engineered. I recently changed the pads on a late model GM, and YES, they swiveled up on a mounting bolt just like that "divine", "perfect" Civic. Again, the only difference was that the GM pads were bigger, heavier and much beefier.

As for those "cheap mountings" that we've read about before on here, anyone who has ever actually compared a domestic exhaust hanger bracket to a Toyota could never in their wildest dreams call the domestic "cheaper". Instead of a little metal rod that swivels in a tiny bracket on the Toyota, the domestics, such as Ford, use a compound mount composed of heavy metal brackets top and bottom joined by a flexible heavy duty rubber strip. It costs far more to build, provides more movement to prevent flex cracks, and allows a far wider range of movement in all directions than the Toyota mounts.

Having driven a brand new Toyota off a dealer's lot that had defective brakes (pulled violently to the left), pieces of interior trim that were falling off, and an engine that surged and stalled repeatedly, I find it more than just slightly funny that anyone could consider these cars in any way, shape or form, better than something like the solid, world-class Ford Fusion or Chevy Malibu. I've driven both imports and domestics. The domestics are so much better that there is just no comparison.

09:33 As I said, this is a '95 Civic. I've owned two mid-90's domestics, and NEITHER of their brake assemblies were set up that way. Maybe Ford and Chevy FINALLY got it together enough to design brakes the way Honda did 20 years ago. Too bad the engines still suck.

As far as the issue of the brackets, you can study the undercarriage of a Toyota or Honda and find so many more places that they've properly secured things when a Ford or GM vehicle doesn't have them.

"Lift the hood on any Toyota; let's say a 1985 Corolla. Lift the hood on any brand new domestic vehicle. As always, the engine and components, to anyone with a trained eye, are well thought out as far as placement, and even have an aesthetic value in their arrangement."

For the longest time, including throughout the entire 80's, American cars were far more technologically advanced than Toyota. American car manufacturers, particularly GM, were far ahead of Toyota in developing advanced fuel injection systems and electronic engine control systems, while Toyota was still using carburetors and vacuum control technology (which they copied from everyone else) right up until the 90's.

I do not find any aesthetic value in antiquated garbage.