Anyone ever seen a broken down Toyota on the road side?

[Nick72]

One of the reasons I went down the Toyota route was after getting a shocking new French company car. Looked great, great spec. 7 of 10 months of ownership it was with the dealer. Reliability issues with the drive train and almost everything else. Wasn't just a lemon. It was a whole orchard of lemon trees. They took it back for good after I insisted.

I do a lot of company driving. Up and down the UK. And I see lots of broken down cars. Peugeot, Renault, JLR, Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Seat, and even the odd Nissan, Tesla, and Audi in the main. Not yet seen a single Toyota despite their popularity. I'm deliberately trying to find them. Anyone seen any apart from the one on your drive? 😜 

That said there are niggles that drive me nuts on occasion but they aren't generally associated with reliability and what really matters in car. But as I say, not anywhere close to some of my other past cars. New Merc once, gear stick completely came away on the first drive. Housing and everything. Very expensive car. 

 

 

[Heidfirst]

17 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

Not yet seen a single Toyota despite their popularity.

actually not that popular, under 6% market share in the UK. That makes them 5th behind Volkswagen, Ford, Audi & BMW with Kia & Hyundai nipping at their heels.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/300467/leading-car-companies-market-share-in-the-united-kingdom/

But, yes, it is a part of why I drive what I drive rather than a BMW, Merc., Volvo etc. which I could afford.

Even the annual reliability reports that mark some down one must wonder how much of that is fairly minor complaints & even is part of that against the high expectation of reliability & therefore things get reported in these surveys that might not for another brand?

[AndyN01]

In short, measured over decades of motoring and I dread to think how many miles - well over 1/2 million....No 😄

The reliability thing means different things to different folks.

One could say if it gets from A to B then it's reliable. Another could say that if the latest gizmo stops working then it isn't - regardless of whether that actually stops the journey. Someone else could accept an amount of love and care is needed to keep the "reliability" whereas another does nothing apart from putting it into the garage for a service (maybe).

I have genuinely heard someone say that filling up the washer bottle was done by the garage at the service - and they meant it. Frightening isn't it? I wonder if they'd regard running out of washer fluid as being "unreliable" if a a question on a survey was about windscreen wipers not working properly? OMG.....

[Nick72]

17 minutes ago, Heidfirst said:

actually not that popular, under 6% market share in the UK. That makes them 5th behind Volkswagen, Ford, Audi & BMW with Kia & Hyundai nipping at their heels.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/300467/leading-car-companies-market-share-in-the-united-kingdom/

But, yes, it is a part of why I drive what I drive rather than a BMW, Merc., Volvo etc. which I could afford.

Even the annual reliability reports that mark some down one must wonder how much of that is fairly minor complaints & even is part of that against the high expectation of reliability & therefore things get reported in these surveys that might not for another brand?

Interesting, I need to look up the pie chart of numbers by brand.

I suspect they are minor complaints or niggles driving the Toyota position opposed to anything much serious.

[Nick72]

2 minutes ago, AndyN01 said:

In short, measured over decades of motoring and I dread to think how many miles - well over 1/2 million....No 😄

The reliability thing means different things to different folks.

One could say if it gets from A to B then it's reliable. Another could say that if the latest gizmo stops working then it isn't - regardless of whether that actually stops the journey. Someone else could accept an amount of love and care is needed to keep the "reliability" whereas another does nothing apart from putting it into the garage for a service (maybe).

I have genuinely heard someone say that filling up the washer bottle was done by the garage at the service - and they meant it. Frightening isn't it? I wonder if they'd regard running out of washer fluid as being "unreliable" if a a question on a survey was about windscreen wipers not working properly? OMG.....

Yep you're right. 

And yes that's scary.

[Bper]

I’ve never seen a Toyota broken down, but I’ve seen plenty of their owners who seem to be! Speaking for myself, most mornings when I get out of bed, my back feels like it’s breaking down too."😭
 

[Mojo1010]

< 6 percent is a little surprising or maybe not, a lot of fleets are of the other brands. Then there are also specialised groups led by the likes of @Rhymes with Paris with a faithful following of the saxo/fiesta/corsa fleet. 

50% of my driving life so far have been owning toyotas (3 Yaris, corolla), it will be +majority from next year. Only ever will remain to the Toyota brand or lexus if funds permit. Next car when needing a slightly bigger boot will be a Chr hybrid. 

 

[yossarian247]

A while ago I was talking to an AA recovery truck driver and he said the only time he usually saw Toyotas it was ones with MMT transmissions which had suddenly packed up and refused to move!