Curious

I replaced my 2008 tacoma for an identical 2009 tacoma. 08 was NUMMI and 09 is Mexico. I have been doing research here and there because operations has always interested me. The Mexico plant has 800 workers and has quite a bit less automation when compared to the Freemont plant.

1 place where it is obvious that automation was not used is in the firewall seams.

Does anyones tacoma look like this under the hood. It appears that a sealer is brushed on. My 08 had a nice bead that looks like Johnny 5 put it on.

 

Wow, very interesting. I was hoping mine was made in mexico, but it was made in CA

 

Not that 1 is better than the other but am kind of curious to see if this is a difference between 2 trucks where 1 comes out of a fully automated facility and the other does not.

To be honest, it looks pretty sloppy. The seam sealer on the bottom of the truck is the same way. Both very thin in both places.

 

Well the toyota plant in mexico ranked 2nd in its class in least number of factry defects. Ranked just behind Mercedes

 

looks like they had some extra plumbers caulk lying around.wtf.mine has some but they painted over it.

 

ya that doesnt look right mine doesnt look like that its a 2005 and I dont know where it was made, how do I tell?

 

First digit of the Vin tells you. I am not sure what it means though

 

here it is

 

my old golf was built in mexico while the jettas werent, I dont know about the jettas but my golf was a piece... nothing but problems. I will check my vin when I am done work

 

That is interesting. Is that a legitimate statement? Mercedes has the least amount of factory defects?

I'm not saying that it's a defect or anything is wrong, it is just apparent in a few various places that humans built this thing. So far its a solid truck.