Toyota Stalking, er...um, SPOTTING with Charlie™ (Cars, vans, SUVs, Lexus, Scion, and brochures)!

Nissan transmissions are usually good, their traditional autos while boring are decent stuff made by Jatco, and their manuals are all pretty good (except for the few years they contracted Tremec to make them, all those T5s are garbage just like all other Tremec T series trans). The CD009 is what Supra guys swap in when their Toyota R154 blows up (which they do above 600hp). Only their CVTs are crap, and nothing has changed there no matter what they say. They made Jatco make them quick and dirty against Jatco's warnings that they'd be problematic the way Nissan ordered them.

 

But the CVTs are also made by Jatco and they're junk; My best friend got rid of his loaded and MINT 2013 Nissan Altima SL with 92K miles because he was paranoid about the CVT crapping out, and bought a CPO 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe...

 

I'm aware, read the last line... Nissan knew exactly what they were doing when they contracted them for the CVT work. Jatco warned them there would be issues with longevity and torque handling

 

I would like to point one thing out here; If it has a date in bold underlined lettering, followed by the location where the picture was taken, then I took the picture myself. If it does not have a date or location, then I snagged the picture from the internet...

 

Is this some sort of planned obsolescence conspiracy?

 

Not really, although it's certainly possible given who owns Nissan and Mitsubishi now. They were just okay with the quality cut given the price per unit. It came back to bite them in the ass with many failing inside warranty still and many others failing in such large numbers out of warranty that class action lawsuits were still possible. They fixed it sort of, the replacement units last longer, still not great, but not as bad. They're a company on the verge of total financial failure in the US, I don't think there's much more we can expect from them anymore.

 

Enlighten me...

Who does own Nissan and Shitsubishi now?

 

Renault

 

Oh yeah!

Didn't know they owned Mitsubishi now; Now they really are Shistubishi!

My cousin is a huge history buff (he majored in it in college) and when I told him Renault owned Nissan, he was like "Oh yeah, Renault is so shitty that even the French military won't buy them!"

 

Yeah they're uh, not good haha.

Pretty excited about the Lexus though. Love me some 2J

 

I remember when those first came out in like 2001; We were living in Washington at the time and I first saw one and sat in it at the Seattle Auto Show. They had it plugged into the building's electrical, and someone had put the radio on the local country station (94.1 KMPS; Don't know if it still exists); "Independence Day" by Martina McBride was blasting from the stereo system and it sounded incredible!

 

KMPS is still around, or I think it is. I don't live on that side anymore. I have the window sticker and the certificate of automotive excellence from Lexus of Seattle where this IS came from.

 

I forgot you lived there! I loved KMPS when I lived in Oak Harbor! The main DJ back then (2000-2002) was a woman named Lia, who had her own website...

 

Found em...

 

$33K wasn't horrible back then; I'm guessing you paid cash when you bought it?

 

Yeah I don't finance vehicles

 

My Tacoma was a gift from my parents ten years ago and I do not want to buy a vehicle until I can afford to pay cash (or get a vehicle I actually like with 0% financing)!

 

Wise