March sales look good for Taco

Another thing to consider from those reports.....are they rates or absolute numbers? There would of course be more complaints if absolute numbers because more people own Toyotas.......stats 101. Gotta take everything with a grain of salt these days.

Yep, when products get more complex QA and testing edge cases exponentially increase. Unfortunately resources don't increase with them. You see it in all industries, especially software. Not enough people to test every scenario. Even the best companies can't keep up.

 

I agree the ranger is what's really going to get the Tacoma in the mid size market. The 3rd gen Tacoma compete just fine against the gm twins but Ford knows how to make trucks and I feel the ranger will dominate like they did in the past.

I agree if interest rates rise again that's what is going to kill auto sales in general.
Auto loans can be had for a sub 2% right now up to 60 months for excellent credit borrowers but I have a feeling interest rates are going to rise back to 4-5% in the next year or two and Toyota motor credit never offers 0% financing on tacomas.

 

I doubt they would do the stats that way, that would put something like the F-150 at a huge disadvantage just do to the sheer volume of them sold.

 

I really wouldn't put past anything. Money is a powerful thing. People may say I'm too shrewd or paranoid but it happens. If news sites can skew facts about the government then car sites can skew facts about cars XD

 

Problem is Ford only knows how to make a truck that looks like a box on the way to the construction site.

 

I made it happen in March too, love my truck

 

Yeah. The 1st gen rangers of the 1990's did well sales wise but the mid 2005-2011 ranger didn't fare as well sales wise and the 2nd gen Tacoma dominated through out that period.

I liked the 1990s rangers but the mid to late 2000s rangers weren't my cup of tea.

 

the 3rd gen is the same size as the 2nd gen and the double cab and access configurations are carried over from the 2nd gen but like you said it's a new engine 3.5L with 278 HP instead of 4.0L with 236 HP, 6 speed transmission instead of 5 speed, new entune audio system, new interior dashboard, and headlights with the LED illuminated lights.

If it was the same as the 2nd gen with just cosmetic changes there wouldn't be any reliability issues because it's using the same powertrain engine and transmission.

 

A lot of guys keep throwing out the sports car reference and I think that is quite unfair. There are those out there (like me) that would expect a newer model to perform BETTER than a previous model, not worse. I'm not asking for sports car handling! Just run better than my 2nd gen.

My 2nd gen wasn't perfect, and don't get me wrong I love my 3rd gen... but the 3rd wasn't an improvement over the 2nd... it's a totally different truck wearing the same clothes.

 

Naw, the stuff I've been reading is all problem per 100 vehicles or percentage reporting issues so not an absolute number of issues.

 

That makes no sense at all because then the vehicles that sell the least would have the highest ratings, if they sell the least then they are not making a profit so they have no cash to spend skewing results. If you look at the Consumer Reports Rating every single Toyota and Lexus Model had above average Reliability except for the Tacoma.

 

I'm not gonna refute your claims, I haven't seen the data and I assume you have. That being said claiming companies don't have enough cash to spend on skewing results is an asinine statement. All companies spend money on marketing and advertising and other bullshit. In fact you can argue the reason why some of these companies are shit because they spend too much on it instead of investing in their own product.

 

No doubt about it my friend, Manufacturers send ringers and whatnot as test vehicles for magazines to get impressive things reported about it. I mentioned Consumer Reports because the only model that did not fare well was the Tacoma, that would not make sense saying that was money related since every other Model from Toyota/Lexus finished above Average.

 

Had a friend from high school boast about his new z71 Colorado.

At 600 miles his serpentine belt busted and the truck overheated

He then posted a pic of it on the tow truck

 

For sure, and that's a fair argument. It would be interesting if car companies played games with review sites with specific cars, but at this point it's whatever.

I also will never be one to blindly defend a car. Mass bitching and moaning have better chances to be heard and improved upon. As with everything, moderation is key. Extreme love and extreme hate cough smitty turns me off.

 

Kinda like this?

Or this?

 

No he actually let it cool down then drove it again until critical overheat then posted a pic like that

Not sure if he fried it or what

 

I got mine on March 19.