Manual Transmission needs Replaced

Because they didn't break.

I test drove a manual SR that was a dealer transfer with over 100 miles. It did just fine on my drive, no telling how it is now though.

 

If you think the boom of "influencer" "journalism" hasn't swung the pendulum dramatically, you've been asleep for the past 10 years. We both know there's several tiers of press launch events. The real journalists, and the influencer crowd. The influencer crowd will gladly gobble down a buffet a of turd sandwiches for free. This is my primary angst about how vehicle launches happen. Tesla was one of the worst offenders of this, and the remainder of the automotive world has taken this as inspiration. They no longer even have a visible PR dept, opting purely for well-curated influencer types. The motorcycle press industry is even worse, which is the one I am most familiar with.

Here's what some of your colleagues have to say about the business in general:

Why Car Journalism Today Sucks (thedrive.com)

"As quickly as I was hired. I was fired. You didn’t need to be Nostradamus to know that Porsche had just signed on for a big advertising campaign. Even if they hadn’t, such negativity is apostasy in automotive journalism. It deters advertisers. I bitched, I moaned. Nothing could be done. I was out. What about Jeremy Clarkson? I asked. He says what he wants. You’re not Jeremy Clarkson. Surely there is a place for criticism, I argued. But it was too late. I didn’t get it, said my editor, and I never would."

We’ve met our heroes. You should, too. Maybe. — The Carmudgeon Show — Ep. 24 (youtube.com)

How Ferrari Spins (jalopnik.com)

"It's gotten out of control; to the point that it will soon be pointless believing anything you read about its cars through the usual channels, because the only way you get access is playing by its rules."

How car companies bribe journalists (youtube.com)

Ars asks: How do you feel about junkets for auto coverage? | Ars Technica

"Yet, even if junkets are "default" in the auto journalism world, they make us uneasy."

This Is Everything Wrong With Auto Journalism In One Facebook Thread (jalopnik.com)

"I've seen journalists go to lunch without a PR person, eat the whole meal, and then wait for the PR person to show up just to pay and so the journos don't have to worry about ever being out of cash. I joked on Twitter earlier about forcing a PR person to buy me swag if none was provided, and someone replied that she'd actually seen it happen.

This sort of behavior isn't out of the ordinary for many members of the automotive press."

Indian Auto Journalism: Fall from Grace (motownindia.com)

"Today, it is quite apparent that if you are able to influence, either with your twitter account, or your Instagram account, or your YouTube account, you can go places. OEMs will pay you big time and all you have to do is to endorse the product. OEMS, on the other hand, are so obsessed with the social media platforms that they can give an arm and a half just to get noticed in this space."

"As an entrepreneur I got the cold shoulder from many OEMs. They did not care two hoots whether I was a journalist with more than three decades of experience or that my magazine was decent enough. As a B2C journalist too, I got the cold shoulder, especially from big foreign auto companies. I wrote to them for cars and bikes to review. A few responded, a few did not even bother to reply. It went on, year after year. I thought I was a good journalist, but then I also realised I was a bad businessman or that I was too obsessed with morality and ethics. I never could lick anyone’s shoes; neither could I exaggerate beyond a point about a product in my reviews. OEMs wanted me to dance to their tunes. But I realised I was born with two left feet."

Bribery and Corruption of Journalists and Media by the Automotive Industry - Fully Charged Show'

"An automotive journalists receives additional other “incentives” and this is only because he writes for an automotive magazine and reports in a certain way about the company from which he receives the discount. No one tells him or her what to write, but if they are not sympathetic to the automaker or a model review is negative, they know it is a risk to lose attractive incentives and even worse the invitations by the automakers for product reviews, thus it’s a threat to their job and livelihood. "

How The Truth About Motorcycle Helmets Got A Journalist Fired (jalopnik.com)

My Plan To Make Motorcycle Journalism Not Suck Anymore (jalopnik.com)

"Motorcycle magazines have been castrated by the business side of things which means the content has become too advertorial."

What you gonna do with all that junket? - Columbia Journalism Review (cjr.org)

"Disclose, disclose, disclose. If you’re going to use material from the junket, you best be telling readers about it. Duh."

So how do some publications combat this? They pay full price. Examples:

nytimes.com/editorial-standards/ethical-journalism.html

"It is our policy that no one may test drive or review a vehicle for The Times unless the paper is paying the vehicle’s owner the normal market rental or its equivalent. Rare exceptions may occur when an equivalent rent is largely hypothetical, as with military vehicles, vintage autos or race cars.

Reviewers should carry out their testing expeditiously and return the vehicle promptly. A reasonable amount of personal use is permissible provided that the use contributes to the review."

L.A. Times Ethics Guidelines - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

"The Times also pays for travel by staff members on assignment. They may not accept free or discounted transportation or accommodations unless the same discount is available to the public."

Finally, is Toyota an ethical company? Would they ever do anything unethical?

Toyota apologizes for cheating on vehicle testing and halts production of three models (yahoo.com)

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda apologized Monday for massive cheating on certification tests for seven vehicle models as the automaker suspended production of three of them.

Toyota to Pay $1.2B for Hiding Deadly ‘Unintended Acceleration’ - ABC News (go.com)

Car manufacturer Toyota has agreed to pay a staggering $1.2 billion to avoid prosecution for covering up severe safety problems with “unintended acceleration,” according to court documents, and continuing to make cars with parts the FBI said Toyota “knew were deadly.”

 

Holy shit man...whatever you do...do not look into how pharma companies wine and dine doctors to push certain drugs.

 

Gotta push Ozempic somehow…

 

That's quite the collection of immature people complaining about an industry they are AGHAST about. SMH. The Drive also still sends journalists all over the world even with Roy's column exposing the "dark side" of journalism. Talk about wasting your time writing that long column.

This is comical as well, "It is our policy that no one may test drive or review a vehicle for The Times unless the paper is paying the vehicle’s owner the normal market rental or its equivalent. Rare exceptions may occur when an equivalent rent is largely hypothetical, as with military vehicles, vintage autos or race cars."

You know what automakers do? They send those publications a bill that is much lower than the actual costs just so those newspapers feel better about themselves.

Here is one point you need to update: "We both know there's several tiers of press launch events. The real journalists, and the influencer crowd."

Influencers are being dropped by brands at an astonishing rate. Why? Wouldn't you want people who only talk glowingly of your product? Actually no. Those influencers don't serve any purpose and automakers are increasingly dropping them.

There were a TON of issues with them years ago with journalists pushing back at being at events with influencers. Oil and water. Influencers are bought and paid for. Having them at events with journalists just rubbed everybody the wrong way.

Automakers tell me they like my coverage because I point out flaws or obvious mistakes. Why? There's real value in that. You can't fix something if you don't know what's broken.

The rest of us make side jokes about shrimp dinners and going to the spa on trips. Nobody does it. We joke about it since it is such a dumb idea.

The big problem I see with automotive journalism is not the trips, it is the amount of them. I was just fine getting a vehicle at my house and NOT going on a trip during COVID. However, that doesn't work for everyone. Some of us want to interview engineers, others want to interview executives. You simply can't do that as well over the phone or on a video call.

There was a time pre-COVID I was out of the house 2-3 times a month and that was slow. I know one colleague who traveled so much, he actually met his neighbor during COVID. He had lived next to them for 4 years.

The simple fact is every automaker in the world does the same type of trips with the same types of dining and hotel setups. All of that becomes white noise after a while and myself and others are really just interested in doing our jobs.

Fun fact, I make less money on the road than I do at home. However, I can't get the background information on a vehicle without being on the road. It is a pro and con situation not a "well damn, I got a real nice meal from that junket." Yippee! Another steak dinner. Can't wait...

 

I wish I could be this lucky

How Purdue Pharma Is Cashing In On Both Sides Of The Opioid Epidemic - KFF Health News

 

Yea, but you’re making millions doing it, right?

 

C’mon man. Billions!!

 

You can trust me...I'm not like the others.

 

There certainly is a lot of Chaff to sort from the Wheat when it comes to YT video reviewers. Tim is Wheat though.
https://youtu.be/GulWIcn2fng?t=43

 

Agree

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_UhotZwtkO4&pp=ygUgMjAyNCB0YWNvbWEgdHJhbnNtaXNzaW9uIGlzc3VlcyA=

 

Well, that was a complete waste of 16 minutes. He comes off a bit pretentious for someone who conveniently doesn't care to mention that the 2024 model trans is a different build from previous years and doesn't even mention the actual problem being talked about. All he really focused on was the horsepower and torque of the new engine vs the Hilux engines (not important) and about them blowing up (not the issue at hand). All but a few parts come from other applications, so it should be a reliable unit, yet something is going wrong in the latest (2024 Tacoma) versions anyways. Only time will tell what is actually wrong and how it will be fixed.

Just because it's fine in the Hilux, doesn't mean something didn't go wrong with the new model. All he did was present a non sequitur.

 

I've heard and read a bunch about build dates between xx and yy but noone has said what these dates are. At first after I read this thread I was super sketched that I would also be a victim and still could be but 4300km and I am loving it so far. Since Canada and the US have diffrent trim levels could they be built in separate parts of the factory? I have no clue at all. I am still worried a bit but I did go for the 4yr 100km rather then the 3yr 60km as I usually put between 35-40 km a year on.

 

I'm kind of like you, freaked out at first, but a handful in 6 months isn't enough to lose sleep. Mine was built in May, 6 months after they started production, so could be a totally different batch. If it doesn't extend to more units, we may never know.

Haven't heard back from the OP in a while, but with the drama who can blame him.

 

FWIW, we are working on a website post with a quote from Toyota. As you might expect, Toyota doesn’t really have a lot to say. There’s basically 2 transmissions out of 50k and those transmissions are being fixed under warranty. This all sounds like wastegate all over again.

 

A little unrelated but does anyone find it hard to go to first sometimes if you are at a light and put it in neutral and then try to put it in first to take off? I find sometimes I have to do it twice.

 

That is extremely common on the 3rd gen and not surprising at all that the same behavior has copied over to the new gen since transmissions are the same design.

 

Thank you