Good reasons to get one. Before they’re gone.

I think time has already told. I really don’t remember any Honda or Toyota ever having serious engine issues even on the 1st year of a new generation car. Normally 1st gen issues are limited to other things and can get as bad as steering or transmission, but rarely engine.

Seeing what’s going on with the supposed “debris” on the Tundras, or the same issue in the notoriously bulletproof J Series V6 in the Honda Ridgeline is concerning. The difference between the issue in the Tundra and that in the Ridgeline is that the J series has proven itself over over two decades to be a bullet proof engine, and the debris excuse is kind of believable, given that its limited only to a few units.

At this stage, I don’t really believe anything that an automaker states, unless regulation is enacted where whatever they say becomes “evidence based”. Debris? Show us the evidence?, Only affects a small percentage of cars? Show us the evidence. During the manufacturing process, blah blah blah, show us the evidence.

 

Sarcasm on:
You're kidding me right? You want evidence?
You know that we now live in world of "they say" and "everybody is saying" and that makes it a fact. I mean, it's all over the internet...
Sarcasm off:

Sadly, I don't think a lot of people know what evidence is anymore.
I also think that many corporations are probably more than willing to tell us anything they think will keep us opening our wallets so they can keep the vacuum hose inserted.

 

I’m more concerned that Toyota is sticking with this manufacturing debris excuse for 3 years. If they let this known problem happen in the assembly line for three years without making a change then I trust nothing coming out of their factories now. Why did they not immediately assign/hire an employee to inspect every engine block for debris? Now they have 100,000 junk engines. Plus it sounds like the 2024 engines are still having issues.

 

No one should trust anything from anyone currently. 2020/Covid killed everything including Toyotas exceptional QC.

And as for Evidence, a 100k plus recall is clear evidence.

IMO we have several years before QC gets back to where it used to be. Soooo happy i have a 2019.

 

Oh wow! I didn't know the engine is used elsewhere still. I assumed ROW would have also moved to using V6, same as the LX.

 

I want to think I keep vehicle until their wheels fall off.
I usually replace them at little past 125K, PoS BMW X5 being the exception which I sold earlier. I am not sure if I will do that with my current 5th gen.
I would be happy knowing it will retain value whenever I sell it.

 

Isnt Toyota's QC still pretty solid in the 2021 to 24 model year 4Runners?
I would say inflation and insane epa mandated time lines are more to blame for current QC issues, than something that didn't exist unless you watched the msm.

 

It's still pretty solid because they were so good to begin with, but problems persist none the less. Call it what you will, but the time marker is 2020/Covid+ which equates all the issues you see now no matter what you call them. Inflation wouldn't have been an issue if covid didn't happen, same with epa, especially if some parties stayed in power.

 

How long are we going to use the Covid excuse? There’s been plenty of time for companies to get their shit together.

 

It's not an excuse, its the reason/catalyst.

Plenty of time? I don't own a 200+ billion dollar company, but i'm sure upending your entire distribution, sales, parts and loss of good employees takes time to get back to where you were. I would like to believe a company like Toyota could get there shit together quickly, but toyota doesn't do everything in house.

 

Covid bs

 

Yes, no matter what I happen to call it, unless the msm says it, it MUST be false. Polymerase chain reaction was not intended for its wide spread misused application, or its multiplied amplification. So deemed by its Nobel winning creator Kary Mullis. But, I won't call it what it really was. The excuses run rampant. Seems there are plenty to go around these days.
Toyota has made a choice recently by partnering with the WEF. QC may be the least of their worries in the future.
But, I concede this discussion. Just tired of hearing the big C excuse perpetuated for years. I call it the BS shutdown.

 

WTF are backup plans in case it rains? It's only rain (or snow).

On a different topic, saw something about new Tacos blowing through the strut tophat offroad, something about bumpstops being shock mounted and not frame mounted and the 6th gen 4runner will have the same.

 

More u tube bs

 

Not fond of a picnic in the rain. Or a backyard birthday party. Or a ballgame if it's bad enough to be delayed. There are others but they escape me at the moment.

 

It takes years?

 

I called that as a bad idea from the start. Thinking an internal shock bump stop is going to work on a 5000 pound truck like it’s a MTB or MX bike. LOL.

 

Because the current 4R platform has been around so long now, it only highlights the contemporary culture of parts sharing & cost-cutting that Toyota has now baked into this entire new TNGA-F platform. A Gen5 4R feels like no cost was spared, sitting next to a Gen4 Taco.

We can’t even test drive a Gen6 yet, but even an untrained eye will notice prop rods, so what sort of quality should we expect on more important parts that we don’t see?

 

The other thing we don’t know is how much more expensive this next gen will be. Less quality for more money. Yeah!!

 

I believe they still have hydraulic steering too

 

How do you explain the fact that the v35a was eating main bearings pre covid?

 

Didn't know this. Was this common knowledge?

 

And from what we know already, price may be the single biggest reason why you’d want to buy a Gen5 before they’re gone.

It’s so relevant to people’s purchase decision now (buy a stripped LC at $60k, or wait?), you’d like to see Toyota finally rip that band-aid off and show us those nasty Gen6 MSRP’s.

Then, like Tacoma, they’ll light the torches on social media…

 

I don’t know about pre-Covid.

Road and Track article:
Toyota Will Replace Faulty Engines in Up to 102,092 Tundras and Lexus LXs

“Tundras manufactured between November 2021 and February 2023 and LX 600s manufactured between July 2021 and November 2022 are affected by this recall, adding up to 98,568 Tundras and 3524 LX 600s. (NHTSA notes that models equipped with the V35A engine manufactured before or after these dates are not affected by this recall.)”

 

You can snowboard in MA?

 

Yes, although maybe it should be called icebound rather than snowboard

 

The three scariest Toyota 4Runner words for 2025: four cylinder turbo.

 

Yup. There’s around a dozen ski areas in MA plus VT and NH are only a couple hours away.

 

Quality (I'm pulling this out of my butt but I think it makes sense enough IMO.) is made up of people, processes and design. I'm thinking that the 5th gen production line has been dialed in for over a decade, people know the potential hangups putting it together, they haven't rocked the boat with cost-cutting in both processes and parts.

Now that we're starting over with a relatively fresh redesign, all three are likely in flux. The people factor probably will be most apparent fitment issues, the processes and parts resulting in bigger failures.

Cost-saving measures (whether process, like Toyota is blaming or the parts themselves) might have been fine in testing but once they hit the scale of production, problems can blindside the manufacturer.

I'm suspicious of the "debris left in engine" excuse since Hyundai/Kia pulled the same card over a decade ago and Theta II 4-cylinders manufactured years after it should have been fixed are still failing in the same way - albeit at a lower rate.

My reading of that situation is probably a bad process that was changed but a fundamentally-flawed engine design. So the million dollar question is whether Toyota technicians at dealers are paid enough to do the job right and whether the issue continues in later years.

 

FWIW, a Toyota salesman in MT told me last week that 5th gen production is ceasing and the current dealer allotments are the last of the run.