Tacoma Lemon!!

Just wanted to pass on my disapointing experience to any potential Tacoma buyers.
Got a new 2001 Taco 4x4 xtra cab sr5 off the lot 16 months ago. I have babied it and NEVER taken it off road. Had immediate rattling and suspention problems the first week. From there the dash developed a symphony of squeeks, groans and rattles. Seat and clutch are now dooing same. Fender and interior moulding s have popped and other hardware has loosened as well. Even failed to start already on one occasion. 5 trips to the dealer have left me with nothing but regrets and frustration. Same goes for a letter to the company. Too bad, truck drives and handles nice but is built like a Hyundai. I havn't had this much trouble with my last 5 new vehicles combined! This is my first and last toyota. I could never justify the extra buying price to risk this kind of quality again.
FWIW, Several friends with new toyotas have had similar , but not as frequent complaints.
With all the "TOYOTA rules" advice I got, I'd just figured I'd pass along that their QA /qualityis not as great as you might think.

freak accident. my family has had far past 10 toyotas of most kinds and nothing of that sort has ever happend... my truck has 114k on it and it hasnt failed to start once. it does have some rattling in the dash, but that is due to my 10" sub behind my seat.

trent

Originally posted by Wee Hooker
Just wanted to pass on my disapointing experience to any potential Tacoma buyers.
Got a new 2001 Taco 4x4 xtra cab sr5 off the lot 16 months ago. I have babied it and NEVER taken it off road. Had immediate rattling and suspention problems the first week. From there the dash developed a symphony of squeeks, groans and rattles. Seat and clutch are now dooing same. Fender and interior moulding s have popped and other hardware has loosened as well. Even failed to start already on one occasion. 5 trips to the dealer have left me with nothing but regrets and frustration. Same goes for a letter to the company. Too bad, truck drives and handles nice but is built like a Hyundai. I havn't had this much trouble with my last 5 new vehicles combined! This is my first and last toyota. I could never justify the extra buying price to risk this kind of quality again.
FWIW, Several friends with new toyotas have had similar , but not as frequent complaints.
With all the "TOYOTA rules" advice I got, I'd just figured I'd pass along that their QA /qualityis not as great as you might think.

Sorry to hear about you experiences. My father and I each have a 1993 Toyota Truck...Mine has 124k miles and his has 122k miles. They are both extremely reliable.....though both of their dashboards rattle like a mother.... :)

I do have a friend with a 2001 Prerunner 4cylinder. His power steering pump went out at about 25k miles.....but the dealer replaced it.

Originally posted by Wee Hooker
Just wanted to pass on my disapointing experience to any potential Tacoma buyers.
Got a new 2001 Taco 4x4 xtra cab sr5 off the lot 16 months ago. I have babied it and NEVER taken it off road. Had immediate rattling and suspention problems the first week. From there the dash developed a symphony of squeeks, groans and rattles. Seat and clutch are now dooing same. Fender and interior moulding s have popped and other hardware has loosened as well. Even failed to start already on one occasion. 5 trips to the dealer have left me with nothing but regrets and frustration. Same goes for a letter to the company. Too bad, truck drives and handles nice but is built like a Hyundai. I havn't had this much trouble with my last 5 new vehicles combined! This is my first and last toyota. I could never justify the extra buying price to risk this kind of quality again.
FWIW, Several friends with new toyotas have had similar , but not as frequent complaints.
With all the "TOYOTA rules" advice I got, I'd just figured I'd pass along that their QA /qualityis not as great as you might think.

For some reason the later '01s came out like thi and the half ay through the '02 was like this.

I seen more Tacos from these two sets ith the same problem. Overall Tacomas are a really good truck, and so is the Tundra. I had special order the '04 and it's great. Another good truck is the T-100, but get the ext cab it looks better thean the regular cab. It's a shame they drop this if only they waited a year longer they would have seen their sales surpass the F-150s

Sorry to hear about the problems.

Just to let you know, all trucks have problems no matter who makes them. I've found that Toyota, while they do have problems like yours, are overall better made.

My family has had two domestics- a 86' Caprice and an 01' S10.
The caprice was a piece from the start. New engine at 20K, new tranny at 50K. That car had so many rattles I could hear them over the radio full blast.

the S10 was mine. Brand new and I kept it for 2 months before selling it for my Camry. The second day I had it, the shift knob came of the stick(ther are glued on). The first time it rained, my passenger area got flooded because the morons at the plant did not put the correct weather striping on the door. And don't ever get the 4 banger, that truck couldn't get out of its own way for shit.

So, every vehicle can have problem yes. But, I bet if you got a new Tacoma you would like it better than a Dakota or S10 or anything else out there.

just my $.02

You got a rare freak of nature Toyota Tacoma. Also you said paying more for this truck, then what? I have recently been looking for trucks comparable to Toyota Tacomas and Toyota Tundras and unless you want to get a really crappy S-10 with nothing in it then you are actually going to pay more. I guess it depends where you live and everything but I will be driving a Toyota or Toyota product (hopefully a Lexus one day) until the day I cannot drive anymore. Thats my .05 cents on that deal!

one face says it all::confused: