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Originally Posted by Merc1 I bet no one is laughing at Toyota now with all their newer products having one glitch after another. It is very true that Toyota is best known for reliability and if they lose that with increased production they'll be in more trouble than any German car maker. German car brands like Mercedes in particular have had huge problems with reliability as have BMW and Audi yet they're all on the rise all over the world. Why you ask? Because they never dropped or lost sight of the other things that made each one of them special and more importantly they innovate and aren't afraid to change things up with a new, fresh and exciting design. Toyota isn't known for any of that, only ugly or snoozebox styling combined with top-shelf reliability. The press will tear Toyota apart as quickly as they did Mercedes and others Euros if Toyota really does start a truly noticeable drop in reliability. Toyota has said over the last year or so that they were worried about increased produciton erroding their quality and it looks like it is happening to a degree. Toyota recalled more cars last year than ever before and now look their bread and butter Camry has a transmission problem. Nothing to laugh at when your core (really only) strength is being compromised. Euros have other strenghts and Honda, Hyundai and Nissan will gladly duplicate whatever market position Toyota has if they were to ever fall.
Also with DCX, BMW and GM all working overtime on hybrids it is just a matter of time before Toyota sees their grip/advantage there diminished also.
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I have to agree with this post.
Part of the reason the press tore Mercedes (and other Germans) apart was because these brands were known for quality. So the moment things starting going wrong for them, the press had a field day. I suppose this also helped establish Toyota's luxury brand, Lexus, because if the German luxury carmakers made unreliable cars, then Lexus, being Japanese, had to be super perfect right?
On other forums, all the Toyota trolls keep lammenting on "BMW or Mercedes used to be reliable once..." <--- They're making it sound as if these car companies can never be reliable again. As if the word "reliability" is something that is passed from one carmaker to the next. What bullshit. Also, the Lexus fans like to proclaim their cars as the "best built in the world"... more delusions. While no one denies that Lexus makes good cars, I have sat in some of the newer Mercedes' and I can attest that build quality has once again become a priority at Stuttgart. And with Schremp gone, I see more money being invested into the divisions that count: R&D, testing etc.