No replies to this topic

[nimblebear]

Was there to get a small recall done on my Camry, and at least on this day, the show room was buzzing with people ! Maybe its the cool spring weather here in Chicago, and folks are bored ? For what it's worth I have checked out other car brands, but Toyota overall still seems to be building the most solid and refined vehicles. For example, try driving a Ford Fusion Hybrid, then go check out Toyota's Avalon hybrid, and see which vehicle seems better built, most refined, quietest, and overall the best value. Can't comment on the remaining of the domestics, as there isn't a vehicle that seems particularly appealing. I wasn't really in the market, but more checking things out of curiosity. We have a Camry SE and Sienna and both have performed near flawlessly over the past 5 years. I did get extended maintenance contracts to 84,000 miles on each, and the one for the Sienna payed for itself, due to a cracked front CV boot. We only have around 50k miles on each, but my sense is that we could easily get 250k miles without much in the way of major repairs. Just normal stuff. I started the vehicles on Mobil synthetic and can go easily 10,000 between changes, but usually do it around 7500. If they built the filters in such a way that they could be changed without changing the oil, I'd do that every 5000 miles, and keep the synthetic in for 15,000 miles. The hybrid's sure are nice, and with an 8 year warranty, and the fact I'm hearing folks are getting longer than 8 years, that's very positive sign for those Toyota owners. And Ive heard too, that Ford is having issues with battery's and longevity on their hybrids. The upfront cost of vehicles certainly are not cheap these days, but if you choose something with the reliability of a Toyota, and one that you don't tire of the looks, you definitely can keep them for many miles and not worry too much about overall reliability or costly repairs down the road. With all the electronics built in, and especially blind spot monitoring, all the air bags, rear view camera's, sound dampening advances, etc cars these days are certainly a better value if you choose to keep them longer term. Anyway, this is one happy car guy, among many I'm sure that are owners of Toyota's, reporting from the automotive "trenches" of one dealer showroom in the burbs of Chicago ... P.S. If I had the space and the money, I'd truly love to own about 6 or 7 vehicles. When I was a kid, I had loads of Matchbox cars and would dream of owning an entire fleet of vehicles. It's still in my blood today, and I have no clue why. I hear Leno and Seinfeld have a number of vehicles, and I have to say I can appreciate why they spend their money that way. I think it's actually more appealing than would be having a harem of hot babes at my beck and call. And the odds of that happening anyway are between zilch and none.