It seems that Toyota has been having quality problems. The almighty Tundra is no longer recommended by Consumer Reports and it is having problems: "The survey also gave low marks to the V6 Camry’s automatic transmission, the V8 Tundra’s four-wheel-drive system"

"Consumer Reports removed high-end versions of three Toyota models — the Camry and Lexus GS sedans and the Tundra pickup truck — from its list of recommended vehicles and said it would stop recommending new or redesigned Toyota vehicles without data showing that past years’ versions were reliable."

I guess that means that Toyota stalwarts are now going to agree with Titan people that CR sucks!

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/bu...ss&oref=slogin

Consumer Reports can go to hell. I remember when the Hemi crowd was ganing together and sending in false reports about the Titan just so they could get a bad name.
They read about a few problems we were having and they blew it up.
Its hould be called Hater Reports.

yeah, the idiots over there are pretty inconsistent .... and unreliable themselves! still good to poke fun at their (turd owners) idea that the turd isn't superior in every aspect ......

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'04 2wd with PRG stuff......



"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? ... That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." --George W. Bush, Feb. 28, 2008

I read the CR article (for subscribers), and gave the 2WD 5.7 good marks, but not the 4WD. CR doesn't like the fact that in 4WD VSC is disabled, they think Toyota dropped the ball on that.
As anyone who off roads knows, you want VSC disabled,you don't want the throttle cut back in the middle of a bad spot.
When you read the review, it sounds positive until the last sentence when they say don't recommend it.
They also said the brakes were mediocre, but were the best of all the trucks they tested.

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2007 Tundra, Limited DC, 4X4,5.7L
NAV, TRD,TOW
Xlerator Exhaust
aFe Stage 2 CAI
Desert Sand Mica

Here's Toyota's response.

Consumer Reports’ decision not to recommend three Toyota vehicles does not signal an end to the company’s bulletproof quality reputation, Toyota’s U.S. sales chief told Automotive News today.

Jim Lentz, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., also said the automaker’s recent loss of three high-profile executives to Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. was not a matter of pay.

Saying that Toyota was “showing cracks in its armor” after years of sterling reliability, Consumer Reports on Tuesday said it could not recommend consumers purchase the redesigned 2007 V-6 Camry; the four-wheel-drive, V-8 version of the Tundra pickup; or the all-wheel-drive Lexus GS.

Still on top

Lentz said that despite the high-profile rebuff by the respected magazine, the Japanese automaker still placed first in reliability in six of eight categories, and 44 percent of the magazine’s recommended vehicles are Toyotas.

“The bad news from our perspective is we never want to see vehicles on the ‘not recommend’ list,” he said.

Lentz said that because of problems Toyota found with an automatic transmission, he was not surprised the V-6 Camry failed to make the recommended list. He said the problem was with design, not manufacturing, and was quickly corrected.

“We knew in the very beginning we had a transmission issue with that vehicle,” he said.

The problem caused the vehicle to either get stuck in second gear or shift past second gear roughly. The problem can be traced to a snap ring that holds the transmission housing together.

“I don’t think it’s going to have a long-term impact on the overall view of Toyota as a reliable product,” Lentz said.

He said he was more puzzled by Consumer Reports’ decision not to recommend the 4wd Tundra pickup with the V-8 engine and the awd Lexus GS. He said Toyota would have to study the issue.

Toyota has briefed its employees and dealers on the magazine’s results and assured them it will get to the bottom of the problems.

“We’ll go back as far as we can to isolate what the issue is and correct it,” Lentz said.

He said Toyota can still manage its quality effectively despite its rapid growth in the United States.

A brain drain?

Responding to other bad news for the automaker, Lentz said the losses of three top North American executives does not mean Toyota needs to modify its pay structure.

The three departing executives were Jim Press, who had been COO of Toyota Motor North America; Deborah Wahl Meyer, who had been vice president of marketing at Lexus; and Jim Farley, former general manager of Lexus.

All three executives had their own reasons for leaving that were not necessarily related to money, Lentz said.

“I don’t think it’s the motivating factor,” he said. “Was this a shock? Yes. Was it a surprise? Probably not, not when you get down into the real reasons that these folks left.”

He said Meyer, who joined Chrysler as chief marketing officer, wanted to move closer to family in the Detroit area.

“In the case of Jim Press, the job he was in in New York was really important, but I don’t think it was in line with what Jim really wanted to do,” he said. “Jim really loves the action of being closer to the dealers, and he really couldn’t do that from the position.”

Press now is co-president of Chrysler, a job that puts him in charge of sales, marketing and product strategy.

Farley, Lentz said, has a passion for Ford Motor Co. and has close family ties to the company. His grandfather was a metallurgist at Ford’s historic Rouge plant in Dearborn, Mich.

“Jim, I think, sees Ford Motor Company and sees an opportunity for him to make a difference to change the direction of Ford Motor Company,” Lentz said. “He almost, I think, feels an obligation to do that.”

Farley now is Ford’s group vice president of marketing and communications.

Lentz said Toyota already has replaced the departed executives. “We have a very deep bench,” he said.

“I think a lot of people started shopping Toyota,” he said. “I think the fact that we have been a much higher-profile company in the last few years is a blessing and a curse. The curse part of that is people (competitors) look at our people.”

He said Toyota’s strength doesn’t necessarily lie in its leadership team, however, but with middle management.

Courtesy of Automotive News.

IMHO, this report only goes to prove that ALL vehicles experience bugs and gremlins during their initial release. It's a big jump from testing in R & D to the real world. No amount of testing in the lab and at the proving ground is going to expose any design or engineering flaws like operation in the field.

A very reasoned response from the Toyota Folks. No getting upset at CR, just, we'll find out and fix it.

Also, I liked his comment of not liking any Toyota to be on the Not Recommended List.

Red

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2005 Titan KC SE, Helwig, True-Track, ARE MX Canopy

It was reported on PickupTruck.com that owners of the new Tundra pickup truck are experiencing a condition called "rumble strip", which is characterized by rough shifting and or hesitation in shifting. So far, it only affects the 6 spd automatic.

If any of us are affected, the article suggests that we go to tundrasolutions.com for further information. Toyota has acknowledged the problem and is currently working on rectifying the situation.

Here's an article that was sent to me.

Automotive News
October 22, 2007 - 12:01 am ET

LOS ANGELES — Toyota's Tundra pickup was hit with a double whammy last week.

Angry consumers are peppering the Internet with complaints that the torque converter in the 2007 Tundra's six-speed transmission has problems disengaging during gearshifts — a problem that Toyota acknowledges.

Meanwhile, the Tundra 4x4 model took a broadside from Consumer Reports magazine, which rated it "below average" in projected reliability.

Toyota thought it had put the redesigned Tundra's teething problems in the rearview mirror. First there was a batch of defective camshafts. Then it received a four-star rating in NHTSA crash tests, one star less than its Detroit rivals.

The latest quality snarl involves a vibration coming from the transmission when changing gears under gentle acceleration or deceleration.

Toyota Motor Sales officials have nicknamed the problem "the rumble strip" because the slippage causes vibration similar to the sensation of driving over the wake-up strips at the side of highways.

The rumbling usually lasts several seconds. But the problem sometimes worsens to the point that some owners can't shift into certain gears.

The problem has been reported only in six-speed transmissions, which are linked to the popular 5.7-liter V-8 engine. Since the 2007 Tundra's February launch, the 5.7-liter engine has been installed in 70 percent of about 135,000 Tundras sold. That means the problem could affect nearly 100,000 vehicles.

Tundra travails
Since its February launch, Toyota’s full-sized pickup has taken some hits related to quality.


Bad torque converter
Before Toyota's technical service department traced the problem to the torque converter, some Toyota dealers replaced entire transmissions, said Toyota spokesman John Hanson. If the vibration occurs now, likely only the torque converter will be replaced.

Toyota still is trying to trace what exactly is wrong with the torque converter.

Internal field reports have yet to show anyone stranded by the problem, Hanson said. But Tundra owners in several Internet chat rooms say their transmissions quit shifting properly, forcing them to limp the truck to a dealership. The rumble-strip effect often occurs within the first 1,000 miles of ownership.

Isolated instances
Pickup owners are especially particular about vehicle reliability, says Mike Levine, editor of the consumer Internet site pickuptruck.com.

Since Toyota staked its reputation on reliability, any problem makes it tougher for Toyota to persuade domestic loyalists to switch allegiances, Levine said.

Reports of the problem have been sporadic. Large dealers in northern California, Texas and Ohio said they had no reported owner complaints about Tundra transmissions. An executive for a group of Midwestern dealerships, speaking anonymously, said his mechanics had seen one or two instances.

Craig Whetter, executive vice president of Wilson Automotive Group, says the group's six Toyota stores in California and Arizona have sold 2,236 Tundras this year but have not seen a single bad torque converter.

"These guys haven't turned a bolt on one, let alone replaced one," Whetter said.

Of bigger concern to Toyota is the number of vehicles affected.

The faulty camshaft problem was limited to several hundred early-build vehicles, but owners of Tundras built as recently as September have complained of defective transmissions.

The torque converter for the six-speed transmission used with the 5.7-liter V-8 is built at an Aisin AW plant in Durham, N.C. Aisin officials declined to comment, referring interview requests to Toyota.

Oh the wonders of the INTERNET. Can you guys imagine the posts if there had been an internet during the 50s, 60s & 70s?
Do you remember the days before Ralph Nader forced the auto industry to take a look at the safety of cars. His focus on the Corvair was not totally deserved IMHO, but it did start the concept of Consumer Protection agencies. The Federal Govt. had to finally set some regulations for safety and redress by owners.
Do you recall the way cars ran so poorly during the period when OEMs were attempting to curb emissions? I can remember the terror of dual point ignitions on my '71 Datsun 510, balky carburetors with early electronic controls? I remember the pain of owning a Chevy Citation with the first computer in a car and the afore mentioned carb. It had the worst clutch in existence and so many manufacturing defaults, that if the lemon law had been in effect then, my car would have been a poster child.

By comparison, todays cars are nearly fault-free and built by OEMs that actually care what the public says about them.

Sure, Nissan and Toyota, and all the other OEMs have had a few problems; but, nothing like I remember from the earlier years.

Red

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2005 Titan KC SE, Helwig, True-Track, ARE MX Canopy