Corolla Quality Going Downhill ?

unfortunately, I also have the same problem with the lid on the dash, it broke because once a flimsy

pair of sunglasses were caught inside. I took the cover off because there was no easy fix.

Next time, buy a japan assebled vehicle.

I think the era of cheap, but high quality, Japanese cars is over. My mum and pop's Civic and Accord was built in 1985 and 1988 in Japan using mostly Japanese made parts. These two cars had virtually zero problems, and they are still providing reliable transportation. My '92 Corolla (Canadian made) is also very reliable. On the other hand, my friends' newer Civics, Corollas, Sentras, etc all seem to have issues. They all want to upgrade their vehicle as soon as they make all payments. The newer high priced Japanese cars are still very well made. My colleague's Acura TL has performed flawlessly, and its quality rival those from Germany.

Therefore, I've come to the following conclusion about Japanese cars in general. In recent years the economy cars of Japanese brand have taken a nose dive in quality and reliability; while mid and premium level cars of Japanese brand have increased quality and maintained bullet proff reliability.

I think the trend of Japanese brand is very much predictable. What I mean is that as Japanese brands take over the more lucrative mid and premium car maker, the Japanese brands will focus more on the profitable part of the business, and can care less about the less profitable parts. They want us to feel unsatisfied with our Corollas and buy mid level or premium products like Camary or Avalon. If they make Corollas with high quality and reliability, who would want to upgrade?

i have heard that the honda civics are suffering too these days.

Anything made in the good ole USA = poor quality.

Soon, the chinese will make better quality cars.

I own two Corollas, one is a 2001 and the other 2007. I bought both of them brand new. The 2001 has 210,000 miles on it and the 2007 has 4000 miles. I could write a lot on the subject about compairing the two cars but in summary I prefer to drive the 2001 more. The 2007 is more attractive and has more room inside but other than that, the 2001 is better in everthing else. I guess I can't really complain though because the 2007 was actually less expensive than the 2001, either that or I just learned more about bargaining for a car over the years.

Wow, 210k miles on an 01' model. That will show all those nay-sayers around here (particularly TRCar54) who have been criticising the 8th gen Corollas as unreliable. My car is definately very reliable, but god it's so cheaply built! You can push on the plastic moldings in my car and feel it move. I wish Toyota had put some re-enforcements on it, or some foaming inside so it felt sturdier. As for broken console door Lethal 7, I wouldn't knock Toyota for that. Luxury cars aren't built out of titanium; they have plastic interiors and can be broken too. The previous owner of my friend's Audi snapped the cigarette lighter/ashtray cover. What's worse, because it's an exclusive Audi part that's hard to comeby on places like eBay, he had to get it replaced for about $100. To replace a console door on a Corolla would probably be half as much.

Cheaply shouldn't be neccessarily considered a bad thing. In many hisorical cases, the most simply designed machines often beat those that are more complex and harder to fix. A Corolla beats out the competition because not only reliability, but expense. You compare mantenance costs of Corollas against luxury cars, or even near luxury cars like a beefed up Camry, and the Corolla wins. Everything from oil changes and tires, to console parts and seat covers are exponentially cheaper to replace. Although I like this aspect of Corollas, I do wish that Toyota offered an upscale version of the Corolla, maybe even a Lexus version of the Corolla.

I was wondering about the build quality of the newer generation Toyotas...I owned a 1988 4x4 pickup with the 3.0L for about 9 years with relatively few reliabilty issues (except for body rust, a problem I accepted). Sadly, she bid farewell to me 2 weeks ago, but with 270,000KM on a 19 year old truck, I wasn't complaining a lot...it owned me nothing, and she gave me a lot of trouble free kilometers. I found a worthy replacement..a 2003 Corolla CE 5 speed with only 55,000KM on her...Unfortunately, I test drove her in a rainstorm, and what I thought was tire noise turned out to be a faulty right rear wheel bearing....at 55,000 (actual) kilometers? I was kind of nonplussed, but since I replaced the bearing, she runs faultlessly...LOVE my 'Yotal !!!

The quality of my 2006 Corolla is first class. Now with 15000 kms, no faults, no squeaks or rattles, bodywork as tight as a drum. Runs smooth and quiet and for a small car, mine is the wagon/estate, is super value for money. I use synthetic engine oil, changed the gearbox (manual) oil to synthetic at 7000 kms and just changed the power steering fluid to synthetic. My other car is a Kluger/Highlander V6 which has also been flawless. The best car quality wise I have owned was a Volvo 940 which was superb and built like a battleship but my 2 Toyotas will last for ages I hope.

Roger

g'day,

i was employed by rotawheels (rotawheels.com) before and was involved in the development of alloy wheels for toyota oem.

of all the japanese carmaker, toyota is very meticulous w/ regards to quality. it must pass very rigid destructive testing (30 deg impact, 45 deg impact, cornering fatigue test, salt spray test and dimensional test). most of the time all the destructive testing parameters are set higher than the standard JASO parameters recommend. during the development all wheel samples are are been brought to japan for testing confirmation even though they have pass w/ flying colors during in house testing. during my tenure in that company never have i seen wheel separation/ disintegration.

with regards w/ my corolla the only problem i experience is the roof pillar support plastic cover sometimes fall. if i see it it gonna fall all i gonna do is just snap it back to its position. its annoying but overall i am very satisfied and happy w/ my corolla.

rey t

Keep talking....you're good at that.

I see you've learned a new word.

Wow, 210k miles on an 01' model. That will show all those nay-sayers around here (particularly TRCar54) who have been criticising the 8th gen Corollas as unreliable.

...........exponentially cheaper to replace. Although I like this aspect of Corollas, I do wish that Toyota offered an upscale version of the Corolla, maybe even a Lexus version of the Corolla.

I think all the car makers are having trouble because current cars are way more complex then they used to be and build cost is tighter then (insert first thing that comes to mind).

I chose a Toyota because of the value that they hold and in 05, I liked the Corolla better then the Civic. Other cars are more exciting, and have more power, but for now, I'm banking on the Corollas value to hold up so when trade in comes, it is not a worthless piece of crap worth $400. At the moment, trade in value is more then we owe on our car, so if we trade up when car payments are over, we should be able to upgrade.

Quality aside, Toyota and Honda still hold value, and that's all I care about.

Good points all.

I bought mine strictly as a 30K per year commuter car that will get me through the year with minimal maintenance. It has proven to do just that for me.

I just read an article a few weeks ago.....not sure where, but it stated that the trend is for people to lump "Japanese Cars" together in terms of quality and reliability. It went on to state that the others are quite far behind Toyota and Honda in that regard and aren't much better (if at all) than the American offerings.

I think all the car makers are having trouble because current cars are way more complex then they used to be and build cost is tighter then (insert first thing that comes to mind).

I chose a Toyota because of the value that they hold and in 05, I liked the Corolla better then the Civic. Other cars are more exciting, and have more power, but for now, I'm banking on the Corollas value to hold up so when trade in comes, it is not a worthless piece of crap worth $400. At the moment, trade in value is more then we owe on our car, so if we trade up when car payments are over, we should be able to upgrade.

Quality aside, Toyota and Honda still hold value, and that's all I care about.