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Japanese cars do seem to be good. I got my Toyota MOT'ed on Friday. Just a couple of wiper blades.
Had it 4 years, 89,000 miles on it, and haven't had to spend a penny on it except routine stuff like tyres and wiper blades.
The engine light kept coming up: lambda sensor fault. A new one was nearly £500 from Toyota, a mechanic mate sourced a used one from a scrappy for £80. No guarantee it was any good of course but he fitted it and luckily it worked ok.
It used the black Forlife coolant instead of regular antifreeze. Great idea in principle but the stuff actually stains the inside of the coolant header bottle black and although it always looked full the coolant had all gone by servicing time. Turned out to be caused by a cracked radiator with a tiny weep. It was pure luck that I caught the problem before the engine boiled.
The cam belt had started fraying at 4 years/30,000 miles. They’re supposed to be replaced at 5 years/60,000. Again, pure luck it was spotted before the engine grenaded.
There were numerous other niggles too, but for me it put paid to the “Jap cars are amazingly reliable” theory. In fact the most reliable car I’ve ever owned was a Mk 1 Focus that never missed a beat in the 9 years I owned it. Just needed the usual regular service items, tyres and brake pads.
My mk1 Focus has that same lambda sensor issue. I replaced both but eventually it came back. In the end I got fed up of chucking money replacing all the items it 'could' be and traded it in, for a mk2.5 focus.
Was a decent car though. So was the facelift version.
I had a Mk1 Focus that was pretty good. The C Max I had after that had lots of problems, and the Citroen I had after that was even worse.
After those experiences, we paid £749 for an extended warranty on the Toyota when we bought it. Turned out to be a total waste of £749.
I wouldn't like to own a BMW out of warranty either.
My wife's last car was a mk 5 golf. It's 11 years old, we gave it away to someone who needed a car last year and it's still driving well.
Don't know how reliable our current mk 7 golfs will be though. I'll probably change mine in the next 12 months when I don't need a diesel anymore.
I can't say it would be practical for me to sell the van and get an MX5, there's not much space in them to convert to a day camper...
This is the most spectacular MOT failure I ever had when my band was running a 15 year old Transit van .... basically the whole thing was rotten as a pear ..... I turned up at the garage and asked if it had passed .... he said "passed !!! I'm still sweeping it off the ramps !!"
Current band Transit is 12 years old 160, 000 miles ... no probs so far
When I drove old Mini's you could buy a clutch plate for £10 and fit it yourself.
I've driven Lexus for the last six years.....faultless. (posh Toyota from Japan)