Has Toyota reliability tanked?

Once upon a time, Toyotas were the most reliable cars on the road. But their reputation has been rocked this year by a series of high-profile recalls and catastrophic failures. How did this happen, and is it as bad as it looks? We're digging into the truth about Toyota's reliability.

At first, yeah, it's bad. In 2024 alone, after owner complaints piled up, Toyota recalled 100K Tundra pickups and Lexus LX SUVs for a manufacturing defect that could destroy the engine. It recalled over 200,000 Tacomas because the rear axles weren't put together correctly and parts could fall off. And even outside recalls, issues are popping up with the new Tacoma's transmission, continued GR86 engine failures due to oil starvation, and mysterious engine fires in the GR Corolla.

So Toyota has had an unusually terrible run, made worse by the way it's handled a lot of related warranty claims. But at the same time, there are specific causes behind many of these problems that aren't all that complicated to address. There's a bigger picture here. And ultimately, we think Toyota is going to figure it out.
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