The first car that I bought brand new, right off the showroom floor, was a 1971 Toyota Corona. I kept it for 8 years and never should have traded it in.
Japanese cars were unusual at the time. In fact, “made in Japan” was synonymous with cheap. We had learned in preceding years that foreign cars were likely to give you more for the money, but that applied to cars made in Europe, not Japan. Buying a Japanese car was a leap into the unknown. People soon discovered that Toyota made better cars than any company in America.
Toyota currently has some PR problems, but I doubt that its cars have serious mechanical issues. I just don’t believe the runaway car syndrome, at least not as it’s being pitched. I didn’t believe the Audi 5000 had those problems despite a similar scare in the 1980s. Nobody could replicate the problem, and I find it much easier to believe that the driver went bonkers rather than the car.
The plaintiffs’ bar will have a field day before public opinion begins to turn. There are too many people who tend to blame everything on government conspiracies and corporate cover-ups. There is a large constituency for regulating just about everything, and the government is gearing up to do just that with brakes that override gas pedals. Please.
I find this much more convincing.
So I suspect that you can get a pretty good deal on a Toyota about now, and I have every reason to believe that a Toyota is still a better car than most others. But I need to act fast before the government adds another costly and useless safety device that will ensure that your cars stops when you have both pedas mashed to the floor.
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