In December 2023, my wife made the wise decision to stop trying to drive a 22-year-old BMW 40,000 miles a year, and instead bought a Toyota for that task. She chose a 2012 Scion iQ for its combination of cutesy weirdness and Toyota reliability. We have driven this car more than 56,000 miles since then, and some bizarre issues have cropped up. The most annoying among them is the fact that the car keeps bricking itself (possibly not its fault — possibly because of a modification), and nobody seems to have a concrete explanation for why.
One of the perks of working from home is that I don’t need to have a “daily driver.” I basically never drive anywhere unless it’s for fun, for an appointment, or to visit friends and family. Because of this, I probably drive my own vehicles no more than maybe 5,000 miles a year, and the vast majority of those miles are put onto something like a single motorcycle for fun weekend rides. Thus, I own basically nothing but cars that were either known for unreliability or would be impractical for a road warrior. People are always surprised when they find that I don’t own a single “normal” car, but that’s the catch: I never have to depend on my cars for anything too serious! If one of my cars breaks down on the road, I can also bodge them back together enough to get back home.
It’s the exact opposite for Sheryl. She is in her car six to seven days a week, and may drive anywhere between 30,000 miles to 40,000 miles annually. Realistically, she doesn’t really have the luxury of having her car broken for more than a couple of days at the most. She can’t really own a car with super rare parts or really finicky build quality. My cars are decent vehicles to drive in the case of an emergency, but I cannot guarantee that my Volkswagens, BMWs, or Smarts won’t try to do something stupid while she’s in downstate Illinois. She also doesn’t have my ability to fix a broken car just enough to limp to a destination.
The Scion iQ was supposed to be the best of all worlds. It’s a weird car like my Smarts, but with Toyota reliability! I have seen lots of iQs with more than 250,000 miles on them, too, so I know they’re good for the long haul.
Love At First Drive
Things were great at first. The iQ had all of 67,000 miles on it when we picked it up, and it was a tight car. The steering was sharp and precise, and it went down the highway surprisingly well for a city car. My favorite part was how the iQ needs basically no space at all to perform a U-turn. The stereo was also a big highlight, and reflected Scion’s old attempts to attract younger buyers with bold colors and loud speakers. Sheryl said that she scored 40 mpg without even trying.
Look, I’m such a huge fan of Smart that I used to own six Fortwos, and even I have to admit that Toyota built a better car than a Smart. Unfortunately for Toyota, building a better car didn’t result in better sales.
Perhaps the biggest test of Sheryl’s iQ was when, in early 2024, we drove the car basically across America along the old path of Route 66. That little car felt like it had conquered America, the Rockies, and all, even though it was really built to rule the confines of New York City or Chicago. We’ve driven this car as far west as the Grand Canyon and as far east as Asheville, North Carolina. The car’s Carfax suggests that, in the hands of previous owners, it’s been even further east.
The iQ has also survived one heck of a beating in our fleet. The car has taken on a full truck tire “gator,” been involved in two minor crashes, and, of course, about 56,000 miles of hard driving. Thankfully, Sheryl’s driving has reduced to about 30,000 miles a year, but that’s still a lot, especially for a car that was never designed to race down the American autobahn. Yet, the iQ has taken the hits in stride, mostly.
After our Route 66 trip, we identified the worst problems with the iQ, namely, the car’s seats, which had about the same long-term comfort as transit bus seats, and the cruise control, or, specifically, the lack of it. Since the iQ has a wee 1.3-liter four with 94 HP on tap and a CVT, you’re usually giving the pedal some push to keep it at typically American highway speeds. That gets tiring on a super long road trip, as the iQ doesn’t have cruise control.
Thankfully, the aftermarket has long solved this problem, and we had a cruise control installed. At least in the Scion iQ, there’s a plug-and-play harness, but also wiring that needs to be tapped into an existing harness. The cruise control cost $800, of which $315 was for the unit.
The Car Bricked Itself A Year Ago
Sheryl then drove 15,000 to 20,000 miles before an insane failure happened. From my previous post:
Every once in a while, the car randomly went into limp mode after misfiring. The check engine light flashed, the car lost power, and slowed down to a crawl. Thankfully, restarting the vehicle restored all functions. The issue didn’t happen again until October. Then, out of nowhere, the issue came back and it appeared both frequently and seemingly entirely at random.
I pulled the codes and found myself baffled. The vehicle recorded a misfire on every cylinder but also a P2121 “Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch Circuit Range/Performance” code. The vehicle has fresh, name-brand plugs and excellent compression on every cylinder. I couldn’t find any obvious reason for a supposed total engine misfire. Even the car’s battery tested healthy. Eventually, the reported misfires disappeared, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going on there.
What didn’t disappear was the flashing check engine light and limp mode condition. It seemed as if at least once a week Sheryl would report the car going into limp mode with the P2121 code being thrown during the event. Then, this hit a fever pitch. One day, Sheryl left a southern Illinois courthouse to find someone actively slashing her tires. She scared off the guy before the tool went through the tire. But then something truly confusing happened during her five-hour drive home that made us think the vandal did something else. A few minutes after she entered the highway, the engine’s revs shot to redline. She didn’t change her pressure on the pedal. Instead, it seemed the car was trying to accelerate entirely on its own. Thankfully, the car entered into a safe mode where it wouldn’t travel faster than about 10 mph while the engine was seemingly running away.
Eventually, Sheryl was able to limp the car off the highway at 10 mph while the engine redlined. She let the car sit for 30 minutes, and then the vehicle allowed her to drive the five hours or so home without incident.
Once the car got home, I was able to replicate her issue, and it was shocking. A light would turn green, I would hit the gas, and the engine would bang off the rev limiter, but without any movement from the car. Or, alternatively, I’d hit the gas and nothing would happen. The car just sat as if I didn’t have the pedal welded to the floor. If I were lucky, the car merely went into limp mode and I had a top speed of 45 mph. Sometimes, the car could be cruising at 60 mph, and suddenly, the pedal would stop working.
I had a theory as to what happened here. About once a month or so, a Smart owner comes into a forum or group and complains that their gas pedal mysteriously no longer works. Back in my IT days, I learned that a great way to troubleshoot is to uninstall modifications first, and then start with a stock system. So, that was the advice I gave those people. I noticed that nearly all of the people who had pedal issues in their Smarts also had aftermarket cruise control systems. I’d have them disconnect their cruise controls, and in an instant, their gas pedals began working again.
As it turned out, some aftermarket cruise controls in Smarts have substandard soldering, and when the soldering goes, the gas pedal gets bad signals. This is because the cruise control routes directly through the digital pedal, so bad signals coming from the cruise control go into the pedal.
It sounds like there might be a similar issue that can happen with aftermarket cruise controls in Toyotas, too. At any rate, the cruise control had a warranty, so Sheryl had the dealer investigate. Here’s what was found:
A couple of techs at the local Toyota dealer worked through the weekend to replicate and troubleshoot the problem. The limp mode issue never showed up for them.
However, the tech who installed the cruise control found a bunch of fault codes stored in the cruise control unit itself plus that persistent P2121 from the car. Their diagnosis? The cruise control is having a failure of some kind, which sends bad signals to the accelerator pedal sensor. As for the P2121, it was found that the pedal sensor was also failing. The consensus is that the cruise control failure damaged the accelerator pedal sensor.
Unfortunately, the cruise control warranty covered only the unit itself. Since Toyota does not sell the accelerator pedal sensor itself, you have to replace the entire gas pedal. We ended up paying out of pocket to replace the pedal. It stung, but Sheryl got her car back with a shiny new pedal that actually worked better than the car’s original one.
The dealership then had us drive the car for a month with the cruise control disconnected to see if anything happened. The car drove just great, so the dealer decided to replace the bad cruise control with a new one. Finally, I thought, it was all over.
Here We Go Again
That was back in December 2024. It is now October, roughly 10 months and about 25,000 miles or so later. Sheryl has been telling me that her car is broken again. This time, the car has new and exciting issues for us.
The first is that our old friend P2122 came back. This time, the error manifests itself in a weird way. In most instances, we hit the gas and nothing happens. But as a twist, restarting the car doesn’t fix it, and hitting the gas after a restart results in the same non-movement. Sometimes, we have to restart the car two or three times before the pedal begins working again.
The other issue is that, at least once a day, as soon as I hit the gas, the engine sputters, stalls, and shuts down. Restarting the car sometimes results in it immediately sputtering and shutting down again. This issue is always accompanied by the pedal not working. If the pedal is working, the car isn’t stalling. Annoyingly, the car is not producing any engine codes when this happens. I don’t even find any “secret” codes with my fancy Autel scanner. Just the frustrating P2122.
There are two more issues, too. The CVT emits a concerning whine, and, when idle, I can feel a slight miss in the engine. Some of this is explainable. The car has 123,000 miles now, and according to the service records I could find, the car has its original spark plugs. I bet the slight miss will be solved with a spark plug change. That should also fix the problem we’ve been having with the car scoring only 23 mpg recently.
The rest of the issues are leaving me scratching my head. This time around, the dealership is unsure if the cruise control is a cause of the issue or just a symptom of it. At any rate, their solution is to just replace the pedal and the cruise control again. I don’t like this resolution, because that’s what didn’t work last time, and there’s no guarantee it’ll work this time. The pedal is a $200 part, and it’s insane that we’ve now lost two pedals in the span of just 10 months.
But I’m not really sure what to do about this. I’m not entirely sure how to troubleshoot this outside of just deleting the cruise control entirely, replacing the pedal again, and hoping we don’t end up right back here 10 months from now. But Sheryl loves the cruise control, and will hate staring at a dead cruise control stick, knowing she spent $800 on a pile of crap that she can’t use.
I feel like there are three possibilities here. Either the new cruise control encountered an error and killed the pedal again, or the pedal is dying because of some other issue with the car, or there’s some issue within the pedal part itself. Worse, since it takes 20,000 or more miles for the pedal to die, replicating it isn’t easy.
Solutions?
At the very least, I have a temporary solution. There’s no way around it; the current pedal is trash. So I’ll buy another one. Only two bolts hold it on, so I’ll install it myself. This time, instead of having the dealer replace the cruise, we’ll just disconnect it. We also called up an independent Toyota mechanic just to get a second opinion on what’s going on here.
Replacing the spark plugs is a bigger job than it should be. To get to the spark plugs, you have to remove the windshield wipers, the cowling, the airbox, and move around the rubber hoses. It’s a royal pain, and that’s due to the really tight packaging in the engine bay. I’m thinking about replacing the ignition coil packs while I’m in there.
Normally, I would not touch coil packs unless I know they are having issues. However, there are three things on my mind. The first is that these packs have 123,000 miles on them already, and Sheryl beats the crap out of this car. The second is that, if I replace the plugs, button the car back up, and find out the coils are bad, I’m not going to be happy to have to tear it back down again. The third is that, as I stated earlier, Sheryl doesn’t have the luxury of downtime. The car can’t be broken while I’m futzing around with coils and diagnosing issues. So, I’m feeling like I’ll just throw a fresh set of OEM coils in there as peace of mind. In the worst case, the original coils can be spares.
I’m hoping that, between the new plugs, coils, gas pedal, and disconnected cruise, the car will stop bricking itself and go back to being the reliable Toyota that it used to be.
Sadly, I’m not entirely sure what to do about the CVT aside from changing the fluid again. We changed the CVT fluid at 80,000 miles. The transmission has been whisper-quiet until about 5,000 miles ago. Now it’s loud again, just like it was during our Route 66 trip. The dealer says that the transmission will “either whine for the next 150,000 miles or blow up next week.”
At the very least, I have been able to confirm that there are plenty of complaints online about dying gas pedals and CVT whine in Scion and Toyota iQs. That bit is fascinating, but also reassuring. It’s good to know that it’s not just us experiencing these bizarre issues. I suppose it’s also sort of sad. You’d think that drive-by-wire would be so reliable that the idea of pressing the gas and nothing happening would be nearly impossible. Yet, here we are.
Anyway, here’s where I turn things over to you. Am I on the right track here? Am I missing something? Is this darn car haunted? Hopefully, the next time I write an update about this car, it will be a bit happier.
A lot of you seem to be insinuating that I bought her this car and forced her to drive it, and therefore I’m being a dick to my wife. She bought it with her own money. It was her decision to get it. I just made sure that, at the time of purchase, it wasn’t a pile of junk.
She is now considering just getting something boring, but functional, like a Prius.
2nd gen, make sure it has JBL sound option. Fantastic cars.
Neither you nor Sheryl seem like the kind of people that would put up with being “forced” into putting up with anything you didn’t like. And I mean that in the best possible way.
Good.
Yeah. I prefer a funky car but my commute for the last 15 years has been short and I have plenty of project cars to use as backups. I am starting a new job with a 1 hour commute each way so it is time to get something reliable, even if it is boring.
Good to hear re the Prius or similar. I believe the tangential point a lot of us were making is that you’re the car person in the relationship. With the ability to emphatically point out the pros and cons of car decisions. Prius: Pro: Good reputation, economical to run, good gas mileage. Con: Boring to those who value vehicle dynamics (not relevant on 30k+ year freeway slogs), may be noisier on highway due to focus on lightweight construction. If being kept over 200k, may cost more to fix than a regular Corolla that gets good mileage as well.
The Prius gets a lot of flack for poor vehicle dynamics but (at least the 2011 I drove for a while) it’s no worse than any other Toyota outside of their sports cars. The power steering isn’t as overboosted and it has less body roll than most of their other vehicles
Frankly, should she get two, given her milage? Would a dedicated salt season make sense? She’s running enough miles that two cars doesn’t seem stupid.
Will you actually hold on to the Prius this time or loan it to an irresponsible person who will then total it again? 😉
But yes, that’s definitely the right answer. Fuel efficient, dead nuts reliable (except the gen 3 head gasket issue…), and not nearly as awful to drive on the highway as I have to imagine an iQ is.
That was a lesson that cost us thousands to learn the hard way, and I wish I were kidding. Now, whenever someone asks to borrow a car, I just politely decline.
Glad to hear it. I’m super happy people like you and your wife exist and I don’t want to see you get taken advantage of.
Good call. There are companies that specialize in that! And if they don’t want to lend the person a car, then you certainly don’t either.
I think a lot of it comes from a place of genuine advice, but with the way internet commenting tends to go, it’s all too easy for sincerity to be lost in translation, and a well meaning comment misses a few words and comes across as condescending. Don’t let it be a cloud on your day, that’s all I’m sayin’!
What’s the over/under until we get an article regarding 2nd Gen Prius head gasket replacement.
Why was a person trying to slash her tires at the courthouse?
Never mind, found Sheryl’s comment below, at courthouse where either a defendant or plaintiff, sometimes both, will blame the lawyer for the outcome of their previous actions. Good work to represent those who do no have the means to hire an attorney, being charged is not the same as being guilty, hell sometimes being found guilty is not the same as being guilty. Stay smart, stay safe. Hopefully it is legal to carry pepper spray or a taser in the state or states where you practice.
If you are considering a Prius, how about its sibling the Lexus CT?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus_CT
It’s a Prius in a Lexus suit, with the same engine, hybrid system etc, but a different body and a nicer interior (it almost certainly has cruise control as standard)
Sold in the US between 2011-2017 in far greater numbers than the IQ, so finding a nice one should be easy.
Damn, I’m sorry the discussion got so sour. I know a lot of us were having a good time trying to pitch in for the diag, at least. And definitely I hope nothing I said came off that way. These things said, I think especially for her, fun & funky is a little lower priority than functional. She’s still got access to your vast tiny fleet for more, ahem, exciting driving experiences 😉
Horrible car choices over and over again. I don’t know what you are doing with yourself, but maybe try another route.
“Those who would sacrifice fun for reliability deserve neither”
ha! I won’t really argue that, but I would ask….does anything she writes about with her cars look fun? I haven’t seen a single article from Mercedes about her own vehicles that I could describe even halfway “fun”. The stuff she tests and borrows, sure, but not what she buys.
Well, look at her Smarts-she obviously adores the little things, faults included. I’m a jeep guy. My buddies all have pickup trucks, we live in an area where a man actually NEEDS a truck. And I stubbornly refuse to cave and buy a nice truck, I just make my jeep live a tortured existence of doing truck stuff, and with that comes the work involved in keeping a 200,000 mile Chrysler product running.
They don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense at all.
But I love it, and refuse to let it go, logic be damned. Mercedes has that mentality, and if nothing else, you gotta admit that makes her an extremely entertaining writer, and gives her tons of inspiration for good content.
Mercedes already has 27 unreliable cars and works from home. Her cars can be the ‘content.’
Her wife is a lawyer and drives insane miles. She just needs a comfortable car that 100% works.
Right, that was probably the thinking behind the “let’s try a Toyota product”
But while she did ask for advice and you have a totally valid opinion, it can be hard to walk away from a car that is unique, special, and probably already paid for.
Agreed, but 30,000miles a year has a cost, paid off or not. This is like the thunderdome of car entropy.
I would guess this iQ is costing more in gas, time, maintenance and repairs than a new Toyota.
Without a doubt. There’s a saying “If you can’t afford a brand new BMW, you DEFINITELY can’t afford a used one.”
But I’d argue again that buying a car and putting 30,000 miles of depreciation on it a year will evaporate money faster than a car that has 600 bucks in parts going bad over 30k miles.
Yeah. If they can afford to buy outright or arrange their own lending, CPO is definitely the sweet spot in this conundrum.
This definitely comes own to a TCO calculation for a given car.
New car at 3% plus the depreciation hit, vs. 1-3year old car at 8%. (I don’t know the rates in Illinois.)
I still think they need to ask their accountant about the possibility of writing off a lease.
My wife’s comments are twofold. You can have another Mercedes Benz when you can sfford two of them. Plus you have to remove a car you own to get another car. She is cruel but obviously correct
See that’s why you gotta start with a shitbox, and build the reality in their mind that “two is one and one is none.”
Gotta have a backup car. And if your backup car is another Mercedes, dude your just living the dream.
Exactly why we have a Hyundai Ionic from 2019. And a set of winter wheels and tires. My toys are all from a previous century. I love saying that. The Del Sol allows me to count the number of bolts on the wheels of whatever behemoth is next to me at the traffic light. The Cabriolet needs a battery again. The RX camper mobile snorts petrol like an 89’s coke head. And today I voted for the Alfa. Get your wife a reliable highway car and park the Toy with your Smarts.
PS. We rented that Toy in a vacation in Puerto Rico. I’m 6’2 and >200 lb. It was terrible.
DT’s wife NHRN (pronounced ‘erin’?) has a Lexus, so should Mercedes’
You have ONE Jeep. And YOU drive it. Not a half dozen of the same thing that are apparently standing in the way of your loved one driving something safe, reliable, comfortable, and for intergalactic mileages.
I guess the angle I’m coming from is one of being in relatively the same position last fall. Tranny went out in our caravan. My plan was immediately to toss a $1k junkyard tranny it, and drive up to the dealership and trade it for a newer van. As a husband and a dad, I pride myself on putting my wife and kids in the nicest, newest thing I can. Thats how we ended up with the van in the first place, after all. It also made ALOT more sense than buying a $4000 brand new trans and installing it in a vehicle that is worth like $6500 bucks and falling, what with the rest of the van having 130,000 miles.
But dude. When I suggested this to the wife it was like telling her I was giving away one of the kids. She didn’t want a 700 dollar a month payment, and she didn’t want a shiny new car. She wanted HER van, and she wanted it fixed.
I love cars. I love em so much that the excitement of getting a new one almost always outweighs any attachment I’ve built to a car. Some people, like my wife, aren’t that way. I see a dime-a-dozen caravan GT that was dated and mediocre when it was new 7 years ago. She sees it as a part of her life.
Sometimes things don’t have to make sense to make sense.
So you never read the stories about the Honda Life, MGF, diesel Smart, BMW E6q, etc? I don’t always write sad stories. 🙂 Besides, let’s be real, a lot of you come to this website to read about the dumb things that we do. We’d be a very different website if we all owned Toyota RAV4s instead of 200k Jeeps and a truckload of unreliable cars.
Maybe my wife might have bitten off too much of the weird shitbox apple, though. She’s considering going back to a Prius or getting an Avalon.
If the Avalon isn’t too ostentatious given the work she does, it’d be a hell of a comfortable ride.
Y’all do you! You do a mix of what makes you happy and also what works for you. 🙂 Avalons are sweet rides. Big, comfy couches.
She is doing the mileage. She needs an appropriate vehicle. A vehicle that is so forgettable she will forget about a five hour drive.
Pitch her a few impossible, but fun options, like a Meyers Manx, a Ford model T or a TVR.
Then gently nudge her in the direction of a gently used modern vehicle with:
So basically a newer, compact Toyota hybrid.
I’m a big fan of smaller cars in general, but with the highway mileage she puts on I think something bigger would make a world of difference with how drained she feels getting to/from work. A hybrid Camry (or with some careful looking and patience an Avalon) would eat up those miles better than a Prius or Corolla. But if size is important, then yeah, get a Prius.
If not a newer Toyota hybrid there are other alternatives in the market.
A regular Toyota Corolla
Honda Civic
Even the Mazda 3 is worth a look
(both new and used).
Find a lightly used, current gen Civic Hybrid. Nicer to drive and be inside, but still rock solid with everything needed.
I fail to see the point of owning an iQ if the fuel economy is this atrociously low. My IS300 did better than that, and it’s 1990s technology.
My non-hybrid, F150 crew cab averages 24mpg.
I average around 25-26 mpg in my Frontier. 33-40 mpg in my Fiat.
My 235i averaged 25mpg mixed and would easily do 32mpg at 75mph on the highway.
Ditch the cruise, replace the pedal, change the plugs, and sell the thing, it’s done doing what it was really never meant to do.
I get it makes for good content, but maybe it’s time for a little more adulting – sell some of the, what it is currently, 12? 15? cars and motorcycle toys, pare it down to a David Tracy 5 vehicle plan, save a ton on storage, insurance, registration, repair time/cost, free up some cash and buy your wife (or loan her the money if that’s the setup, I don’t want to assume) something more appropriate to pile 30-40k a year on like, yes, a 5-year old Corolla or Camry. Or figure out how to buy a brand new $23k Corolla. For the next 7-8 years of that mileage it’ll need almost nothing over which time you’ll have the time and be able to earn the money to build up the toy shed again if you so choose.
I get it’s fun to have all the odd “dream cars” and sometimes multiples of them, but it’s not fun to watch your wife worry about breaking down somewhere weird and far away, likely be less comfortable than possible, and for whatever reason just endure it. She probably doesn’t want to come across as some sort of burden, but that’s what a marriage is all about – figuring out how to make your combined lives better, and when one party is suffering in any form that’s not happening. And right now, first the BMW and now the iQ are causing suffering and frustration – you’re the car person, deep down you KNOW there are better choices for her than an old Euro-heap and a micro city car, fun as they seem on the surface or for YOUR content, but not for what seems to be Sheryl’s everyday reality. Use your knowledge not to buy something “interesting” but something “amazing for its lack of needs”. If you yourself had to be somewhere on time every day to fulfill your professional obligations, you’d likely be far less excited about nursing or patching up some troubled car across the intersection too when you’re already running late and still have fifty miles to go.
I don’t mean to be a d*$& but it sounds like a painful existence to have to deal with that when it probably doesn’t *have* to be that way. Boring is only boring if you let it be, doing what needs to be done is the responsible thing, then the playthings can happen after the basics are met. And a reliable, long lasting, and dare I say appropriate, car for your wife the lawyer is the basics.
100%. I have a hard time understanding how the car experts on this site can be so car savvy, yet simultaneously obtuse about driving the damn things.
It’s time to buy a CPO Toyota, Honda, Lexus hybrid and be done with it. Really doesn’t matter what brand, it just needs to be less than 3-4 years old, completely stock, with a WARRANTY. Sell it before the warranty runs out.
Since we’re talking about adulting, maybe this duo could ask their accountant about the ideal car purchasing setup for their tax situation.
This is obviously a work vehicle, I would be looking into the benefits of writing off the depreciation of an owned car vs. a high mileage lease. If Cheryl is self employed or incorporated there could be serious advantages.
Car ‘experts’ and non-car people are different breeds. It’s the difference between an Android geek who has rooted their phone and a person who wants an iPhone ‘to just work’.
One views the world of machines as interesting quirks and passions to be explored and experienced. The other just wants to get from point A to point B with the features they want (in this case, cruise control).
The infuriating bit to car experts is that sometimes their blindness to the needs of non-car people in their lives actually brings suffering. They make non-car people suffer needlessly by insisting on putting a square peg in a round hole. A highway warrior is going to really like factory cruise, and a janky aftermarket version will not cut it, as we’re learning in today’s installment.
About the only counterpoint I have to the whole buy a common Toyota/Honda crowd is that there’s plenty of other common and reliable cars that are worth considering too.
But if I never got another article like this because Sheryl ended up in a comfy Toyota that just worked, I’d be happier than seeing another ‘the janky cruise module left my spouse at the side of the Interstate in January’ that causes me to feel angry.
The guys on Roadkill knew exactly what they were getting into. It’s not like they forced their spouses to drive their junk.
Exactly. Every Toyota car for the last few years has come with adaptive cruise control standard. I can’t imagine driving 30k+ a year around Illinois without it.
I’d be far more interested in reading about (and marvelling at) a base Corolla that did 200k miles in five years with nothing more than tires and 20 oil changes and getting a wash to be ready for the next 200k than about poor Sheryl standing under an overpass waiting for the wife to show up with a roll of duct tape and a multimeter. The crapcans can still be written about but better when the author is the one presumably missing appointments and having undue stress rather than an innocent party.
If a basic Corolla is out for budgetary reasons then a good look at one’s life is needed as well as the income streams that need to be modified or improved upon. That’s life and that’s being an adult, if the Autopian and being a lawyer pay so poorly (I doubt it but who knows) that basic life necessities (such as a dependable car) are out of reach then they are career paths that are not sustainable or worthwhile, the employee lot at the local Home Depot has more reliable cars than this stuff. If a credit situation is the issue that’s dire then that needs to be the focus and improved on with some diligence and discipline. If debt’s an issue then there are ways to address that as well, buying more junky cars is not the ticket though. Mercedes has plenty of content opportunities with the RVs, test cars, events, etc, heck, even windowshopping for crap cans rather than having to deal with this stuff. Hobby cars are great. But not at the expense of not having a real car if a car is a necessity which it seems to be.
Yeah it doesn’t have to be a Toyota.
Not that I’m recommending it, but even a new Dodge Hornet with a warranty is probably still a more pragmatic choice for a mile-eater than a 13 year old city car with sketchy aftermarket cruise.
The sad thing, is that having at least one current, professionally-maintained, “grownup car” in the family means you’re free to actually work on your project vehicles, or use them for enthusiast pursuits. David seems to have figured this out. Not sure Mercedes is there yet.
Counterpoint: Much like David’s “Should I drive my kid around in my rusty J10 in LA traffic??” articles, we’re probably just getting played for our concerned engagement.
Yeah, most likely! Next week’s David post will be “When I take the family on vacation to San Francisco in the new Comanche should I have my wife or my child ride in the bed bacause there are only two seats, and it’s still pretty warm in Cali and I’m the only one that drives stick, otherwise I’d do it of course”
Oh god lmao
“I found a holy grail Talbot Solara in a Bavarian barn”
> a David Tracy 5 vehicle plan
The man just bought two more Jeeps in the past 2 weeks, and he’s building another!
Okay, so it was a “concept of a plan”…!
Lol
It’s the Rostra cruise control.
Just like the last time you posted about this, and I said it was the cruise control then.
EVERYTHING minus the age/mileage related concerns are DIRECTLY related to the Rostra cruise control.
IT. IS. CRAP.
You are correct with your assumption that if you replace the cruise assembly, that the issues will present again.
We were lucky (sort of) because we had to replace the rostra cruise in our 2007 Yaris, because the vehicle was totaled. Prior to the accident, we were going to take the vehicle in for a third or fourth rostra replacement.
I’m sorry you’re going through this, and there are literally no other options besides removing the c.c. and driving without it, because during this time period Toyota didn’t think to offer factory cruise for every model.
I’m in agreement with finding an Avalon, Camry or even a matrix or second Gen Yaris (body redesign).
Maybe I got lucky. I installed one in my ex’s ’07 Accent back in the day, and she used it problem-free for 7 years.
Look, even David (A recovering Hooptie junkie) accepts that a reasonably reliable Lexus RX is the right vehicle for his non-automotively inclined spouse who just wants to get places.
The parts cannon doesn’t fix the fact that a vehicle with 120k+ miles that is starting to do worn out things is a bad car for someone who adds 30k miles yearly and needs a reliable ride, but is not automotively inclined. Toyotas suffer entropy more gracefully than most, but they’re not immune.
Vehicles wear out. So does patience. Don’t make your spouse suffer the undesirable byproducts of your enthusiasm.
‘This content brought to you by someone else’s suffering’ is fine if they knowingly sign up for it. I don’t like the tagline ‘This content brought to you by an unwilling suffering victim’ nearly as much.
Have the decency to keep your spouse in a reliable ride.
Happy wife, happy life.
And as far as we know E(nhrn) has a normal commute in sunny California so that Lexus’ll keep doing it until they get sick of feeding a non-hybrid to idle in LA traffic.
Jason’s wife has that unreliable Tiguan unless the minivan’s fully replaced it but last I heard she really liked it. The Sienna’s probably better for her work though if she sells Total Sally stuff at shows.
Was cruise control ever offered as a factory option, and if so, is it something that can be added on from the junkyard?
I’ve installed a number of options from junkyard cars and maybe that’s a route worth considering?
I think my xB had it, but it’s been awhile. (I loved that car, an 06)
Ford used to sell complete cruise control kits through it’s parts department. Included a whole new steering wheel with the controls plus the control unit that mounted to the throttle. Installed a kit on my Focus and a Ford Ranger in the early 2000’s.
Not for the iQ
Sorry to hear this cute little car is mis behaving again. Changing the plugs sounds as awful as replacing the heater core in a fox body Ford, Yikes! Best of luck on this project. I think you’re being smart by replacing everything you can while the car is half apart.
I’ve heard of similar issue with Daihatsu kei cars of the same era. The parts are cheap enough in Japan and most places they exist to parts cannon it. They will typically replace the throttle body the petal and sometimes depending on complexity the ECM. The speculation being the probably defective petal does some damage to the throttle body circuity and that can lead to other problems down the line like misfires and even fry a new petal. Especially in engines that are revved out alot of the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if the throttle body is causing at least some of your issues.
Flowers have petals. Cars have pedals, with a D.
This PSA was brought to you by the Pedantic Speller Association (PSA).
First off, since your wife puts so many miles and TIME in her car you should get her something safer – say a Corolla? I have installed aft mkt cruise but its been yrs and they were NOT plug n play. That SHOULD make it fairly simple, but, I ran into issues with that aftermkt units too- guess they are just not up to the big time yet. But you may try another brand (maybe get some feedback on the FORUM?). You should install one before you sell the car since you will have gotten her at least a midsized vehicle for all that driving by now!
You know you could just get her an Altima. Those have the most reliable, bulletproof cruise control in existence, a brick on the gas pedal.
“even I have to admit that Toyota built a better car than a Smart.”
In other words Toyota outSmarted Mercedes.
OK, pack it all up, COTD has been run and won.
Hey, I’m Greg! How does this system let us double up on names? Seems like a potential issue.
one of you needs to and must add extraneous ‘g’s
I’m assuming Mercedes actually likes her wife, in which case an Altima is the worst option. I’m driving a Sentra right now while my DD is getting repaired after being hit by an Xterra (which I thought was a cool truck, but not no more!) anyways, the Sentra is a true penalty box jail cell of a car to spend more than 20 minutes in, and I get why BAE is a thing now. It is a hateful, terrible little car, and I find myself getting irritated after just a few minutes of driving. The seat sucks, the sexting position sucks, the suspension sucks, the throttle is basically an on/off switch, and all these goddamn drivers shine their goddamn lights in my fucking mirrors and now I can’t fucking see! Fuck that stupid little car and fuck the other Nissan that caused this whole thing in the first fucking place!
That sucks. However Sentra =/= Altima.
The Altima I rented last year was quite nice. It had plenty of power and got great MPG even with AWD. Comfy too. All BAE jokes aside I’d at least explore the option.
The what now?!
So many questions. What is the optimal sexting position in a car? I would assume it is different for typing vs. photographing or recording. So are memory seats a prerequisite? Is there a safe sexting movement to keep people from doing this while the car is in motion? Why has the Autopian staff ignored this key metric in its car reviews?
By “safe sexting movement” I mean the Mothers Against Drunk Driving kind of movement, not the”That’s what she said” kind of movement.
It isn’t called a stripper model for nothing!
> the sexting position
Don’t sext and drive.
I’m surprised the Sentra is making you so unhappy. I rented a ’24 MY recently and was very impressed.
I’m saddened that you didn’t give a shout out to their legendarily reliable continuously variable transmission.
I did when I sang that Altima’s praises last year. I found the transmission both completely unremarkable and remarkable in the best possible ways.
I don’t have any advice, but I hope you get it figured out. I haven’t seen an iQ in years but I think they’re charming little vehicles.
I do have a little experience with drive-by-wire failures, and you’re lucky Toyota saw fit to put a fail safe preventing runaway acceleration in the event of uncontrolled revving. Jeep did not.
About a month ago I made the decision to scrap the much-hated KK Liberty that my dad used around our farms. After about a year of constant, random breakdowns plus unexplained oil and coolant loss, the nail in the coffin was one day when it refused to crank. I figured (correctly) that it was the ignition tumbler, but was also so fed up with fixing the stupid thing that I listed it on Marketplace for $500. It still took a month for someone to come buy it. He came with a new tumbler, installed it, paid me and drove away. Perfect.
TIL about 20 min later when he calls me demanding a refund because the Jeep decided to throw a rod through the side of the block. Somehow it was still running despite that.
So I refunded the guy, brought the Liberty home, and let it sit til I had time to take it to the junkyard. The day I scrapped it, I started it up to put it on my dolly, and the moment I pulled up to it, the Liberty’s throttle went to redline and it launched itself *OVER* my car dolly and slammed into the tailgate of my K1500.
At least I was already headed to the junkyard, so I bought a tailgate while I was there. Not hardly related to your challenges with that Toyota, but its a good thing Toyota saw fit to program a safety in the event that the throttle failed.
Is that a Jeep thing?
Sounds like a bunch of Jeep things in one story.
Something I’ve noticed in my Toyotas is what I’d call “cascade codes”, where one code (even an evap code for a loose gas cap) triggers ABS codes that go away once the evap test passes. Kinda odd, but who am I to question Toyota’s methods?
First time that happened on my RAV4, I freaked out. It was once I got home and looked it up that I discovered Toyota make it impossible to hide a CEL because it throws every light on the dashboard on.
“You will NOT ignore me, Dan!”
Yeah, a CEL in my RAV4 means no AWD or VSC until I put in a new O2 sensor.
Good lord, just buy your wife a Corolla already.
Nah, a nice, old, senior-maintained, low-odo Avalon is the ticket for all those miles.
She actually really loves the Avalon!
This is the correct answer. Comfy, reliable, relatively cheap to operate, and pretty damn close to the bottom of the depreciation curve in most cases. My friend’s dad owned multiple Avalons until he got talked into an ES by the Lexus dealership. He kept that ES for about 6 months before he went back to an Avalon.
I think it’s a crunch in the sedan market caused by very few options for “old people” cars, but it’s unfortunate that Avalon prices have come up a bit. They are still good buys when you can find a low mileage one that grandma doesn’t need to take to church anymore, but there was a time they were cheaper than camrys. I was hoping to snag a 2017-18 to replace my wife’s 2012 Rav, but not for $20k.
You do you, boo. I make it a point to avoid anything with a transverse V-anything engine, especially the ones with a timing belt.
I just recommended that too! above
If it were me I’d bite the bullet and replace it with a CR-V, RAV4 maybe an Escape hybrid or some other modernish CUV with AWD that still gets decent MPG and can be counted on.
No it’s not quite as interesting but when you’re hundreds of miles from home, maybe in bad weather or a sketchy location “interesting” isn’t a good thing; BORING is what you want.
Yup.
A 13 year old car without cruise control that repeatedly throws weird errors instead of running is not a reliable car. Maybe it used to be reliable, but you don’t live then, you live now.
Sell it and buy an actual reliable car, or at least a car with a warranty.
*cough* GR86 plug
I’m not sure a GR86 would be a great fit for my wife. Me, on the other hand… 😉
I admit, I have been window shopping.
OK, maybe something different, like a BRZ then
I love mine and it’s great in the snow on snow tires, but even though I drive a lot and enjoy it, I’m a weirdo and it’s not a great long distance commuter for most people. I modded the seats and they’re pretty good and I find it more roomy for my legs than most SUVs, but it is pretty loud inside and can be more fatiguing than a normal car. It’s also more likely to attract the wrong kind of attention in some places. Then again, if she’s fine with an IQ, it can’t be worse than that other than being lower, which a lot of people don’t like (I hate sitting high), though the seat goes a lot higher than I expected and won’t go as low as old sports cars did.
I had a friend who bought a Volvo 240 because they were bulletproof. Were. When he bought it, it was over twenty-five years old, so it had old car issues. It wasn’t terrible, but it was a pretty steady stream of annoying issues. Age catches up to everything.
Just popping in to say I love Sheryl’s license plate. LLAP.
Agree 100% _\\V/
Why would I ever think drive-by-wire is reliable?
A misfire on every cylinder clues us in that it’s not likely to be the coils or plugs (they’re due, no question, do I’d do that one way or the other). It’s extremely unlikely that all 8 of those components (or all four plugs, or all four coils) died at the exact same time.
I’m digging through this with the Z4 right now, but I’m currently ankle deep in injectors, fuel rail, air/vacuum leak diagnosis. I also plan to remove the intake manifold for a good cleaning – I don’t expect that to fix the misfire as it’s presenting right now, but having taken the injectors out I know it’s absolutely filthy in there, and it’s not crazy to think some of that gunk may have blocked an/some injector tip.
Edit to add: it’s*also* extremely unlikely that all 6 of my injectors failed, I was getting misfires on 2 and 5, so that’s where I went after changing the coils and plugs it was due for anyway.
That’s what’s puzzling me. I’ve had misfires before. They make the engine run like crap, but the engine will still run. This thing just falls flat on its face.
But then again, the last time we had this gas pedal issue, the car did misfire heavily enough to trigger a misfire code. Then the misfiring went away when the pedal was replaced. I don’t pretend to be a total expert on drive-by-wire, but I don’t see the relation between the pedal and spark, unless it was just a bizarre coincidence. But then, ugh, why did it not noticeably misfire again for another 20,000 or so miles?
These are the car repair questions that keep me up at night. So, before I end up pulling my hair out I’m going to do a bunch of maintenance, then see what happens. Maybe the car will have injectors in its future, maybe not.
Conjecture/ramble:
Pedal position creates an expected throttle condition via mapping pedal position to throttle body
Pedal does not satisfy that throttle condition resulting in a mismatch
Throttle is closed/in incorrect state, starving the engine resulting in misfire/shutdown
Pedal is damaged/pushed out of spec by cruise control kit?
It’s one those things where I’d be getting out the multimeter, I think – are you really getting the sweep from 0-5V (etc and whatever) you should be getting from the pedal? Is cruise control pulling up ground, or otherwise grounding incorrectly?
Hopefully someone can take this and run with it into something useful!
I agree. I think the problem lies with the CC kit and whatever it’s doing to the pedal is also confusing the ECU. The similar problem, but different failure mode of the newer fault has me wonder if the issue is more of an intermittent or changing incorrect signal related to something like a failing cold solder joint. I’m not sure why the pedal would be taken out, but maybe there’s some kind of over-voltage output that takes place as part of the failure? It’s definitely a MM situation as long as it’s consistent enough that it can be caught while happening. Either way, I think that CC unit has to go. If the car is intolerable without it, it might be time for a car that has that feature incorporated into it. Plus there’s the CVT concern.
Is there a misfire sensor/module/ECU-something that has to be programmed/re-trained after replacing the pedal? I recently had an intermittent misfire code (but no real misfire condition) in my Ford after a flex plate replacement. Turns out the techs forgot to re-train something in the ECU after installing the new part and it made the car think it had a misfire. I brought the car in for the misfire code, they checked through its repair history, retrained the ECU, and the codes haven’t been back for about 15k miles.
Why are you staying up at night worrying about your wife (the lawyer’s) work vehicle? Just lease or buy something with a warranty already. Someone in the family needs to have a decent, current car.
Mercedes – one thing I noticed in the picture is you have rust on all kinds of things under the hood since you live in Chicagoland. It is not uncommon for modernish vehicles to have electrical issues related to corrosion and grounding, Nissans are especially notorious for this. I work in a car care clinic run by a local church and we have lots of hoopties that have some of these near impossible to find electrical gremlins. I agree with the masses, remove the aftermarket cruise, replace the coils and plugs, and sell it. Get a 10 year old honda/acura/toyota/lexus and experience happy wife, happy life. I personally recommend an Avalon or Hybrid Camry 2012 or newer. You will get better mileage than with the iQ and much more comfort.
Your planned remedies seem right. As much as you both like cute little city cars, you also like larger, much more comfortable, and well appointed ones. Personally, I’ve never met a CVT I liked, and don’t trust them. 30,000 miles a year is a lot and a comfortable cruiser significantly reduces fatigue. My tip is keep an eye on local listings in well to do neighborhoods only restricting by mileage, clean title, and price range, and not limiting by make/model. Something nice clean that I never would have searched for popped up for me that way, did some research on what to look out for, years to avoid, test drove and bought 4 years ago, couldn’t be happier with it.
I don’t know enough about this model to really comment on it – and it sounds like it’s been reasonably dependable for its age & the amount of miles she’s putting on it.
But with as much driving as she does, and the need for it to be dependable…I’d be looking for the newest/lowest mileage Corolla or Civic I could afford.
Civic hybrid if she puts a lot of those miles in Chicagoland traffic. C’mon Mercedes, you know a guy!
Would a Civic hybrid be the best option though? I’m thinking a CUV for toasty warm all weather driving on bad roads.
Yeah, Corolla Cross, Rav4, crv, hrv (not sure if those are awd and/or hybrid).
I drove plenty of winter miles in MI with FWD sedans, and they’re totally fine in winter – especially with winter tires – but an AWD CUV certainly has a lot to offer.
Maverick (hybrid awd or ecoboost) would check a lot of boxes too. I liked mine for the year I had one, but I think they’ve been recalled about 500x by now.
As you said above, boring is good for a car like this.
I dunno what the budget is but I would hazard a guess a Maverick is above it.
I think a 10 yo AWD CR-V from outside the rust belt will hit the sweet spot of wrenchability, MPG, reliability, modern features, safety, NVH and cost. An Escape hybrid AWD may be worth a look too.
And as I alluded to, leverage the Galpin relationship to look at some of those fresh California trade-ins. Late models/off-lease, not the Trade-In Tuesday fodder.
If this is to replace a 13 yo Toyota IQ I think a fresh, late model/off-lease California trade-in might be out of budget.
Wait I thought we were supposed to hate CUVs and they do nothing well. HAVE I BEEN LIED TO
At this point in the carpocolypse I’m not sure there is anything else left to buy except for a giant, gas guzzling pickup or SUV.
“To get to the spark plugs, you have to remove the windshield wipers, the cowling, the airbox, and move around the rubber hoses. It’s a royal pain, and that’s due to the really tight packaging in the engine bay. I’m thinking about replacing the ignition coil packs while I’m in there.”
I’m in the midst of doing this now on a 2008 Escape, and if I didn’t want to do it on that vehicle (air box, throttle cable, upper intake, and a variety of other bits), I *really* wouldn’t want to do it on that Scion based off of the pic!; that said, yeah if you’re gonna do the plug(s), it makes sense to do the coil pack and be done with it. Mine threw a check engine light a week ago, and I figure, with 172k on the original plugs and coil packs, it is due. I have a code reader, and will check what it says prior to the parts swap. But realistically, any wear and tear items over 100k should probably be replaced, if nothing else. Good luck!
Blue ribbon for those spark plugs, 172,000 miles is insane. I think the schedule calls for replacent every 60k. Good to see things made well.
I would say you are on the right track- one step at a time.
I would also say, have you considered joining the Vibe Tribe? We have cookies.and shower speghetti.
If it were my wife’s personal car, and there were no attachment issues, this is where I would post it on marketplace and let some young teenager with a hankering for a project and a need for cheap wheels handle it, and buy my S/O the nicest/safest replacement I could afford.
But, as I found out recently when faced with a $4000 new transmission diagnosis on our 130,000 mile $6,000 caravan, sometimes you just have an attachment to a car and you have to rip the band-aid off and spend some money.
In that case, new pedal, new coils, plugs, ignore the trans whine, and run it until the tranny pukes, and then toss in a junkyard tranny.
Sometimes we just gotta do what we gotta do to keep the spouse happy!
Sage advice.
HWHL Happy wife happy life
Plugs and coils sounds like a good plan to me. Don’t reinstall cruise control. It is a bummer but you’ve been bitten by it twice already.