For yet another year, the best-selling carmaker in the world is Toyota. They say if you come at the king, you best not miss. Toyota came at the old king (Volkswagen) and very much didn’t whiff. Can anyone catch the automaker?
You don’t need Rebecca Black to tell you it’s Friday, Friday here at The Morning Dump. Automakers are announcing full-year results and, while Ford had a good year from a sales perspective, there were some costs involved. One of the biggest issues in Q4? People are living longer.
General Motors has long had a large footprint in Canada, but that’s starting to go away as the company retrenches in the United States, leading to more job cuts. And while we’re on the topic of Canada, a whistleblower just took in a cool $1 million for helping the government discover what it calls a “bid-rigging scheme” involving a Canadian online auction company.
Toyota Remains The King
It’s hard to think of two carmakers more headed in the opposite direction than Volkswagen and Toyota. I remember back in 2009 writing about how Volkswagen was losing its edge by embracing beige, uninteresting designs (what I called the beigekrieg). Toyota was the king of biege at the time, but then the relatively young scion of the ruling Toyoda family (not that Scion) decided that his ancestral company could probably make reliable and interesting cars.
In the last 16 years, Volkswagen has pinballed from one problem to the next: a self-inflicted emissions scandal, overindexing on EVs, and not seeing the rise of Chinese automakers it helped train, to name just a few.
Toyota has had its own scandals, but has been able to weather the disruption in the markets better than basically everyone else, and this showed up in its global sales. For the calendar year 2025, Toyota and its various brands sold a total of 11.3 million vehicles, which is a record for the automaker. By comparison, Volkswagen sales fell slightly, finishing just below 9 million global sales. Hyundai grew by about as much as VW shrank, reaching 7.3 million sales.
Some of this is inertia, as Toyota has slowly built a reputation for building reliable cars. Some of this has to do with Toyota aggressively expanding in foreign markets. At least in the United States, a mix of affordable cars and hybrids seems to be the key, as Erin Keating over at Cox Automotive points out:
Six Toyota vehicles have MSRPs starting under $30,000, a critical advantage when affordability remains a top challenge for many consumers. According to Cox Automotive forecasts, the industry faces ongoing affordability constraints at the start of 2026, with average monthly finance payments hitting $767 in December 2025, the highest level in 18 months. New-vehicle affordability pressures are expected to keep total sales around 15.8 million in 2026. Still, in 2025, Toyota grew market share with standout new vehicles, including the Corolla Cross, which grew solidly in a crowded segment, up 7.3% despite strong competition.
[…]
Toyota’s “1:6:90” philosophy reflects strategic pragmatism: The rare materials needed to create one battery-electric vehicle (BEV) could produce six plug-in hybrids or 90 hybrids. Rather than betting solely on BEVs, Toyota maintains multiple powertrain pathways to meet consumers wherever they are on the adoption curve.
This approach proved prescient in 2025. After federal EV tax credits expired on Sept. 30, EV retail share fell to 5.8% in Q4 2025, down 2.9 percentage points from the prior year. Meanwhile, conventional hybrid sales climbed 27.6% to 2.05 million units for the full year. Toyota’s electrified portfolio – spanning gas, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and the forthcoming Lexus LFA Concept BEV – positions them to serve customers across the spectrum as the market adjusts to a post-incentive landscape.
With tariff challenges, relatively flat sales in Europe and the United States likely, and China continuing to favor homegrown brands, I don’t see anyone who can really challenge Toyota. Both Ford and GM have pulled back globally, and Hyundai might be able to catch up with Volkswagen, but it doesn’t have the footprint in the United States that Toyota does (yet). This could all change in a few years, but it’ll take a few years.
Ford Will Take A $600 Million Hit To Q4 Earnings Because People Are Living Longer
It’s a bad week to be an actuary at Ford, but a good one to be a Ford retiree. They’re living longer! Well, the retirees are living longer; I’m not sure how the actuaries will fare given that a miscalculation contributed to a $600 million loss, according to a company filing.
What happened? The Detroit Free Press has the news:
In the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Ford said it will take a “remeasurement loss” for its U.S. plans, which was largely due to actuarial losses compared to plan assumptions. A remeasurement loss means a company has reevaluated the value of long-term assets or foreign currency and found the assets have decreased in value compared to anticipated figures. Actuarial losses are financial shortfalls in pension plans. Ford said non-U.S. remeasurement costs were a result of measurement assumptions, including improved life expectancy.
One person’s good news is another’s bad news.
GM Lays Off 700 Workers At Oshawa
There’s a grimness to the news coming out of Canada, as the government there contends with the fact that its longtime ally to the south is doing all it can to reshore production. The latest hit is GM’s Oshawa plant, which builds the popular Silverado. A shift is being cut, which means about 700 union workers are out of a job, and more are likely to feel the impact.
GM is blaming the “evolving trade environment”, and the workers are blaming politics, per the CBC:
At the time, spokesperson Jennifer Wright told CBC Toronto that “forecasted demand and the evolving trade environment” were behind the cut.
GM Canada’s latest statement doesn’t mention tariffs. Still, Unifor National President Lana Payne said GM “has made a clear decision to cave to Donald Trump” in a statement on Thursday.
She said GM is making Oshawa workers “pay for that appeasement with their jobs.”
What’s amusing here is that Barra told workers (via The Wall Street Journal) that Canada warming up to China was a bad and inexplicable move:
Barra said Canada’s China deal, announced earlier this month, is counter to building a strong North American industrial base and to protecting jobs and national security on the continent.
“I can’t explain why the decision was made in Canada,” Barra said during an all-hands meeting with employees Tuesday. “It becomes a very slippery slope.”
It may very well be a slippery slope, but it feels disingenuous to say “I can’t explain” the decision when both General Motors and Stellantis have Lucy-with-the-football’d Canadian autoworkers again and again this year.
Someone Made $1 Million Telling On An Auto Auction For Bid-Rigging
The Justice Department gave out its first-ever $1 million reward for a whistleblower in a “bid-rigging” case involving online car-auction platform EBLOCK, a Canadian dealer-to-dealer wholesale online auction.
From the Antitrust Division’s press release:
EBLOCK Corporation offers an online auction platform for used vehicles. In November 2020, EBLOCK acquired Company A, another online auction platform for used vehicles. According to the Criminal Information and Deferred Prosecution Agreement filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, EBLOCK did not take immediate action after the acquisition to end the bid-rigging conspiracy and fraud at Company A. From November 2020 to February 2022, individuals at Company A conspired with individuals at Company B to suppress and eliminate competition for used vehicles sold on Company A’s online auction platform, in violation of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1. EBLOCK also did not take immediate action to end “shill bidding” on Company A’s platform, resulting in the placement of fake bids intended to artificially increase the sales prices for used vehicles, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343.
How did it work?
As described in the court documents, legacy employees at Company A conspired with employees at Company B to share bidding information and agree on the maximum amount Company A or Company B would bid on certain vehicles. Company A employees provided special access and user permissions to Company B that enabled it to view the confidential bidding information of other buyers and sellers on its auction site. The co-conspirators maintained a shared inventory of vehicles purchased pursuant to the bid rigging scheme, and they coordinated to relist those vehicles and place shill bids with the intention of artificially increasing the prices paid by legitimate buyers. They also misrepresented the numbers and identities of these fake bidders during the online auctions by commissioning the development of software that would automatically place shill bids under the names of actual auto dealerships without those dealerships’ consent. The co-conspirators pooled and split the profits from the scheme. During the course of these actions, various documents in support of the scheme were sent via U.S. Mail.
It’s a Canadian company, but they made the time-honored mistake of using the U.S. Mail. I wonder if USPIS got involved. I don’t know if it is against the law, but they also appear to be bribing bidders with fried chicken. I’ve now reported this, gimme $1 million please.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I made a joke about the song “Friday” in the lede, which was a song that was terrible in a confusingly endearing way. It went viral, and I think most people would just crawl into a hole and disappear forever if they’d made it. Not Rebecca Black! She’s gone on to have a career as a singer and a DJ. I respect a comeback, so here’s Rebecca Black covering Addison Rae’s “Fame is a Gun” for LIKE A VERSION.
The Big Question
Who could possibly take down Toyota?
Top photo: Toyota, DepositPhotos.com
Guessing they had been overestimating mortality for a few years, they might have known it, and now is the time to take the loss.
Also should check in on some of those older pensioners, see if they’re still alive.
Disclaimer: Actuary here, but not in Pension and it’s possible I have no idea about anything.
There, that should stop the formal discipline hearing…
Dead people would never collect benefit checks right?
But apparently (according to the orange one) they vote?
After reading another article about Prelude’s and coming to an article about hybrid Toyota, I now really wish Toyota still made the tC and gave it the Corolla’s hybrid system.
A sporty-ish coupe that can get 50mpg would be a WONDERFUL car to own.
Ugh. Talk about dreams though.
Best bet to take down Toyota would be Hyundai, me thinks. What they don’t have for well-known reliability they make up with warranty and “looks”, so if not already, Hyundai will eventually take over as Toyota’s biggest competitor, I bet.
I actually respect Friday. While songs like it may not command that much of my respect, any song that has any hook to it, including Tubthumping and Mmmbop, deserve genuine credit IMHO.
Remember when Toyota was getting crucified for not being ready for the all-electric future? Seems like a distant memory…
Toyota’s biggest enemy currently is Toyota.
There may come a widespread scandal so impactful that actually makes folks worldwide not buy their vehicles. They might get absorbed in their own hubris as Honda, VAG, Subaru, and GM have done, as they continue to coast on outdated reputations that their brainwashed owners rabidly purport. The dealers can double down on their nearly abusive shenanigans against their customers. There’s so many possibilities. Empires fall.
Hubris? Dealers? Nah, it would be a slip in quality. Hopefully the TTV6 clustertruck isn’t the sign of things to come.
Toyota’s bread and butter hybrids — prius, corolla, camry, rav4, highlander, crown — are untouchable as they deserve to be because they have a technical and usability gap over competitors, they’re stone reliable and give good long term value. On the other hand if you take a gander around the Toyota forums there appear to be troubles for the new trucks (Tundra, Tacoma, and 4Runner) in terms of perceived reliability and consumer satisfaction. The engine in the Tundra has well publicized serious issues. The new 4Runner is bigger outside, smaller inside, heavier, jumped in price, and sales are not what would be called enthusiastic. Also IMO it also looks like it was designed by the Hot Wheels design team. Could it have one more macho visual cue? No. They used them all. If the trucks become viewed as unreliable, childish, and style over substance, Toyota will lose the value advantage.
What does a Toyota truck mean to the consumer? It means a vehicle you can’t kill (as demonstrated in the famous Top Gear episode). It may not be the most comfortable or the most stylish, but it is tough, pragmatic, and trustworthy. It is a reliable friend. I think they’re chipping away at that reputation.
Yeah the modern Toyota trucks have changed completely from what they originally were. Honestly it is kind of sad.
Yeh I tend to agree, I have two buddies with Tundras, one a late 1st gen that’s spartan but nearly indestructible, and the other just splurged on a brand new one. Rode in the brand new one recently and they’ve turned it into such a cowboy cadillac with luxury features to rival my dad’s several year old Audi. Most noteworthy but foolish gimmick imo was the power tailgate. Like if you don’t have the strength and/or physical dexterity to open and close a tailgate how tf are you even in need of a pickup? And what happens (as I’ve had to deal with) the gap between tailgate, bed, and bumper gets clogged up with ice, mud, mulch, etc and the gate doesn’t want to close readily. If this was GM I’d assume it would break at least once before the warranty was even out, bc it’s Toyota I’m sure it will last a long time but still seems like a largely useless and in some cases actively harmful feature in what is ostensibly a work vehicle. Maybe this is just my pet peeve I kind of hate the new ubiquitous power hatches most SUVs have most of the time too.
What I’m Listening too.
I’m starting to enjoy today’s music scene. When I was a teenager, I think the music was about as good as it could get. It was the 80s and the radio stations would play ZZtop, Michael Jackson, Men at Work, The Police, Devo and Van Halen all in a row. Not everyone likes every kind of music and that’s ok, and the 80s had so many hits from some many different acts that you could discover something that was your groove on a normal radio station.
However, the music insiders pick what songs people will listen to and they promote radio stations to play them. Every song I listened to in the 80s had already been curated by an industry insider and promoted to make it played on the radio.
But it’s not like that now. Anyone can produce music and put it on youtube. I’m not a fan of Black’s Music, but I’m sure someone likes it. There is no filter between her and her audience.
(Just like I can rock out to an angry Aussie geek with a sense of humor and a basement full of beat up old instruments and no close friends.)
It’s a great time to be into music. You can find anything that might catch your attention and find something you enjoy.
I agree with your last two sentences. However, there’s a specter looming, and I don’t mean Phil Spector. At the gym this week, the instructor started streaming what I soon realized was AI-generated, high BPM music to keep the class moving. Maybe workout music has been like this for a while — nightclub rave dance music isn’t my thing.
I don’t know how we as consumers would do this, but somehow we need to vet our music, especially from streaming services where playlists offer simple descriptions such as “High Intensity Workout.”
Support human musicians! Down with algorithms!
Human artist in general. I used to go to Youtube all the time for fun and funny videos. Now about 90% are AI generated crap.
But I feel like I might be an old man yelling at the clouds. I don’t like autotuned “music” and that has been a feature for years. Now music isn’t just autotuned by auto-generated.
That being said, “There I ruined it” can be funny as hell.
Is this a Tom Cardy reference? I love Tom Cardy.
H.S. is an inspiration.
Yes. Should be in the Rock and Roll HOF.
Hopefully no one
I live in a town that is almost entirely supported by Toyota or their suppliers. Toyota makes it a nice place to live and grow a family by paying high wages and donating to the community.
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in the US, the companies that could take Toyota down are Toyota Dealers. When I was shopping, every Toyota dealer I engaged with acted like their poop don’t stink, and ADM stickers of $4000+ were the rule, not the exception. This is how I wound up owning a Mazda CX-5 instead of the RAV4 that I (thought I) wanted to buy.
I’m sure there are a handful of Toyota dealers that sell at MSRP or below, but they sure are rare.
That’s why they own 5% of Mazda
1:6:90 is such a good way to explain the benefits of PHEV/HEV over BEV, at least until we get solid state batteries. That said an EREV with a solid state battery would absolutely rule
1:6:90 explains a benefit only when battery supply is limited and expensive, which it still was in 2022. However in 2026, that is no longer the case (at least in markets where Chinese batteries aren’t heavily tariffed). Solid state batteries will be too expensive to be worth putting in anything other than higher end BEVs likely for a few decades.
Don’t expect solid state batteries to be readily available in range extender applications, as by the time the former gets cheap enough, the latter will likely be on its way out.
Solid state EREV would be pretty great for trucks. Cut the weight down a bit, and still have plenty of range for around town and longer hill climbs.
For passenger cars, I think the solid-state battery gets you enough range that dealing with the ICE would be more hassle than it’s worth compared to BEV. Especially with the state of charging infrastructure for longer trips.
Matt, “Like A Version” has some goddamn great covers by some great artists, thanks for plugging it.
The only other thing I have to say is the RAV-4 makes a surprisingly cool looking monster truck.
I was curious what that vehicle was. I can’t distinguish most SUVs at all, they are so bland.
I concur that “Like A Version” is brilliant. One of my favourites is when Australian artist G Flip takes Taylor Swift’s merely OK song “Cruel Summer” and plays it as a punk-pop queer anthem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIz-Ji8Wyog
I had never heard of Rebecca Black, much less “Friday” till now. So I watched that video. Maybe its my GenX tastes but I found it no better and no worse than other teen pop music. Given the “controversy” got her on Good Morning America at 13 I wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t all been faked as a marketing ploy.
Nothing is unstoppable but Toyota has a hell of a lot of momentum. Taking it slow and easy with EVs while focusing on hybrids was the right call. Toyota sells very strongly in multiple vehicle segments and, unlike the Big3, their solvency isn’t entirely dependent on a single full size half ton pickup model. They’ve been very successful because they provide what a lot of people want and tend not to burn their customers. The enthusiast crowd hates them for this everyman approach but that demographic has way more opinion than buying power.
That said, as a ToMoCo owner, I’m not liking what I’m seeing in the body-on-frame Hybrid Max powertrains. I’m hoping the next gen of those is way better, because they need to be. My 4Runner is a dinosaur but it’s a livable simple one that works every time, always. I’m OK jumping into a turbo hybrid, but it also needs to work well and the current Hybrid Max is inefficient, complicated, very heavy, very expensive, and imposes unacceptable packaging compromises. It’s a miss, and too many of those will hurt your marketshare. Even if you’re Toyota.
Cars are expensive to buy and expensive to operate. Toyota’s bread and butter is selling cars that are less expensive to operate without being that much more expensive to buy. As long as they don’t let hubris screw everything up they should continue to dominate the global markets for years to come.
Toyota, like most companies at the top, will most likely take out itself. That probably won’t happen soon, but who knows. Hyundai/Kia might or might not end up being the new ones on top. There’s no certainty in this world. No one knows what the future holds, and if they say they do, they’re lying.
(Also does anyone else think there should’ve been more Toyota monster trucks? Just me? Ok…)
They can only ride on the reliable car stereotype for so long, when their new cars are anything but reliable.
I’ve been hearing some variant of the “they can only rest on the laurels of their past reputation for so long” for–literally–15 years now. When’s it going to come true?
Despite hiccups they topped the Consumer Reports reliability ratings in 2025. If anyone has better stats I’m all ears.
Meh. Over the past three decades, Consumer Reports and Toyota have created a self-licking ice cream cone. CR readers buy Toyotas assuming reliability, while CR surveys enable confirmation bias from Toyota owners.
Over the same period of time, owners of many other models have ceased being CR subscribers, leaving CR with statistically insignificant survey data for those models — which they then report on anyway.
I asked if anyone had better stats, not a “meh”.
I’ve got my own set of concerns about CR methodology and reporting, but unless you’re able to provide links to your claims, this reads like someone upset their own brand’s ice cream cone is not getting licked to their satisfaction.
That’s probably how it starts…or would if it didn’t feel like everything else was exactly the same.
I think a lot of that reputational staying power has more to do with how long people held those beliefs than how true they currently are.
Volvo’s standing as a maker of safe and reliable cars has long outlived those actual attributes in its products. Only their largest 90-series vehicles made the 2025 IIHS Top Safety Pick list, and saying that newer Volvos have sorta-okay reliability is an act of charity. Yet the legend persists.
Conversely, BMW has a spotty reputation for reliability that waxed and waned until the nineties and aughts, when it became truly awful. Some of their older cars held together pretty well, and they’ve done much better in recent years, but so many people have such vivid BMW horror stories that the brand has become known for disposable luxury. They’ve done a lot to address what was wrong, but it sure seems like a manufacturer’s reputation is harder to fix than the products themselves.
Now BMW’s are just fugly.
I liked a lot of the Bangle-era cars (especially the 5-series and Z4), but the hellfire that critics rained on those designs seems much more appropriate for today’s Bimmers. If the Minecraft movie were a car, it would be a current BMW.
Absolutely. I understood why people didn’t like them (especially the 7-series), but I didn’t partake in the hate and have always loved the Z4. It’s a fantastic design that I think looks better than the current version, which is somewhat generic.
I love the Z3, it’s a classic design…but the Z4 was revolutionary.
Saw it coming with Toyota. Told anyone who would listen that going whole hog on EV was going to backfire and Toyota’s steady and sensible approach would win out. Toyota has its own problems but they definitely read the market right.
Toyota gets a lot of flak for not moving quickly, and being slow to adopt.
Contrasting with Hyundai’s “add all the options”
Both seem to be doing better that the traditional-3 who continue to struggle against them – except with american trucks.
I’m sure Toyota thinks the Hilux would tank the Tacoma’s sales – but it does make me wonder if it might make a dent in the traditional full-size mentality.
“I’m sure Toyota thinks the Hilux would tank the Tacoma’s sales – but it does make me wonder if it might make a dent in the traditional full-size mentality.”
The Hilux is smaller than the Tacoma and the Tacoma is actually the better truck these days IMO.
The great irony is that many folks who get the Hilux want a Tacoma; the folks who get the Tacoma want a Hilux.
I guess the grass is always greener?
I can’t say that I’ve heard that in my travels.
But, perhaps, it’s due to the Hilux being in markets with more space constraints – where a larger truck would be a challenge to navigate infrastructure.
Well they sell both in Australia and The hilux sells at least 20x more units than the Taco (probably because it is half the price).
RFK to the rescue!
May I interest you in a weasel sandwich?
Only if I can wash it down with a glass of raw milk!
This got my first audible laugh of the day, COTD!
I second it. All in favor?
Ah Toyota. Wasn’t it just a short 2 or 3 years ago everyone was beating them down because they didn’t jump into the EV craze?
Celebrating Toyota’s expected downfall was a favorite topic among commenters on EV enthusiast websites who mistakenly believed Toyota would be caught flat footed by the EV revolution and swept under.
They failed to understand the huge spread in US market penetration between affluent early adopters among the first to buy Teslas and the fair number of laggards who to this day would never consider a hybrid.
They also ignored the loyalty and patience of Toyota’s huge consumer base, many of whom would gladly wait until Toyota makes something they want and immediately trade in any EV in their garage the moment Toyota built a comparable model
I never understood any of it. Those comments always talked about Toyota like they had never done any R&D on batteries and electric motors and one day they’d be caught with nothing. Just ignoring that they had actually been building “cars with a big battery” longer than anyone, it just still had a gasoline motor attached to it.
“One person’s good news is another’s bad news.”
Case in point:
“GM Lays Off 700 Workers At Oshawa”
Bad for those workers, good (probably) for the executive’s third vacation house payments.
I’m not confident that is quite how this particular issue will play out. In fact, I would bet that GM execs are pretty pissed that they are having to shut down a shift at a TRUCK PLANT right now. Rehoming that production I’m sure is expensive and I doubt there is a penny worth of savings in doing so.
They’ve decided that whatever damage they take from moving production is worth avoiding whatever damage they would have taken from Mango Musso getting his feelings hurt that they didn’t grovel sufficiently.
Don’t worry, taxpayer bailouts are coming to save those execs!
As a resident of Ontario, with a lot of friends from the western portion of the province, “buy GM and support local” was the rallying cry for 30+ years.
I don’t hear that any more from the same people who once shouted it.
I can’t afford their insanely priced trucks with exploding engines anyways, so tomorrow I’m going to look at a 26 year old truck, whose fuel consumption I will likely offset with a Chinese EV in my driveway for commuting.
Great play, big 3.
Oh yeah, who can dethrone Toyota? Hyundai/Kia. Their EV and hybrid game is strong and their pricing is very competitive.
Even here in Canada, you can’t swing a cat without hitting 5 Palisades and a Tucson.
Down here in Alabama is largely the same — the Korean brands basically leapfrogged the Japanese in the 2000s pretty quickly (Partly bolstered by the Korean manufacturing expansion in the region creating jobs and goodwill).
Any “Buy American!” jingoism died down 20+ years ago, and that was mostly about trucks anyway.
Kiundai are literally everywhere, and I can’t fault people — at least initially, they offer even more features than Honda and Toyota at about 90% of the price. My final shortlist for a new car was a Sportage Hybrid (because I don’t like the Tucson’s styling and commonness). I ended up with a used BMW X3 because we’re all gluttons for punishment around here, in some small way.
I mean, I’m shopping a gas Excursion cause that $700+/mo new truck payment buys a LOT of gas, and I WFH 2-3 days a week on average.
Excursion is a good choice. I especially appreciate the ones that have swapped newer front ends onto them (though there are also ones that started as a SuperCrew Super Duty that a shop grafted an Excursion roof and rear to).
It’s only a 5.4, but I’m not looking to haul massive. I just wanna be able to pull at least 6000lbs (project cars), and transport the family on cross-country trips in comfort with a small trailer (like a 17′ Boler).
And there it is folks…The cost accountant in me, (dogs, I hated that class) looks at the price of gas, looks at the price of a new car (SUV/Pretend Station wagon) and says a used anything from CA without rust that gets shit mileage is what I aim for. Do some math, new car + or – $50K. Used something plus probable repairs + or – 20K. 30,000 buys 12,000 gallons of gas here in WI. If I get 18 instead of 30 the 12 per mile difference my break even is around 200,000 miles. Not to be ageist but my likelihood of 200,000 more miles on anything is pretty slim. Perhaps the reason I read about the Kia Sorento article with extra interest. Time to wander off to CA marketplace ba bye
Man I miss my 6.8 X. Threw a rod on 88 near Chicago. Loved that truck.
Found your truck. It’s in California but it looks to be in great shape.
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/d/san-francisco-2002-dodge-dakota/7910845180.html
Gonna be a tight fit with 3 people and a rottweiler.
So crew cab then?
They’ve all long rotted away up here. If the 4.7 magnum didn’t pop a head gasket and warp the heads first.
And I’d sooner walk than attempt the gauntlet of traveling home 3000+ miles across the US as a Canadian at the moment.
Cross the border in BC and the only US portion will be California, Oregon and Washington which AFAIK are Canada friendly. The worst flak you might be from Oregonians on the California plate but it’s a truck so maybe not.
Gotta cross the border first. And I ain’t keen on handing over 5 years worth of all my social media, e-mails, etc.
To enter the US all you should need is a:
Canadian passport;
Enhanced Driver’s License; or
Trusted Traveler Program card (NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST).
https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/western-hemisphere-travel-initiative/faqs#
I grew up hopping the border every weekend, I’m aware of documentation requirements.
HOWEVER, the current administration has really started abusing the right to search electronic devices, and setting up a travel phone also no longer flies.
If I were concerned about that I’d probably do two things:
I’d keep all my personal data on the SD card and remove it as needed.
I’d swap my battery (yes I can STILL do that) for a dead battery or just remove it altogether. Such phones are so uncommon I think it’s unlikely they’d realize that was the case.
Sorry officer, I forgot to put my phone on the charger. What were you looking for?
They’re specifically stated that lacking or limited data on your phone is treated as suspicious.
Well I guess my Luddite ass is “suspicious” then.
Fortunately, you’re not dealing with entering the lower 48 as a non-citizen. So you’re probably fine.
Probably.
I’m a dual citizen so maybe for funsies I’ll try coming in on my alien passport and see what happens.
So (I’m doing iPhone, I sure there’s a similar android thing) delete everything, on an iPhone it’s pretty simple. Set it up withe the bare minimum of stuff you need. Record a bunch of video until the phone is full.
Since you are Canadian, and a compatriot of Michael Snow, get some electronic music, or maybe Lou Reed’s metal machine music, put it on a portable player, and just wave the phone around spinning in place like so
https://youtu.be/Q6YHm6kkEL8
La Région centrale is best experience played lout in a dark theater, drugs are optional.
Anyway, a phone full of content.
Btw wavelength and back and forth are better Michael Snow films, back and forth is pretty funny.
To quote War Games, “the only winning move is not to play.”
So I’ll stay out until we stop living in such interesting times.
Which is a real shame, there’s a ton of national parks I wanted to show my daughter. We’re just gonna travel the ones we have up here instead.
How about this one?
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/d/vallejo-1999-dodge-ram-slt-magnum/7908235784.html
Extended is no go either. Wife & daughter are all legs.
Crew cab:
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/scz/cto/d/santa-cruz-2001-ford-sports-track-2wd/7911623101.html
Not bad, but that 4.0 will struggle pulling 6000lbs (average project car + U-Haul car trailer)
How about this then?
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/d/fulton-1500-dodge-ram/7911145652.html
Or this?
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/d/san-jose-2001-ford-f150-lariat/7911851641.html
Man, you really like Dodge, eh?
I’m sorting by price and working my way up. Here’s a Chevy though:
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/d/antioch-2003-chevrolet-avalanche-1500/7911373634.html
There’s a Florida imported 2WD Excursion 40 minutes from me listed for $7300 USD(10k CAD) and it’s super clean. Gonna start there.
40 miles IS a lot closer and 3000+ miles of gas @ 15 mpg ain’t free. Nor is California sales tax. Good luck and I hope it works out.
Fingers crossed!
He despises Ford IIRC, so he’d probably push you on something the equivalent of Project Cactus (before its resurrection) before accepting someone buying something with the blue oval on it.
Buy local in Ontario, huh?
Methinks the Civic is a good choice, or a CR-V (Alliston, On)
Or maybe a RAV4 (Woodstock, On)
They seem more likely to be in it for the long haul versus GM Oshawa (was going to be closed in 2019, got a reprieve), Ingersoll (all but closed for GM), Ford (not producing anything right now in Oakville), or Stellantis (Brampton unallocated, Windsor hanging by a van and car nobody wants)
Turns out they were all foreign, despite the bumper stickers loudly proclaiming they were ‘domestic’.
Toyota is a juggernaut. I’ve mentioned before (along with others) my surprise at how many European taxis — along with everyday cars — have suddenly become Toyotas in recent years. These were places that for a very long time would usually drive their home-grown brands, or at least another European brand, out of a sense of pride or just misguided loyalty.
I should have seen this coming decades ago when we saw the Hilux as the vehicle of choice for African militias. Now change is still being made, it’s just called “Corolla Hybrid” now. Possibly the best single car for the most people around the world, all in one package.
And as an American (without too much to be proud of these days), I like the fact that we were sort of the Early Adopters for Japanese cars, even as Europe thumbed their nose at most Japanese cars. In the long run across millions of samples, lower operating costs tend to win. We were onto something!
It is a logical change, due to various reasons linked to reliability, costs and changes in the business environment:
– Diesel is no longer the obvious choice because of costs, and they don’t build the Mercedes like they used to. Adblue and the rest of emission equipment will eventually fail with expensive consequences. And the modern diesels don’t like stop and go-driving in cities. It used the be that you could run a 200D forever, and early cdi and even dpf worked ok, even with high miles. So people would pay real money for used taxis. Now they are a lot more risky proposition, with the added complexity and all the electronic stuff, sensors, multibeam matrix headlights.
– The relative cost of diesel has risen, I guess partly due to rising taxes, but also the rising cost of everything (covid, Ukraine, tariffs, all the other crap going on – looking at you)
– Uber, Bolt and other rideshare companies have made the economics of running a taxi much more difficult. So the owner operators are struggling. And there are a lot more immigrant drivers. Not blaming all of them, but… there are various issues. Why this is important? The owner operators could afford a comfortable tool for their job, which they kept pristine. So a sales rep could buy an old MB taxi with 300-400 tkm and expect to run it for a few years. Reliably. Now you have expensive cars run to the ground with questionable service history, badly repaired accident damage and sketchy users. And modern MB electronics. And adblue. Although some of the modern taxi drivers are clueless: yesterday I saw (again) a BMW 330e with a taxi sign. The plate surround showed that it was bought from a semi sketchy used car chain, specialising in imported second hand lease cars. So you bought an out of warranty phev BMW lease special to use as a work car, to earn you money? It had a 30 km electric range when new and the battery HAD a 100 k km warranty, and they are notorious for battery wear. And rusting camshafts, bearing failures etc typical for phevs in Nordic climates. Consumer protection laws? You are a business…
No one is taking down Toyota. And Rebecca Black’s rebrand and return as a queer hyperpop girlie has been cool to watch. She’s got some talent to be able to turn being an early viral (negative) meme into a totally legit and respectful creative career. I can’t say her music or really any hyperpop is my cup of tea (in fact I think it’s literally the point that I stopped “getting it” and began my transition to an out of touch dad) but I’ve got nothing but respect for her game.
Yeah, good on her for keeping at it. I know if I’d have had something happen like Friday, I’d have probably walked into the ocean and kept walking until the bubbles stopped.
The song in the video isn’t my cup of tea, but it definitely isn’t bad at all…
Toyota.
Their Hybrid strategy is mostly good.
However, their RWD based Hybrids are shit, their BEVs are Meh, and their Turbocharged DI motors are not doing so hot either.
In their shoes I’d put everything into producing port injection naturally aspirated E-CVT based drivetrains and I’d throw all my R&D Funds into that and EREVs for Heavier duty applications that they seemingly haven’t figured out how to make E-CVTs work for (Tacoma, Tundra, 4Runner, Land Cruiser Prado, Sequoia, etc.)
Agreed. Toyota will have to self-own themselves to fail. Not unlike GM’s hubris, oh wait, I guess it is gm now since GM went bankrupt.
Mostly agree, but Toyota has done very well with their D4S systems (direct + port injection); no point in removing the efficiencies gained from D4S to go back to port only.
Agree to disagree, the advantages of direct injection for E-CVT platforms are minimal, and the downsides are pretty large.
Planetary gearset eCVTs use a secondary motor to apply torque to vary the gear ratio. This works fine for up to mediumish sized vehicles, but when towing that motor needs to work extra hard and the system becomes inefficient or even incapable at some point, which is why they aren’t used in those RWD applications. The largest/most powerful eCVT vehicles I can think of are the Toyota Sienna and Lincoln Nautilus (might’ve forgotten a Lexus though).
Ideally Toyota would make a big-battery PHEV with some kind of geared transmission rather than an EREV for the better transmission efficiency, but it’d likely require engine to be FWD-only (with an eAWD setup) as it’s really annoying to send a driveshaft through the battery pack area.
Stellantis made the right decision to go for an EREV for towing as they correctly assessed that they’re incapable of making a driveable and reliable PHEV setup, but I have far more faith in Toyota making a good one especially since several Chinese automakers have done so already.
Hi Autopian folks!
My email is no longer recognized when trying to log in. When I enter it to get the sign in link I’m told the email has no associated account, but I’m clearly here and posting comments. Is this a known issue? I can only post from browsers that still retain the session cookie.
I have no other way to report this, sorry for spamming a random comment section.
I’m having the same issue.
Hey y’all, you can always email me if you’ve got an issue!
Thanks for the help, Matt! I’m good to go now. Appreciate you guys!
I wonder if it’s an issue specific to Erics?
Has anyone checked for a new user named “Robert’); DELETE FROM Users WHERE FirstName = ‘Eric'”?
The “no Erics” club
Toyota is in the best position to take down Toyota. Other companies are rarely the thing that topples the biggest businesses. It’s missteps or corruption from within that usually bring them down.
I’m not saying Toyota has a problem with either right now, but that’s what’ll bring them down if anything is going to.
Its a good point and one even demonstrated in this article. While Toyota DID make really good steps, their ability to pass up VW was definitely enabled by mistakes made by VW to really open that door.
Absolutely. Toyota didn’t force VW to make critical errors. Sure, they positioned themselves well to take advantage of shifts from those errors, but they would have also been well positioned to keep plugging along with VW still doing well.
I’d go so far as to say no market leading company has ever been caught without glaring mistakes (VW, GM before them, and even Ford hanging on to the Model T far too long in the face of newer competitors 100 years ago)
I agree that Toyota is the most likely company to take them down. Complacency and pride have taken down many kings.
I’d say a variation is Toyoda could take down Toyota, just like Musk and Tesla. At least they moved him out of the CEO position, but probably can’t completely get rid of him.
On another note, I’m guessing it’ll be the Chinese like BYD taking their sales in “other” markets that could have the largest shorter term impact.
Curious how Kaizen might mitigate (or worsen) that.
I would add that what could help Toyota take themselves out is the same thing that will keep the Koreans from being in a place to take them out: their dealers.
The dealership experience at Toyota used to be average. I’m sure there are still a lot of good dealers you can work with if you’re willing to travel but they are gaining a reputation that the Toyota headquarters should take note of. In the US I guess it’s just really hard to fix that situation but they should probably try.
I like a lot of what Hyundai and Kia offer and I like a lot of what Toyota has done. I’m not in a place where I’d refuse to go into a Toyota dealer (I would be very picky about which one though) but I would not do business with the Hyundai/Kia dealers. It’s just not worth it to me.
TL;DR version: Watch the Toyota dealers and see if they don’t start to slide because of their reputation.
I actually got rid of my Kia because the dealership experience was so bad when I had warranty work done. Getting my Toyota serviced is fine (seeing the service at the connected Lexus dealership shows me it could be good), but my parents have had issues with their dealership.
You’re definitely right that the dealerships are resting on their laurels on Toyota’s behalf, which could be a contributing factor to sales reductions if some other mainstream dealer really focuses on getting their dealerships to offer great service.
Or if someone else is in any way successful at removing dealers from the equation (Scout?).
Yep. Just bought a 25 k4 lxs and the dealership review was, “never again”