I had a 1981 Tercel that "only" got about 160,000 miles before I traded it in. It still ran fine. Now I have an Infiniti and that's also rock-solid.<p>Conversely, I've had three German cars (one VW and two BMWs) and they all sucked. On the last BMW I had to replace all four window regulators, at $900 each.<p>Manufacturing is hard.
In a similar vein: Is that Matt Farah's Million Mile Lexus? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0gPidvOLww" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0gPidvOLww</a><p><a href="https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28991860/the-million-mile-lexus/" rel="nofollow">https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28991860/the-milli...</a><p>Toyota does something other manufacturers will call stupid (and some like BMW or Mercedes stopped doing). Toyota manufactures to an order of magnitude greater tolerances than needed. Even something stupid like 3 cylinder European fab Yaris is manufactured in white gloves <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhZSHo1b6M" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WhZSHo1b6M</a>
My Land Cruiser is still going strong with just shy of 270k. The next timing service is due in less than 3k miles and I’ll perform the work myself just like I’ve always done.<p>I’ve spent 20 years working as a carpenter and electrician, but for 3 of those years I managed an import repair shop in the US.<p>Based purely on my anecdotes from running that shop, the only car manufacturers worth your time and money are Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura.<p>I’ve been on sabbatical since Jan 3 as I attempt to reinvent myself as a software developer. None of it would be possible if it weren’t for all the money I made repairing BMWs, Mercedes, Audi/VWs (lol), and Land Rover/Jaguars.<p>There isn’t much money to be made repairing Toyotas or Hondas.
The impressive thing about this is that there's an immense quality difference between pre-1975 Toyota and post-1975 Toyota.<p>Keeping a pre-1975 Toyota vehicle running is a massive achievement today.