Lazy and unacceptable design choices from the biggest autocompany on the planet

[boltnut]

My fuel tank range indicator generally says 390 miles after a fill-up.

Wow, mine is 290

 

[AdventureCruiser]

Ha, I do this every damn time I open the sunroof. And during daytime, I often don't notice that I've turned on the lights.

Ditto! Grrrr!

 

[Sugarloafer80]

I find it hard to believe 2 vehicles with the same basic roof would have different roof racks.......just saying.........

 

[Shorty]

Even though R&D is carried out there are other factors that play a part in the final product, you will always find compromise whatever it be. To have changes made after the fact for future cars requires people getting off their butt and letting the company know. R&D includes reading blogs like this one where owners give honest feedback and if there’s enough of a push the manufacturer will look at the issue.

 

[ultane]

Even though R&D is carried out there are other factors that play a part in the final product, you will always find compromise whatever it be. To have changes made after the fact for future cars requires people getting off their butt and letting the company know. R&D includes reading blogs like this one where owners give honest feedback and if there’s enough of a push the manufacturer will look at the issue.

We can hope!

 

[wpage]

Well we have come a long way from the Corvair problems that GM worked out after "Unsafe at any speed" Ralph Nader caused the change and GM cancelled the Corvair line.

Certainly Toyota cares for their customers products and bottom line. Good feedback on real problems to good companies bring results. If Toyota is not paying attention. They will lose. The Land Cruiser according to Consumer Reports is not recommended for engine noise and transmission problems. The total ranking on a scale of 100 comes in at 61.

There is room for improvement in major areas.

 

[Nuke]

Well we have come a long way from the Corvair problems that GM worked out after "Unsafe at any speed" Ralph Nader caused the change and GM cancelled the Corvair line.

Certainly Toyota cares for their customers products and bottom line. Good feedback on real problems to good companies bring results. If Toyota is not paying attention. They will lose. The Land Cruiser according to Consumer Reports is not recommended for engine noise and transmission problems. The total ranking on a scale of 100 comes in at 61.

There is room for improvement in major areas.

Hey, I remember the Corvair, and when VW Beetle axles would tuck under, making it roll susceptible. VW fixed the problem, and the car remained very successful and popular. GM just plodded on with their arrogance.

Do we need the GX transmission in the LC? However, from reading posts, some of the issues appear to be operator error, i.e. remaining in high range when low should be used.

 

[hrudu]

Most of these issues are shared across both lc250 and the gx. I just can’t fathom how Toyota has gotten these designs so wrong with so much RD budget and almost 2 decades of development time. Some of the issues are not even acceptable from a young startup :
1. Rock rails that can’t be used as steps- wth is going on here. Did the designers ever put their damn first articles into use before it went to production ? The answer has to be a no because nobody would find this acceptable

2. Heads-up display sun reflection on the windshield- again around 2-3 pm I get a super distracting magnify type glare reflected from the hud glass on to the windshield. It is to a point that I want to cover the hud completely

3. Noisy crossbars - these crossbars haul at any speed over 45. My bmw and Volvo that have cross bars don’t make any noise.

4. Extremely noisy gx roofrack- the roofrack is flat out undeliverable . It shakes the whole roof over 55mph. At almost 2k price point every gx owner immediately takes them off at the time of delivery

5. Lc FE roofrack- the plastic front wind deflector is flimsy and will make contact with the roof making constant banging noise on the freeway. I had to stick a 3M tape between the plastic and the roof to dampen the noise

6. Trd exhaust - gx trd exhaust at 2k plus is drony and flat out unbearable

7. Capacitive sensing interior lights - good luck opening the sunroof without accidentally turning on the lights. This could have been easily mitigated by debounce timing

8. Ac - the gx has something called the s flow which directs air to occupied passenger seats however for some reason it doesn’t detect a toddler in the child seat, despite the child seat being secured by the seatbelt - now every time I’m driving with my kid I have to reach out to make sure the events have flow

I can understand ( to some degree) the design choices that led to small gas tanks and annoying Nannies due regulations etc but none of the above fall in that category and it is nothing but lazy engineering.

Being in charge of RD in a midsize startup , usability testing , limited market release ,and voice of customer is an essential part of every product release which makes me believe that these damn engineers never cared to test their own product.

LOL