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[HunterCO]

Okay. Wrong on the collision thing. My Wife was rear ended last week by a Nissan mini-truck. (guy had no license, no insurance, no English! but that's another rant..) She estimated him to be going 30-35 mph. The hitch reciever took the brunt of the impact. It scratched the rear bumper cover. I put it on the lift, and there is NO damage to the frame or undercarrige. The Nissan was DOA. I feel comfortable my Wife and Twin 3 year old daughters are in one of the biggest heaviest things on the road.

It must be a figment of me and every other tech and shop owners imagination. I have only done four of them so far none of them were in bad wrecks. I will give you a hint you can't tell by looking at it. I am not a big guy and I can carry a navigator frame by myself. They are about as rugged as a pop can.

The '99 F350 powerstroke has 78k miles. I replaced my first set of front brakes at 55k. ($160) Rear brakes at 70k. ($160) Tires replaced at 36k. I've replaced the heat control knob ($6). The column mounted shifter ($60) The glow plug relay twice ($12 ea from NAPA) And the driver outside mirror twice (my mistake!) Front and Rear shocks upgraded to Bilsteins at 80k ($240). That's it. Fluids flushed at 30k and at 60k. I have a cone filter that gets cleaned every couple of oil changes.

I said F150 when refering to the brakes. The pads on a F150 are much smaller than the pads on my little Tacoma. They don't last long even if I put ceramics on them.

The '99 Navigator has 89k miles. It had front brakes at 65k (when we bought it, $170) and rear brakes ($160) at 88k. I flushed fluids and replaced all filters at 65k when we bought it. It's about time again. No other repairs. Actually it needs a new set of 20" tires, that I'm not looking forward to replacing. The odometer flickers off once in a while, but I'm not worried about it.

The '99 Corvette has 41k miles. Fluids flushed, filters changed at 32k when we bought it. Tires at 36k, no other repairs needed thus far.

Imports I drove: mostly Volvo, as I own a Volvo shop, and they seem to just appear out of the blue. I have also owned a Civic, a Porsche 914, a '71 Baja Bug, a '92 Eclipse and a '93 Eagle Talon.

I stopped driving the "Import" performance cars, as I got tired of every kid stopping at a light next to me revving his car and trying to race. I still get that in the 'Vette every now and then...

Every car has its faults. I've been pretty lucky with the vehicles I own now. That being said, my friend's '01 F350 has been nothing but trouble. Replaced transmission, injectors, auto locking hubs...

My family has owned three Toyotas. My Mom's '94 Landcruiser was thought to be bulletproof for the last eight years, until it developed a bad misfire we attributed to a bad valve. It has 140k miles. My younger brother's '71 Landcruiser is a great truck, and has no issues other than a bit of smoke on startup. My Dad's old '87 4Runner was great, albeit very slow (4cyl, 22re) and never gave any problems until one of the timing chain guides broke and the chain rubbed through the front case, mixing coolant and oil. (120k miles).

You forgot to mention how difficult some Toyotas are to work on. Ever change a fuel filter in an early pickup? How about a early '90's Corolla with the fuel filter mounted low and next to the firewall? Just about impossible.

I have changed many of them over the last 20 years and I do not find it difficult. Some cars it's easier than others but not a big deal to me. I don't work on just one car as you do I work on them all. The only thing I don't work on at my shop is most of the euro cars like BMW, Mercedes, Porche, Jaguar ect.

Some cars just last longer than others. To make speculations how long a car will last is just silly. Everyone takes care of their cars differently.

It's not speculation it's a fact I seen with my own eyes being a tech for the last 20 years. Yes there can and will be lemons with any car I am talking about the majority of them. There is a reason Toyota and Honda are and have been the two top rated cars for needing the least amount of repairs. They have been the top two for over ten years.

Some people will destroy a car no matter how well it's built. I have an uncle like that, he can go through a new Ford F series in about three years on his ranch. We call him acid-man!

I deffinately can't argue with that some people just destroy cars no matter what it is.