>Subarus rust really bad here, too.
>
>>  What fails on Toyotas? Bugger-all.
>
>They rust pretty bad here in salt country -- this is true of all Japanese
>cars.

Local assembly problems. When I spent 4 months in Newfoundland I
noticed that the worst rusters were Hondas and US Fords, along with
Toyota Corolla IIs (sold there as Tercels) and Corolla Sprinter Carib
4WD wagons (also sold as Tercels). Golfs (Rabbits) seemed relatively
resistant to rust perforation, though many had weeping sores from
scrapes.

>Not much salt in Japan I guess.

They sure do salt roads in northern Honshu & Hokkaido. Cars there do
rust, but not too badly... except for Hondas!

>There have also apparently
>been complaints about the engines sludging up and then seizing due to oil
>starvation, on some models, at least in the U.S.  Toyota's gotten out of
>doing anything about it by blaming poor oil change intervals.

Unknown here. Wrong oil being used perhaps? The only Toyota engines
known to give problems here are 2.4 turbodiesels, which drop
valveseats.

My diesel Corolla just sprang a radiator leak today... so problems
are not totally unknown!

Anyway, the OT has gone on long enough... let's end it, huh?
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut