Lessons from 2011 disaster help Toyota ride out chip shortage

I could never buy any other car than a Toyota, but my 1992 Previa with 300K Miles on it just purrs. :)

Very interesting insight into the workings of the Toyota corporate mind and the nature of the relationship with their suppliers, for better or for worse.

Just talked with a man driving his third Prius. Said he loved it.

It is good to read that Toyota learned a lesson from the problems it faced in 2011. My impression is that American automakers never learn anything from their mistakes.

My impression is that American automakers never learn anything from their mistakes.

When was the last time you drove a modern American car? They are as good as anything from Japan or Europe. Plenty of head scratching "features", maybe too many, show up on German and Japanese cars, cars which too often have operators manuals hundreds of pages long. Is something like iDrive or MMI really necessary? Are there not simpler ways to implement "infotainment" and CAN-Bus? Audi suspensions that need $1200 to replace the many ball joints in their complicated multi-link front suspensions. V-8 engines with the cam chains at the back of the engine sandwiched between the block and the transmission bell housing. When the tensioner guide rails have to be replaced at 90K miles the whole engine and transmission have to come out the bottom of the car. You never see kludges like that come out of Detroit thank goodness. Changing the three rear spark plugs on my wife's Avalon is a 5 1/2 hour job at the dealership, all day in my driveway. The whole intake has to come off along with the wipers, wiper motor and mounting deck. Can't replace the rear wheel bearings, have to buy a complete hub assembly. Kludge with a capital K.