How Does Toyota Do It?

[supton]

Originally Posted by edyvw
Originally Posted by supton
I wonder if the Golf wagon isn't just a better idea. When I had a wagon it needed to be jack of all trades, which included towing. Maybe I'm projecting here but since Prius isn't rated for towing, I don't know if I would want a wagon version. Maybe if it was the same price as sedans, since I think I can justify owning two vehicles (commuter, tow-er), but if I ever went back to a single vehicle it'd have to be better than a Prius. [In so many ways!]

Depends what you want to tow? My friend at work went from Prius to VW SW TDi. He put some 100k since 2015 and except that thing with dieselgate, he had only failed temperature sensor on AC like 10 days after purchasing vehicle. Stick shift, and he tow's 1,700lbs teardrop trailer between Colorado Springs and Winter Park and than when he does road trips across the US, which is twice a year.
However, if you plan to tow something heavier, Golf is OK if equipped with Aisin automatic. Stick or DSG will not cut it for any serious towing.

Technically Prius isn't rated to tow anything.

Right now I have a 1,600 pound enclosed trailer, so it can weigh past 3k if I load it up and of course it has massive wind drag. If I got rid of it, I'd only have open deck lightweight utility trailers. My old Jetta towed one just fine, other than dragging the hitch from time to time on speed bumps or the like. I liked the MkIV with the PD, was a sweet setup (especially once I got it tuned) but the doors were too hard to open.

The problem with VW is finding a good indie to repair it, or becoming outfitted to do all the work myself. In the past I couldn't work on it, and so I'd drive hours to get a good mechanic. Today, I'm not about to drive that far to get good work. But I'm not sure I want to get anything complex either, if I keep it simple, then maybe even I can work on it. But if I run into a situation where I can't work on it...

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by wag123

For those of you too young to remember who Yugo was, Yugos were sold in the US from 1985 to 1992 and they were voted the "Worst Car of the Millennium", Consumer Reports slammed the car as a "barely assembled bag of nuts and bolts", and Eric Peters said that the Yugo was "less reliable than the exchange rate of an African 'people's republic' or a Halliburton financial disclosure", that it "taught folks the hard way about getting what you pay for" and that "The Yugo will likely hold in perpetual ignominy the title of Worst Car Ever Sold to the American Public". They had to stop selling them in the US because the EPA determined that none of the cars they ever sold here would pass federal emissions standards. They were miserable cars!


The funny part was that the businessman/entrepreneur who brought Subaru to the US in the 1960s whose name escapes me was trying to ride that wave of success with another foreign nameplate during the 2nd oil crisis. The Yugo was more or less a Fiat as well which also wasn't stellar. Hyundai reached American shores when I was a baby and had nearly the same reputation as Yugo. But look who's surviving today...

 

[wag123]

Originally Posted by nthach
Originally Posted by wag123

For those of you too young to remember who Yugo was, Yugos were sold in the US from 1985 to 1992 and they were voted the "Worst Car of the Millennium", Consumer Reports slammed the car as a "barely assembled bag of nuts and bolts", and Eric Peters said that the Yugo was "less reliable than the exchange rate of an African 'people's republic' or a Halliburton financial disclosure", that it "taught folks the hard way about getting what you pay for" and that "The Yugo will likely hold in perpetual ignominy the title of Worst Car Ever Sold to the American Public". They had to stop selling them in the US because the EPA determined that none of the cars they ever sold here would pass federal emissions standards. They were miserable cars!


The funny part was that the businessman/entrepreneur who brought Subaru to the US in the 1960s whose name escapes me was trying to ride that wave of success with another foreign nameplate during the 2nd oil crisis. The Yugo was more or less a Fiat as well which also wasn't stellar. Hyundai reached American shores when I was a baby and had nearly the same reputation as Yugo. But look who's surviving today...
His name was Malcolm Bricklin. He was the man that brought Subaru to the US in the late sixties.
The Yugo was in-fact a Fiat, the obsolete Fiat 127 Series 2 to be exact, itself an awful car. The EPA forced Malcolm Bricklin's company, International Automobile Importers (IAI), to recall all of the Yugos that were imported to fix the emission control systems, which never happened, and his company went under. After that, he tried to import Chinese Cherys. That deal never came to fruition.
Hyundai also showed-up in the US at about the same time as Yugo. Hyundais from that era were also pretty awful but they were definitely a step up from Yugo. The big difference was that Mitsubishi owned controlling interest in Hyundai at that time, so there was technical/design/financial/manufacturing assistance coming from a large established Japanese company.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by supton
Originally Posted by edyvw
Originally Posted by supton
I wonder if the Golf wagon isn't just a better idea. When I had a wagon it needed to be jack of all trades, which included towing. Maybe I'm projecting here but since Prius isn't rated for towing, I don't know if I would want a wagon version. Maybe if it was the same price as sedans, since I think I can justify owning two vehicles (commuter, tow-er), but if I ever went back to a single vehicle it'd have to be better than a Prius. [In so many ways!]

Depends what you want to tow? My friend at work went from Prius to VW SW TDi. He put some 100k since 2015 and except that thing with dieselgate, he had only failed temperature sensor on AC like 10 days after purchasing vehicle. Stick shift, and he tow's 1,700lbs teardrop trailer between Colorado Springs and Winter Park and than when he does road trips across the US, which is twice a year.
However, if you plan to tow something heavier, Golf is OK if equipped with Aisin automatic. Stick or DSG will not cut it for any serious towing.

Technically Prius isn't rated to tow anything.

Right now I have a 1,600 pound enclosed trailer, so it can weigh past 3k if I load it up and of course it has massive wind drag. If I got rid of it, I'd only have open deck lightweight utility trailers. My old Jetta towed one just fine, other than dragging the hitch from time to time on speed bumps or the like. I liked the MkIV with the PD, was a sweet setup (especially once I got it tuned) but the doors were too hard to open.

The problem with VW is finding a good indie to repair it, or becoming outfitted to do all the work myself. In the past I couldn't work on it, and so I'd drive hours to get a good mechanic. Today, I'm not about to drive that far to get good work. But I'm not sure I want to get anything complex either, if I keep it simple, then maybe even I can work on it. But if I run into a situation where I can't work on it...

2.o TDI can easily tow anything much heavier than 3k. Torque is 258 lb-ft, but problem is manual or DSG. I think it is rated at 2k tow. I am not sure whether 1.8T comes with Aisin automatic. That would be definiately better option for towing.
But if you do not have indy versed in European cars, I would go with used Toyota as mechanics are more comfortable with it. Though snatching TDI VW with this warranty VW has on those vehicles might be worth it.