The 7th gen Corollas (pre '98) and Tercels from the 90s are among the very few cars you see driven here year round (where rust is really bad do to salt air and lots of rain combined with heavy salt on the roads in winter) that aren't rusted out. Whatever problems Toyota had with rust in the 90s, looking at the cars I see on the roads here, its obvious they sorted it out at least by the mid 90s.
Other car companies clearly haven't. The most common 90s (and post 2000 as well, for that matter) "rust buckets" I notice on the road today are Ford Rangers (I don't know why, of the various Ford's I see, this is so peculiar to the Ranger), Pontiac Sunfires, and Chevy Cavaliers. To be fair to GM, though, there are a lot of Sunfires and Cavaliers here, and both were the brand's low end offering (so the "you get what you pay for" argument has merit there, and the fact that ones built before 2000 are still on the road - regardless of the amount of duct tape and number of coat hangers holding them together - suggests they've already long paid for themselves anyway).
As others have said, SUVs like the Rav4, with their low ground clearance and small 4 cylinder engines, are not going to deliver any kind of traditional SUV performance/functionality and its not reasonable to expect them to for those reasons. Just to stick with the Rav4 (although most automakers have an equivalent competing with it), its Toyota's grocery getter for those (often female) who want to sit higher because they feel safer, yet also don't want anything bigger because of the higher sale price and fuel costs. They aren't buying them to offroad.
Not directed against anyone in this thread, but too many SUV buyers seem to think they can have their cake and eat it too for the price (upfront and in fuel costs) of something like a Rav4, in that its peanuts to operate compared to much larger and more powerful traditional SUVs, but common sense should say its obviously not going to much resemble them in any other way than ride height.
Its a joke to think that the small I4s in them, combined with low ground clearance (plus total absence of tougher sport/utility suspensions found in traditional SUVs) and still large frontal surface area (and resulting high cd) is going to make it a dog at anything other than "crossing a florists wet lawn" (the best way its been put) or as a grocery getter.
Toyota, and others, eventually caught on to the fact that the majority of people buying SUVs during their heyday were neither using them for sport or utility purposes, but for the same mundane things like suburban commuting that sedans have always performed - yet when gas prices soared, everyone whined about thirsty on gas traditional SUVs were (duh), yet they still wanted that feeling of safety from the extra size and ride height - and more reasonable fuel economy that was closer to a typical midsize sedan. So the Rav4, and its peers, are the result: its not any kind of "real SUV" (but most SUV buyers would never know it anyway since the only off street duty their SUVs ever see is navigating mall parking lots), nor is it as FE as the same engine in a (much lower cd) sedan - but its close enough to allow SUVs to still maintain some level of popularity in an age where $5/gallon gas is a reality already in parts of Canada (including this part) and coming soon to a pump near you south of the border as well.
-Spyder
Other car companies clearly haven't. The most common 90s (and post 2000 as well, for that matter) "rust buckets" I notice on the road today are Ford Rangers (I don't know why, of the various Ford's I see, this is so peculiar to the Ranger), Pontiac Sunfires, and Chevy Cavaliers. To be fair to GM, though, there are a lot of Sunfires and Cavaliers here, and both were the brand's low end offering (so the "you get what you pay for" argument has merit there, and the fact that ones built before 2000 are still on the road - regardless of the amount of duct tape and number of coat hangers holding them together - suggests they've already long paid for themselves anyway).
As others have said, SUVs like the Rav4, with their low ground clearance and small 4 cylinder engines, are not going to deliver any kind of traditional SUV performance/functionality and its not reasonable to expect them to for those reasons. Just to stick with the Rav4 (although most automakers have an equivalent competing with it), its Toyota's grocery getter for those (often female) who want to sit higher because they feel safer, yet also don't want anything bigger because of the higher sale price and fuel costs. They aren't buying them to offroad.
Not directed against anyone in this thread, but too many SUV buyers seem to think they can have their cake and eat it too for the price (upfront and in fuel costs) of something like a Rav4, in that its peanuts to operate compared to much larger and more powerful traditional SUVs, but common sense should say its obviously not going to much resemble them in any other way than ride height.
Its a joke to think that the small I4s in them, combined with low ground clearance (plus total absence of tougher sport/utility suspensions found in traditional SUVs) and still large frontal surface area (and resulting high cd) is going to make it a dog at anything other than "crossing a florists wet lawn" (the best way its been put) or as a grocery getter.
Toyota, and others, eventually caught on to the fact that the majority of people buying SUVs during their heyday were neither using them for sport or utility purposes, but for the same mundane things like suburban commuting that sedans have always performed - yet when gas prices soared, everyone whined about thirsty on gas traditional SUVs were (duh), yet they still wanted that feeling of safety from the extra size and ride height - and more reasonable fuel economy that was closer to a typical midsize sedan. So the Rav4, and its peers, are the result: its not any kind of "real SUV" (but most SUV buyers would never know it anyway since the only off street duty their SUVs ever see is navigating mall parking lots), nor is it as FE as the same engine in a (much lower cd) sedan - but its close enough to allow SUVs to still maintain some level of popularity in an age where $5/gallon gas is a reality already in parts of Canada (including this part) and coming soon to a pump near you south of the border as well.
-Spyder
