The Dear Friend & Conscience is a good example of why Toyota has just passed General Motors as the world’s No. 1 manufacturer of cars and trucks.
The DF&C drove a GMC Jimmy when we started hanging out together. Through pampering and frequent oil changes, she was able to nurse 350,000 miles out of the beast before it quit, but the experience was daunting. Even when new, the Jimmy shook, coughed and rattled, was rough-shifting, had backbreaking seats and a problematic four wheel drive system. It was delivered from the factory in white over red mufti, but by the time it went away there was almost as much orange from rust.
The DF&C looked at new Jimmys, but they seemed to be little more than prettied-up versions of her old truck. She ended up buying a Lexus RX300.
The Toyota-built Lexus is closing in on 200,000 miles. There is the occasional rattle now, but it runs and shifts as smoothly as the day the dealer delivered it along with a cut-crystal vase full of long-stem roses. One of the fuel pumps quit at 140,000 miles, but it has otherwise been trouble-free. The DF&C is given a loaner car whenever maintenance is scheduled, most recently a spanking new RX400 Hybrid.
Sooner or later – and the latter is more likely – the DF&C will need to replace her Lexus. Care to guess what she’ll buy?
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