The Toyota No One Talks About
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Date: 2019-10-30
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Comments and reviews: 9
Will Johnson
And only a footnote. I look over a friend's red Solaro convertible with about 90K miles on it. Nice car as Scotty says. I drive it once in a while. Hard to beat used for the money. Nice styling etc. But I am an automotive engineer and tend to be a bit picky about driveability. Without the top, the car loses a lot of torsional rigidity. Toyota could have beefed the structure of the body/chassis up more without the top. The car has pretty prodigious body shake. In other words, it takes a while for the car go over a bump before the chassis settles. Not what you want in a performance car at least. I prefer a hardtop anyway for this reason if you like performance and handling. V6 Engine and trans are decent. Throttle is a bit wonky. high spring rate on the gas pedal. Toyota legendary reliability as Scotty often talks about. I enjoy your videos Scotty even though I am an industry insider. I think you provide solid advice. You don't ring the bell much for American cars which I tend to find pretty reliable. German, Brit and Exotic cars ergo Italian are the worse. Japanese make the most reliable cars. Stay away from turbos and CVT.
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And only a footnote. I look over a friend's red Solaro convertible with about 90K miles on it. Nice car as Scotty says. I drive it once in a while. Hard to beat used for the money. Nice styling etc. But I am an automotive engineer and tend to be a bit picky about driveability. Without the top, the car loses a lot of torsional rigidity. Toyota could have beefed the structure of the body/chassis up more without the top. The car has pretty prodigious body shake. In other words, it takes a while for the car go over a bump before the chassis settles. Not what you want in a performance car at least. I prefer a hardtop anyway for this reason if you like performance and handling. V6 Engine and trans are decent. Throttle is a bit wonky. high spring rate on the gas pedal. Toyota legendary reliability as Scotty often talks about. I enjoy your videos Scotty even though I am an industry insider. I think you provide solid advice. You don't ring the bell much for American cars which I tend to find pretty reliable. German, Brit and Exotic cars ergo Italian are the worse. Japanese make the most reliable cars. Stay away from turbos and CVT.
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trustbuster23
I remember test driving the Solera convertible back in the day. The cowl shake was so unbelievably bad in that thing that I handed the keys back to the salesman in the lot and said basically forget it, zero interest and didn't even stick around to get a quote. It was like driving a piece of wet linguine. It felt like they just cut the roof off and did absolutely nothing to otherwise strengthen the frame. Seriously. So it didn't exactly ride like a Toyota. I don't know squat about the hard tops, they are probably pretty bullet-proof given that it is basically a two door Camry and the Camry of that era was a tank. But the convertibles failed because their design completely sucked. I don't think convertibles are really Toyota's strong suit. They haven't made a lot of them, and several of the ones they have made (this, Lexis SC430) are pretty glaringly poor. Even Toyota gets it wrong sometimes.
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I remember test driving the Solera convertible back in the day. The cowl shake was so unbelievably bad in that thing that I handed the keys back to the salesman in the lot and said basically forget it, zero interest and didn't even stick around to get a quote. It was like driving a piece of wet linguine. It felt like they just cut the roof off and did absolutely nothing to otherwise strengthen the frame. Seriously. So it didn't exactly ride like a Toyota. I don't know squat about the hard tops, they are probably pretty bullet-proof given that it is basically a two door Camry and the Camry of that era was a tank. But the convertibles failed because their design completely sucked. I don't think convertibles are really Toyota's strong suit. They haven't made a lot of them, and several of the ones they have made (this, Lexis SC430) are pretty glaringly poor. Even Toyota gets it wrong sometimes.
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Michael Moy
I saw one of these being made around 2003 or 2004 at the Kentucky Factory. I did not like the concept of the car though - big doors to result in it being harder to get in or out and the soft top which could get damaged by falling ice (a problem in my area. I didn't know that there was ever a Camry with a manual transmission. I love the 8-speed on my 2018 Camry though and I don't think that you can make a gas mileage case for a standard anymore. But a nice trip through memory lane.
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I saw one of these being made around 2003 or 2004 at the Kentucky Factory. I did not like the concept of the car though - big doors to result in it being harder to get in or out and the soft top which could get damaged by falling ice (a problem in my area. I didn't know that there was ever a Camry with a manual transmission. I love the 8-speed on my 2018 Camry though and I don't think that you can make a gas mileage case for a standard anymore. But a nice trip through memory lane.
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Fun to travel
I had the 1999 Solara V6 SE with a 5 speed. 1st brake change at 120k miles and the mechanic argued with me that it couldnt be my first time changing the brake (he admit hes wrong when he took it out. Once the suspension was upgraded with the Tokico/Eibach setup, my car felt much more sportier. Beat most the accord coupes then. Sold it when I got up to 270k miles. Replaced timing belt twice and clutch once after 14 years of hard driving. Very reliable throughout my ownership.
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I had the 1999 Solara V6 SE with a 5 speed. 1st brake change at 120k miles and the mechanic argued with me that it couldnt be my first time changing the brake (he admit hes wrong when he took it out. Once the suspension was upgraded with the Tokico/Eibach setup, my car felt much more sportier. Beat most the accord coupes then. Sold it when I got up to 270k miles. Replaced timing belt twice and clutch once after 14 years of hard driving. Very reliable throughout my ownership.
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glx490
How about the fact that it's fugly. I think the commercial point is that a convertible weekend car is a vehicle that people with money to spare would buy and those people buy money pit luxury cars from luxury brands. Makes no sense to buy a show-off Toyota. So a Lexus convertible makes more sense, not to mention a BMW, Mercedes, or a Porsche convertible, or for the real show-offs extremely unconcerned by money, italian convertibles like Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lambo and Ferrari.
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How about the fact that it's fugly. I think the commercial point is that a convertible weekend car is a vehicle that people with money to spare would buy and those people buy money pit luxury cars from luxury brands. Makes no sense to buy a show-off Toyota. So a Lexus convertible makes more sense, not to mention a BMW, Mercedes, or a Porsche convertible, or for the real show-offs extremely unconcerned by money, italian convertibles like Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lambo and Ferrari.
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Mark Langston
You never mention the Toyota Echo (2000-2005. I've had 2 of them and they were and are the most dependable cars I've ever had. Highway mileage of 40-46 mpg consistently. The manual tranny model would actually smoke the front tires. 200k miles and no oil burning or leaks. Too bad they didn't sell here as they were a hell of a reliable car. People used to laugh at me for driving one till I told them the mpg and that it wasn't a hybrid.
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You never mention the Toyota Echo (2000-2005. I've had 2 of them and they were and are the most dependable cars I've ever had. Highway mileage of 40-46 mpg consistently. The manual tranny model would actually smoke the front tires. 200k miles and no oil burning or leaks. Too bad they didn't sell here as they were a hell of a reliable car. People used to laugh at me for driving one till I told them the mpg and that it wasn't a hybrid.
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Hippie Bits
The critics really panned the 2ed gen Solara for not being sporty enough. The joke was on all the people who never visited the showroom to check one out. Not a sports car by any stretch but I've never had happier passengers even in vehicles costing nearly twice as much. It really was remarkable how much people gushed over that car. really nice comfortable interior and tons of space in the backseat with the hardtop.
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The critics really panned the 2ed gen Solara for not being sporty enough. The joke was on all the people who never visited the showroom to check one out. Not a sports car by any stretch but I've never had happier passengers even in vehicles costing nearly twice as much. It really was remarkable how much people gushed over that car. really nice comfortable interior and tons of space in the backseat with the hardtop.
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sploofmonkey
GM was making some pretty nice quality 2 dr sedans in the 1970s. In the later 1980s GM had morphed most of its cars into unibody chassis, V6, and front-wheel drive. I worked at a full service gas station for a few years in the 1980s, I remember some of those GM 2 dr sedans very classy and good performance based around the 3800 V6; particularly Buick, Oldsmobile, & Pontiac had some fine cars back then.
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GM was making some pretty nice quality 2 dr sedans in the 1970s. In the later 1980s GM had morphed most of its cars into unibody chassis, V6, and front-wheel drive. I worked at a full service gas station for a few years in the 1980s, I remember some of those GM 2 dr sedans very classy and good performance based around the 3800 V6; particularly Buick, Oldsmobile, & Pontiac had some fine cars back then.
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jas4925
My sister had one bought brand new. That poor car was cursed. When driving from the dealership she was hit in the front nearly totaling it that time. Shorty after that it was hit in the side by a polar water truck delivering water to the office. Then while driving home one night a deer jumped over the truck hitting a quarter panel. When they traded it only panel that hadn't been changed was the roof lol.
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My sister had one bought brand new. That poor car was cursed. When driving from the dealership she was hit in the front nearly totaling it that time. Shorty after that it was hit in the side by a polar water truck delivering water to the office. Then while driving home one night a deer jumped over the truck hitting a quarter panel. When they traded it only panel that hadn't been changed was the roof lol.
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