Originally Posted by voodoo

Steinbock, I recently sent you a private message asking you about your 50th anniversary edition? You and I are most likely the only Canadians with this vehicle. Sorry to hear of your problems and will closely inspect my car again.
PM with your e mail address. Regards voodoo

Originally Posted by Rspaight

I've got to admit I'm a bit disappointed in the interior quality of my three-week-old KY-built. It's far from the worst I've experienced (that would be a '95 Ford Contour that started shedding trim bits the day I bought it), but not up to the standards of the last few Hondas I've had (including an Ohio-built Accord that needed a new tranny right off the bat but was otherwise a jewel). A couple examples:

- There's an uneven gap between the panels on the driver's door -- just above the inside handle the panel bulges out slightly, leaving a sliver of empty space. The passenger side is fine.
- Another uneven gap between the dash top and the panel above the glove box. It's tight on the side by the door, but there's a bit more than 1/16" of empty space on the side by the center stack.
- The first time I pressed the button to open the fuel door, that whole dash panel (left side under the steering wheel) flexed and nearly fell off. I thwacked it back into place and it seems good and tight now -- I think one or two of the clips weren't fastened.
- Seems to be little rattly, though not nearly as bad as that Ford (or my wife's Japan-built Mazda Protege5, for that matter, which has been plagued with a nasty center stack rattle that's come and gone since day one). My British-built '05 Civic Si was absolutely rattle-less its whole time with me, and the interior was assembled flawlessly.
- Plus, there seems to be a lot of hard cheap plastic for a $30K vehicle. I'm not expecting Lexus-level materials, but that $18K '05 Civic didn't seem this cost-cut. I think the fact that it's all light grey doesn't help -- I had an Infiniti G35 with a very plasticky interior but it was all black and it didn't seem as cheap-looking. Black plastic also hides bad gaps well. I'd probably have never noticed those first two items if the black gap hadn't been so obvious.

These are *very* minor nit-picks, but one of Toyota's big selling points is their fit and finish and so I guess I expected more. I still love the car overall and I was very pleased to get ~42 MPG on an out-of-town trip today with plenty of passing power on the two-lane roads (the 50-to-80 acceleration in this 3700-pound car is almost startling with just a 140-hp four under the hood).

I would be curious to compare a Japan-built car and see if they're any different. Obviously, the cheap-ish materials would be the same, but I'm wondering if the fit tolerances are down to the quality of the parts or the quality of the assembly. The car I test-drove was Japan-built, but I naturally I didn't examine it as closely as I have this one.

Regardless, though, I live near the Georgetown plant and I'm very happy to support a local workforce. It'll take more than a couple of tiny panel gaps to make me regret that aspect of my purchase.

Originally Posted by kluken

I had a 07 TCH from Japn last year and honeslty the interior was junk. Toyota quality is no what it once was. They quality in the structural and mechanical side are awesome, but I feel to compete they have cheapened their interiors with materials and build quality. I dumped my TCH becasue I was tired of the assortment of squeaks and rattles and poor interior build. In very cold weather it sounded liek the dash was going to fall out. The rear deck made noises constantly when playing mucis with any bass in it. I worked on the center console squeak a few times as well.

Originally Posted by kris

So what do you drive now? I ask this because ALL automobiles from every auto maker have imperfections, especially first year models.