Old Car - New Car

The 2002 4Runner

   While I was born in Massachusetts, I am really a Detroit guy. Being a Detroit guy, I am also somewhat of an auto guy as well. As a boy, I could name every car on the streets of Detroit and they were all from the Big Three back in those days. Henry Ford’s Mansion, Fairlane, was on the campus of the University of Michgan – Dearborn. My first jobs were in the auto industry at Ford Motor where my maternal grandfather had labored. In the auto industry, almost everyone was driving newer cars. It was simply how it was done. We worked in the industry and we wanted to drive the latest models. Also, back in those days, the US models did not age well, nor did they have very good reputations for reliability.
     I always bought Fords as that is where I started. Even upon moving to Connecticut to work for Colgate-Palmolive in New York City, I still bought another Ford. Then as the market trended to SUVs, I ended up buying two Chevy S-10 Blazers. The reason I

The 2018 4Runner

switched to GM was simply because the Blazer was cheaper and had better incentives than the Ford Explorer or other models.
     At the end of my being a Ford customer, I was not happy with the reliability of their products and certainly not happy with the design, performance, and reliability of the Blazers from General Motors either. I expected more from Ford since they had revolutionized the way they designed vehicles with the very successful Taurus. But, in true Ford fashion, that method did not become the norm nor part of the culture.
     I know a bit about the heritage of both Ford and Toyota. I have studied and continue to study both companies on my own. In the 1980s, I was part of a team that evaluated Toyota versus Ford defects in the warranty period. Finally, I was part of a study mission that visited many companies in the Toyota family of companies.
     So, I thought I would give a Toyota a try. I bought my wife a Camry and then leased her an Avalon. They were awesome cars. They operated smoothly and performed admirably on the road with one exception… they were not good climbing our street, Cavalry Hill Rd, when it snowed. We needed either all or four-wheel drive. So, I leased a Lexus RX. It was a perfect vehicle. It was so perfect, we leased two more until I switched her over to Mercedes. We looked at Cadillacs and Buicks along the way but were not overly

impressed.
     I bought my first Blazer in 1995. It was red, and I actually was happy with it even though the braking was horrible (rim brakes on the rear wheels instead of disc). I gave it to my son when he went to college and I had to buy another car. I wanted a Toyota 4Runner. I priced them out and, dang, if Chevrolet was not provided zero financing and a low price making it $5,000 less than the 4Runner. So, I bought a navy-blue Blazer and was actually unhappy driving it off the lot. Allow me to emphasize this, I was actually unhappy driving a brand-new vehicle out of the dealership. That is not supposed to happened. It was prophetic.
     That Blazer stalled on the way home! It continued to stall every time I drove it. I took it back to the dealership and it took them a week to fix it. The vehicle was a rattle trap at 60K miles. We traded it in in 2009 when my daughter bought a Jeep.
     In 2002, my son drove the red 95 Blazer into the ground at about 80K, so I decided to give him the blue Blazer. I needed a new car. Without hesitation and without checking with GM, Ford, or any other make, I went to the Toyota dealership and negotiated to buy a beige (they called it Champagne) 4Runner Limited. I was delighted to drive this truck off of the lot.
     That delight never waned. In fact, it grew and grew. I remember hearing a Toyota executive address us in the study mission to Japan that, and I paraphrase, their goal was to have their customers happier with their vehicles with each year of ownership. I was really surprised to hear this as cars and truck wear out. They start losing value from the moment you buy them. Repairs simply become more expensive as components wear out. To achieve their vision, they would have to have excellent engineering and precision manufacturing… exactly what Toyota is known for. That increasing delight is exactly what I experienced in 16 years of ownership of my 4Runner. That is a great definition and example of quality that breeds customer loyalty.  I just bought a new 2018 4Runner and traded in my 2002 4Runner. Given the age and being 500 miles shy of 200,000 miles, they gave me a mere $1,500 for my old 4Runner. 

     I understood the economics of this, but that truck was worth so much more to me. In fact, I was sad to give it up. I have owned that car for a quarter of my life. It has had amazing reliability and will go another 50-100,000 miles for whoever buys it next. It was, flat-out, the best car I have ever owned. I was feeling down driving it the last time this past Wednesday, November 21st. I really felt I was severing a great friendship. It was just a car but one I appreciated more and more each year I had it.
     Thankfully, these feelings quickly dissipated when I drove away in the new 4Runner. I would love to see this one last 16 years. The new one certainly has some big shoes to fill.