Toyota puts out great products. My first car was my moms 1999 Camry XLE that she kept even after buying a big 4x4 after moving to the mountains, specifically so I could drive it when the time came. Not sure what particular engine it had but I know it was a 6 cylinder mated with a 5 speed manual trans. Learned to drive in the snow in a front wheel drive manual trans sedan. Those were some wild rides lol. But I can do it with confiedence should I ever need to, and that camry never let us down. That being said I see drawbacks in the way toyota designs their vehicles.
So before I bought my 2006 Denali, I was dead set on buying a 4x4 limited trim sequoia in the year range of 2003-2007 as that was the body style I wanted. On the 4.7 V8s that those came with the starter is buried under the intake manifold. To replace it the entire top of the engine basically has to be taken apart. On top of that you may as well throw in a new timing chain since you’re gonna be in that exact area taking everything apart. There’s one other major component there as well that should just get replaced if the mileage is high and I can’t remember now what that was. It’s close to 1,500 dollars in parts and labor if the starter goes out. Now replacing the timing chain isn’t a must when doing a starter but why pay the mechanic twice to do the exact same labor two separate times. Every sequoia I looked at to potentially buy had starter issues and I had no desire to deal with that right off the bat in ownership of one. Plus I couldn’t find one trimmed the way I wanted. All my experience as a detailer has made me absolutely despise cloth interiors. I’ll never own cloth ever again. Either I found a cloth interior SR5 trimmed 4x4 or a leather interior limited trimmed 2 wheel drive sequoia. 4x4 is non negotiable for me since I live in a ski town but I wasn’t willing to go back to cloth seats so I had to give up the search for a sequoia. I was disappointed but after buying my Yukon I’d do it again in a heartbeat. My factory starter in the Yukon died in the back parking lot of our local DIY car wash one evening after a quick post snow bath. I walked over to the NAPA parts store that’s literally across the street from the car wash, bought a starter and with basic hand tools that I had in the truck, I had the starter replaced in under an hour in fading daylight. Because on GM vehicles most major components are stupidly easy to access. I think at least with the older generations of GM, they’re designed with the DIY mechanic in mind. It’s just easier to work on. I can’t speak to the difficulty level of working on modern Toyotas or GM for that matter since I don’t own either but from 8 1/2 years of owning a an older GM all my DIY mechanic experience has been from my Yukon simply because it’s so easy to work on. And I’m confident enough now because of that fact to tackle even big repairs and maintenance items myself.
On another note, in twelve years of detailing I’ve only had a very small handful of clients with full size Toyotas. A client a few years ago had a 2013 tundra, and since the exact month I bought my Yukon, I’ve had a client with a 2004 4x4 limited trim sequoia. Literally spec’d exactly how I’d wanted one. I was a lil salty when I first showed up to that clients house and saw the exact type of sequoia I’d wanted sitting in the driveway like two weeks after buying my Denali haha. Anyways while many full size toyotas are on the road around me, most of the mountain folk won’t touch them and the majority of full size pickups and SUVs and that we drive are either GM or ford. Lots of clients with small Toyotas like Ravs, Camrys, my sister in law has one, a 2018 I believe. And lots of clients with Tacomas and forerunners. The big Toyota stuff just isn’t as popular in my region. But then again we are a weird A-S-S breed of mountain folk lol.
