Which truck to keep

johnckhall said:

If everything works on the Toyota, then you’re likely to get more money than advertising that the GMT400 needs AC and other work. I’m in GA and it’s hot here! If you’re just hauling stuff, Gramps’ truck will get the job done. And you’ll highly regret getting rid of his truck one day. Don’t do it.

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Yes. You can always get another Tacoma. There is only 1 Grandpa’s truck!

^^^^^ This is right. There is only 1 Grandpa's truck, and it's the one he wants YOU to have.

Caman96 said:

Yes. You can always get another Tacoma. There is only 1 Grandpa’s truck!

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That is actualy very convincing argument-some things you can't buy.

OutlawDrifter said:

The Toyotas I own are assembled in the US...so they've probably had more American hands on it than a GM product that is HECHO in MEXICO.

I'm a die hard GMC guy, always have been...and I own a 1949 and a 1999 model year of the moniker, but having owned, driven, and worked on the Toyotas in my stable...I'm impressed.

I don't agree with making cuts to equalize yourself with competition, we have 2 cabinet shops in the small town that my postal code is attached to (less than 250 people). One only does high end stuff, the other offers 3 grades, great/good/okay. The one that does high end stuff never is lacking for business. It takes time to grow that reputation, and it takes consistency to keep it. Not all people will pay more for better, but there are plenty that will.

Dodge currently sells the cheapest 1/2T pickup on the market, new, between the big 3. That isn't going to make me want to buy one!

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I tend to always chuckle a bit whenever I read something along the lines of, "This Toyota was assembled in the US.." Keep in mind I made mention that newer domestics aren't what they used to be. That was in direct reference to many of them being built off home base today compared to yesteryear. But back to Toyota specifically, responses like yours were exactly what Toyota was hoping to capture by building plants here. As the demand for their product increased, it no longer made financial sense for them to import. So the benefit of building factories here was many fold. They could tout being an American made product while employing Americans as well as avoiding import tariffs. However, ALL Japanese tranplants here are run by Japanese big shots. When it comes time to build a plant here, they are very shrewd about it; only employing contractors whom they have ties with back home and same thing about their suppliers. If they can avoid it, they will not buy raw materials and supplies from the US. Matter of fact the company I work for sells domesticated versions of another Japanese supplier's formulations. That supplier refuses to have a plant here, but that supplier is the only pretreatment supplier the Japanese want to buy pretreatment from. So in order to sell stuff to these transplants what do we have to do? License the Japanese supplier's formulas, pay them royalties and then sell to the transplant. Meanwhile, the large majority of the transplants (When I say "transplant" I'm talking Toyota, Honda, Nissan ect.) R&D is happening back in Japan and all profits are being funneled back there. They have no pensions to support and only in recent years have they actually begun to invest in the surrounding communities, whereas GM and Ford have been giving back to the communities for decades. Their [transplants] business strategy was simple too, build a plant in bumphuck USA because the land was dirt cheap and it didn't matter, people will commute to work there. They are parasites and nothing more, so I refuse to drive them. But of course, if all a fella does is just scratch the surface, they appear to be benign and superior.

You know, I see a lot of Dodges on the road. So you may not be buying them, but others are. The cheapest product seems to win. I wonder if Ford can continue to tout the F150 being America's best selling truck any more..

OutlawDrifter said:

The Toyotas I own are assembled in the US...so they've probably had more American hands on it than a GM product that is HECHO in MEXICO.

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Op has a 99 Tacoma and a 97 Chevrolet. I guarantee there was way more American hands on the Chevy during production.

The worst thing I see living in Michigan is a foreign truck owner 1- they really don’t sell them in they own market especially Europe 2- your in the heart of American automotive state 3- your not supporting one or more of your family members since money is going back overseas. Not saying you are wrong to own one but once again your on gmt400 forum really not going to get any help if it’s the Tacoma you really want! Lol

A few things from someone in the business...

GM puts lots of foreign made parts in their vehicles.

GM uses Denso parts just like Toyota.

Denso has factories here, and lots of other places in the world.

Toyota, like other automakers likes to have suppliers nearby, so if they're building cars here, they're getting parts here too. They're not just assembling parts coming from Japan. There are a lot of foreign suppliers here.... ever hear of Bilstein? Brembo?

It would not surprise me one bit to find a greater amount of US made parts in a "foreign" car because US suppliers (like American Axle) have moved much production to Mexico.

to the OP: Sell the 2020 Grand Cherokee while prices are up (you will never get more out of it than you can right now) and buy something older but reliable and still nice enough that your wife will be okay with.

The GM/Toyota debate of 90’s doesn’t apply to 2022.

The trucks were built 20+ years ago anyway.

DerekTheGreat said:

For me, it's not about the quality. It's about it being OUR product.

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OutlawDrifter said:

The Toyotas I own are assembled in the US...so they've probably had more American hands on it than a GM product that is HECHO in MEXICO.

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DerekTheGreat said:

They have no pensions to support and only in recent years have they actually begun to invest in the surrounding communities, whereas GM and Ford have been giving back to the communities for decades.

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Since their bankruptcy, GM sells more cars in China than the US. A significant portion of GM's line is now made in China.

As far a pensions, remember how many people were ticked that the government rescued the pensioners and screwed Wall Street on GM's bailout? GM's shareholders were hoping to ditch the pension and let those people live in poverty - even though the shareholders were the people who enabled every CEO from Roger Smith to Rick Wagoner to rob from the pension fund while the company went belly up.

Claiming that a car company is one nationality or another is terribly outdated. In the '80s the whole industry changed, and now every car company is a multi-national assembler of globally sourced parts. The last company to change was probably Nissan, which was still using the keiretsu model in the late '90s when they were half a billion dollars in debt and got bought out by Renault. Look at platform sharing - the Mazda Miata chassis is also sold as the Fiat 124 Spider, with a Fiat engine. The new Toyota Supra chassis is actually a BMW Z4. Note that these companies aren't even in the same corporate families. If one manufacturer comes up with a successful chassis, others buy it. If one comes up with a good engine, others buy it.

Use your preferred vehicle for what it is. If the Toyota makes more sense, keep it. If Grandpa's truck makes more sense, keep it. If Grandpa's truck has sentimental value, then weigh that against its usefulness.