Quote
Just slapping a Toyota name on a design or a factory does not make for a high quality rig. Ask anyone who owns the famous Brazilian Bandeirante, the FJ40 design that lasted until 2001. It was total crap. They were famous for breaking down and falling apart, because, they used local OEM parts and design and couldn't match the quality of the Japanese built rigs. That's an extreme example, but it goes to show that Toyota doesn't have an international policy that rigs built outside of Japan have to meet Japanese built standards by 100%, like some folks assume.

Fill me in here, was the Bandeirante a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota, a Scion-like branding thing, or a third-party knockoff? You are saying they definitely do NOT have international contractual policies for clearances, performance, TQM/QA/ISO9000 compliance, etc.?


-Bill
'87 4Runner w/ '96 5VZ-FE, 'Red Chili II'
'97 Taco XtraCab 3RZ-FE, 'BlackBean'
TLCA # 13257, Rising Sun 4x4 Club Land Use Coordinator
"He who stops being better stops being good." -Oliver Cromwell