Problems already!!

[njsolara]

Well, I picked up my 06 Solara last Wednesday and exactly one week and less than 500 miles later, the POS dumped the entire radiator full of coolant on my driveway. It's sitting at the dealership right now getting looked at (I had to have it towed in). Any thoughts on getting rid of this fine piece of Japanese engineering? I'll even sell it back to the dealer at a loss. I just want out! This is the first and will be the last Toyota I will ever buy! I caution all potential Solara buyers to stay away from the 4 cylinder. I've owned 3 new Fords in the past with no problems, ever. I fell for the "Toyotas are bulletproof song" and I wound up with a piece of junk. Never again....

[MrMikeL]

Wow, that's pretty nasty. However, it could have been something as simple as an untightened silcock drain or loose hose clamp from the factory. Are you really willing to bash your entire Toyota experience on what is most likely a very minor problem?

At least wait until you get the issue resolved before making a hasty decision.

Welcome to the board. Please know that we're here for you . . .

[dominoSLEV6]

Ok... so go buy a fusion? Dunno what to tell you buddy, nor do I know what response you expect. I can tell you no one on here is really going to identify with you on that problem. I'm pretty sure there's a reason Toyota is the number one car manufacturer now. Hey I don't blame you though, Toyota doesn't have a song anywhere near as cool as "ride it like a ford" which must be the entitlement for Ford fans to bitch about leaking coolant. Honestly it was probably a hose clamp or something, getting rid of a car for that is like quitting your job because the toilet in the bathroom overflowed. It really doesn't matter to me though, my 99 is going strong at 80k+ miles, so I have nothing to worry about. Get yourself back into a Ford, and have a nice day.

-chris

[onefiend]

The Ford Fusion will be a flop...He's better off getting a Kia Optima.

Any other Gen2 people have this problem? Seems like an isolated incident to me.

[PXLpainter]

Troll Alert!

[njsolara]

Sorry if I came off so strong..I'll post pics as soon as I get home from work. It's just a very frustrating thing on what should be a well built car. I have coolant all over my engine and the damn thing isn't more than a week old. If they forgot to tighten a hose clamp, what else did they forget to tightten? Did they forget to torque the flywheel to spec too? Been a negative experience so far. It's been at the dealership for three hours so far...no call yet. It's tough to see your new car being towed away and it doesn't even have 1k miles on it yet. I'll keep you posted.

[theprodigy79]

I can go the oposite direction and state that my Mercury Cougar (aka Ford Thunderbird) lasted 50K miles before having problems... started minor, got progressively worse... ditched it at 63K miles in favor of a '93 Toyota Celica back in 1997... I put 190K miles on the thing before seeing the Solara in the Show Room and dropping my cash for it... The moment I drove the Solara home and parked it next to my Celica, my neighbor came running outside and made me an offer on the Celica...

I have never had a complaint about Toyota... but I've had many about Ford. And they were NOT isolated incidents.

-James

[njsolara]

I'm not rasing a flag for ford or trying to troll, but I've owned three new Mustangs (89 LX 5.0, 96 GT and an 01 Cobra) without nothing more than tire wear issues. I attributted that to my driving and not a design flaw on the cars. These cars even saw some track time at Englishtown and they remained solid through their life (the LX had 87k, the GT 60k and the Cobra 24k when I sold or returned them). Again, I apologize for coming off so strong, but it just put a seriously bad taste in my mouth considering how great these cars are praised.

[Jai_Jai_Binks]

Hay, at least the dealership is looking at it. Our ford contour was in the dealership more so than in my garage, and they had 'NO IDEA' what was wrong with it..when under warranty they kept on replacing stuff, and i was ok with it (cus i got a loaner and was under the assumption ford's can't be 'that' bad)...but wake up call came when the warranty wore out. Ford's make great trucks, they should stick with that. They have no idea to build reputable cars IMO! I fell for 'any car can be good for 100K miles' and fell hard on my wallet.

[silversurfer220]

My 04 Solara has been a giant piece since i bought it. The best part is that the dealership wont look at it anymore. They told not to bring it back for service to them ever again. I want out of mine in the worst way too. I too will never buy another Toyota product.

[Solara08861]

Funny Ford story.
A friend of mine his father used to work for Ford so he bought a brand new Escort at the time because of the family plan.
He called me and my cousing that he bought a new car and waned to take us on a spin. He came straight from the dealer and pick us up. The car had like 15 miles not even 5 minutes we were in the car and the car die on him.
The local police passed by and saw us stranded on the road. He stopped to find out what was wrong. He noticed that the car was brand new and laughed at us. He called a tow truck for us took us to Dunking Donuts bought us coffe and doughnuts (he felt bad for us) and then he told my friend with a big smile on his face. THAT IS WHAT YOU GET FOR BUYING A FORD SHOULD HAD BOUGHT A TOYOTA. We were laughing with the cop.

[SolaraBlue]

i hear where youre coming from. toyota is a great company, this is nothing new, however if i had just paid 20k + on a car and had something like this happen, even if its the most minor problem in the world, i would be pretty pissed too. i'd wait to hear what your dealer says. this could be the only problem that will ever face your car, or it could be signs of things to come. even toyota makes a lemon every once in a while. i hope this isnt the case.

[MikeATL]

I think the moral of these stories is that there are exceptions to every rule.

The only safety you can find is in numbers, and if you look on toyota boards compared to domestic boards, which one is going to have more 100k+ mile cars in working condition? If i had to put money on it I would say Toyotas.

Everyone has bad experiences with cars, thats just the way it goes. If you think about it, we use our cars everyday and put incredible strains on them. Its one of the biggest purchases (after a house) one makes and we all expect it to run prefect until we are ready to sell it.

Sorry you got a bad taste in your mouth but give it another chance before you pick another car thinking that its going to be the answer to all your problems.

[lilmike2069]

Hey how much do you want for the '06? My parents sold me their solara and are looking for a new car... im sure they'd take it for a deal... hell i even might.

[Down2TheC]

That's not the car that failed, it's the dealer. They don't ship these things with fluids so I'm sure some putz that did the "dealer prep" screwed up. The cars are remarkebly reliable. Other than silversurfer, you'll have a hard time finding a failure among the thousands of Solaras represented here.

I bought my first new car (Nissan) and that same day it died in the middle of the street. The dealer installed the A/C and forgot to put the alternator belt on. (oops.) Yeah, I was pissed that day, but once I found out that it was human error, I enjoyed my troublefree car for many years. (12 to be exact.)