Toyota's Reliability Secrets REVEALED

(wonderful music) - For more than 50 years, Toyota has been the preferred choice for fuel economy, simplicity and

reliability

. When Detroit compacts had problems like breaking down at random times, overheating, or catching fire, the Toyotas just worked. And it's not because they found some secret technology or because they were using different materials. Then why? Why are Toyotas so reliable? Today, we'll look at three different ways Toyota prevails over the competition, how its philosophy differs from American and European manufacturers, how its mindset produces some of the most reliable cars on the planet, and how it can be applied. to your own life.

That's right, you can be as reliable as a Camry. Many thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Let me tell you, I don't miss the days when I sit in classrooms like this, listening to Peanuts-style droning about a topic I don't care about, and watch my GPA drop as a result. I got a 2.0 in high school. What can I say? I am a practical learner. Skillshare is an online learning community where millions have come together to expand their creativity. They offer literally thousands of inspiring classes that will fit anyone's schedule. Let's say I want to learn more about filmmaking.

We took all kinds of classes for that, like Zak Mulligan's Cinematography Basics. Maybe I want to expand my guitar skills so I can finish here. (laughs) Wow, that would be great. Maybe I'm trying to find a new creative outlet. Hey, don't judge. Knitting is relaxing. Or so I heard, I have no idea what I'm doing. No matter what creative path you are on, Skillshare has a class to help you expand your creative journey and use these skills in real life. And guess what? You can take as many classes as you want and it only costs $10 a month.

So, what are you waiting for? Expand your creativity today. And the first 1,000 people to use the link in the description will get a free trial of Skillshare premium membership. Now let's get back to that. I'm going to figure this out. I just want to start by saying that this is not a Toyota ad. We are not paid anything to make this video. We're just fans of them and what they do. Toyota is successful for many reasons, but their design and production philosophy is what sets them apart. One of the fundamental principles of the Toyota Production System or TPS is jidoka, which, according to the limited Japanese I learned from watching Initial D, translates to automation with a human touch.

The way jidoka works is that every design, every process, and every component begins to be built by hand. Think about it. Toyota engineers build each part to exacting standards until it's perfect. Then automated assembly is gradually incorporated, until the engineer can be completely eliminated from that part. Then, and only then, does it become part of the complete production line. Now, for other manufacturers, the process is a little different. Most manufacturing processes are designed to be automated from the beginning. This means that parts can be designed using a computer and then assembled on the production line. Toyota's process is undoubtedly slow, but it ensured that the parts worked, fit, and that the engineers fully understood each component.

Toyota only does this for new parts and assembly processes, which is why they use so many of the same components across multiple models. That's also why Toyota doesn't offer many optional extras. Parts bins are nothing new, it's just that Toyota makes simple, very high quality parts for their bins. The more customization and things they have to add, the more pieces they have to build. And they may have to find a new way to make that piece fit, which means a new process to make the two pieces match. Jidoka can make snowballs very fast. Because of this, Toyota reuses many of the same parts, especially the ones that work well.

Toyota's 2GRFE was a single V6 engine that made its way into the Avalon, Camry, RAV4, Sienna, Venza, Lexus RX 350, Lotus Exige S, and Corolla Super GT. A racing car. Other companies also reuse parts, but it's mainly a way to keep costs down. In a strange way, every Toyota is a parts bin, because Toyota spent a lot of time and energy building the parts. Want to see what happens when Toyota builds a car from scratch? Take a look at the LFA. If you want to know more about the Lexus LFA, check out the Bumper To Bumper episode. (engine revving) It may not be the most attractive solution out there, but that's how Toyota has earned a reputation for

reliability

, not just in a few models, but across the whole damn brand!

Other companies have also adopted the Toyota production system and the fundamentals of jidoka. Next time you go to Chipotle, take a look at their assembly process. This is how Toyotas are made. (funky music) Something like that. But Toyota won't make you go into debt for its guacamole. Seriously, 2.30 for guacamole? Come on. Principle number two is called kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that promotes change for the better. The idea is that it's always worth changing something to make it better, even if that slows down the process. Now I know that seems like it goes directly against what we just talked about, but that's how it works.

Any employee, at any level of the manufacturing process, can stop production if he sees an improvement that can be made or a problem that is occurring in assembly. The assembly stops, the team evaluates the problem, makes the necessary changes, and then restarts production. At Toyota, no one is going to be punished for stopping production. In fact, they promote what's called just-in-time production, which basically means that if you finish ahead of schedule, that's how much time you could have used to upgrade the car. Finishing early is bad business practice for Toyota. But apparently not for my ex.

Western manufacturers, however, are always guided by deadlines and units produced. This is how they evaluate how well a project is going. Companies like Ford want to know if they can do it in time. (ring) Companies like Toyota want to know if they can do it right. (brightness) In the mid-2000s, the Ford truck assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan, stopped an average of twice a week. At the Toyota plant in Kentucky, employees stopped the production line 2,000 times a week. At Donut, we also use a bit of kaizen, so no matter how early we finish one of these videos, we still tweak it the night before it goes live.

But kaizen is not just a way to slow down the process for the sake of it. After years and years of practicing kaizen, Toyota has discovered that many assembly problems are detected long before the car goes on the market. When employees are free to raise concerns, they do so. The team can find the best solution together, and as employees become more comfortable with that, they resolve issues earlier and earlier in the process, thus saving money on retrofits and recalls. For most other manufacturers, if a problem is detected on the assembly line, they will add a fix after the car is finished, but the underlying problem is still there.

Have you ever heard your father say, "Measure twice, cut once"? That's kaizen in a nutshell. Except they're measuring, like, seven times. He's a little neurotic. But worse. Kaizen has proven to be such an effective mindset that companies like GM and Ford are now trying to integrate it into their own production lines. Toyota has also gotten companies like Subaru and BMW to implement kaizen on their production lines. And that's a big part of why we see those collaborations in the Supra and the 86. But there's another reason why Toyota is having other companies build its sports cars. And it is something that could change very soon.

While this whole management philosophy thing is interesting, it results in a major drawback. Toyota has never been known for chasing performance figures. While their most popular sports cars, like the Hachi-Roku, Celica, and MR2, are a lot of fun to drive, no one would say they're fast. Even the big Mark 4 Supra, famous for being capable of packing tons of horsepower, didn't have a high-performance stock. That's not to say there aren't fast Toyotas. I mean, they have a whole racing department, TRD and now GR, which is Gazoo Racing, which makes very fast and successful race cars and trucks.

But most of the 8.8 million vehicles produced last year wouldn't be considered fast. This is thanks to the idea of ​​practicality over performance. Function comes first. Speed ​​comes second. Toyotas are designed to be cheap in the long run and save fuel. In fact, Toyota is so dedicated to this that many tuners will know that Toyota ECUs are some of the most difficult to tune. On top of that, Toyota takes a long time to implement changes in its engineering. Over time, they make small changes, small steps to further improve their existing engines. And that makes sense, because why mess with a good thing?

Take the iconic 22R-E engine for example. Toyota produced these inline four engines from 1981 to 1997, with hardly any revisions. This engine is famous for being bulletproof and can be found in vehicles like the 4Runner, Hilux Surf and one of my favorites, the Celica GTS. This 2.4-liter four-cylinder shared podiums with six-cylinder BMWs in the '80s. Can you think of an American four-cylinder engine from that era that can say the same? For example, there is the Iron Duke, and that one was not famous, he was infamous. Yuck. It is not uncommon to see 22R-Es with 300, 400,000 miles on the clock.

And that's thanks to a few things. One of them is that Toyota made them incredibly robust. They are beefy, oversized blocks of iron, and they don't accelerate much. The 22R-E has a rev line of 5700 RPM, which is unusually low for a four-cylinder engine. The roof may have been higher, but the reduced rev line means exponentially less stress on the engine over its life, increasing its lifespan. They just don't produce as much power, that's all. But that's in line with Toyota's philosophy of prioritizing practicality over performance. And that's one of the reasons they have such diehard fans: their incredible longevity.

I mean, some families like Joey's, for example, only buy Toyotas. I mean, Joey's like four. Just bought another 4Runner. I don't know where he keeps them. But it's entirely possible to get power and reliability because Toyota is that smart. The fourth-generation 4Runner's V8 option, the 2UZ-FE, is a super-durable iron block engine that can also be found in a Land Cruiser, Lexus GX 470, Tundra, and Sequoia. They made such a good engine. They say, screw it, let's put it on all our cars. The most power it produces from the factory is 324 pound-feet of torque and 282 horsepower. That's enough to overcome difficult terrain, but they're not exactly bragging numbers.

But do you want to know what's worth bragging about? Taking your business beyond cars. In January of this year, Toyota announced that it would take its jidoka and kaizen principles to the next level and build not just cars, but an entire city. Now, look, I've mentioned this before in previous episodes, but now I have an excuse to get into it. They will call it the Woven City and it will be located at the base of tranquil Mount Fuji, the coolest mountain named after an apple. There aren't many details right now, but the idea is to have an entire city powered by next-generation technology, to see how those technologies hold up in the real world.

The Woven City is not a giant laboratory where, if it doesn't work, people can go home. It will be a real city where real people will live. And they will have to deal with any infrastructure failures. It sounds daunting, but how else are we going to test whether hydrogen fuel cells are a truly viable renewable resource? How are autonomous vehicles going to be perfected to make roads safer? How else can you ensure that AI-powered smart homes aren't a totally terrible idea that will only intensify the global surveillance state and lead us down the inevitable path of dystopia?

These are the questions that need answers. I truly wish the Woven City the best. It will be interesting to see how the principles of jidoka and kaizen hold up in urban planning. Life is not a product, so I'm not sure how tools intended for production will affect the quality of life. But if the infrastructure is as reliable as its cars, then Toyota will probably make it. Okay, self-driving cars and hydrogen fuel cells aren't super sexy, but don't think for a second that Toyota will be content to be seen as drab. You had to think about something else, friend.

Toyota's new boss took the stage at the Detroit Auto Show and said, "No more boring cars." At first, we all thought he meant that theCamry would have side skirts and a spoiler, and it did. But then we started to see other things, some more interesting things. Toyota built a sports hot hatch from the ground up. They call it GR Yaris. This car is not more practical than performance. It has the highest specific power ever seen by a Toyota. Specific output refers to horsepower per liter of engine displacement. Thus, the GR Yaris with a 1.6-liter engine and a specific power of 167.5 horsepower is equivalent to 268 horsepower.

The engine is powerful and new. The all-wheel drive system is also new. And if the principles of jidoka and kaizen have been applied to this little hatchback, it will last long enough to eventually import one, because it won't come to the United States. But I heard they might put the powertrain in a Corolla, so there's some hope. So here's my theory, okay? Toyota has spent so much on making its cars reliable, it has become ingrained in its engineering and practices. And now that they've mastered it, they're starting to chase performance. A decade ago, they made boring economy cars for people who just needed to get from A to B.

Hell, they made the Prius. But in recent years they won Le Mans twice and won the WRC. And yes, you have to be fast to win trophies. But you must also be trustworthy. If you don't already know, we have a podcast called Past Gas that's available everywhere you get your podcasts, as well as YouTube. We also have a membership program called Donut Underground, you get behind the scenes videos and you get access to a really cool Discord channel. The community is super nice and we visit there from time to time. We will not put any videos behind a paywall.

Simply put, this is only for the hardcore fans. Check it out, follow Donut on all social media if you haven't already. Follow me on Nolan J Sykes. Be kind, until next time.