I’ve been in Law enforcement for many years. The last five years or so, I’ve been the prosecutor on many criminal cases. In addition to that, I’ve been the owner of a cattle company, a very tough industry. I can sincerely tell you, I have learned that pursuing implications will only get a guy backed into a corner with no good way out. You’ll either trample someone’s constitutional rights, loose a conviction or cost you a lot of money, leverage or both. I completely overlooked your implication in my first reading and meant nothing personal.
As a rancher, (former, for now) I know something of what’s required of a reliable vehicle. I can assure you they are simply not produced. Pickup (US variety) trucks are toast after 50-100k miles on the ranch. Chevy gmt platform is, I’d argue the best, however they’ll need a new 4l60 transmission if you sneeze on the throttle while pulling a trailer and a rear diff if you pull a 3k lbs trailer off road for more than 2k miles. A ram Cummins, you need to rebuild the front axle at 50k miles to the tune of $3500, replace the dpf at 60k miles for $7500 and the transmission at 95k miles for $5500. The 6.4 power stroke? Absolute trash. The list is too long. Just figure whatever you paid new for the truck, you’ll put that much into it to get it to 80k miles. Now, admittedly, this is for use on a ranch, something I would imagine is comparable to use in a third world country. The Land Cruisers used on ranches in Australia have a reputation for being extremely reliable for hundreds of thousands of miles, of hard use. My own experience of Toyotas have been the same. I don’t pretend they’re something they’re not, but if you ask me, they’re pretty dang good and I do hold them in extremely high regard.
My original question does stem from the idea: would the failure of the hybrid system leave your LC dead if failed. If there’s no diminishing use of the vehicle with failure then it’s a moot point. I don’t know, my question comes from a position of complete ignorance of hybrids and their reliability. Early this year I nearly plunked down $50k on a new sienna hybrid, but relented because I simply don’t know enough about their service life and future repairs.
When I say that if a LC leaves you stranded, it’s the fault of the owner, that’s mostly tongue in cheek. For the most part, if you keep them properly maintained and keep up on known issues, you shouldn’t be left stranded, especially here in the IS where paved roads are a lot easier on vehicles. That’s a reputation they have worldwide. If you bust a timing belt for example, and you know it’s 50k over, who’s at fault? Conversely, if you have a fuel pump fail, that’s simply out of your control. If you loose a serpentine belt, do you have a spare on board? If not, that’s fault of the owner for being stranded. I’m not throwing stones at anyone, I’m just trying to have an interesting discussion. Now, hard use of American vehicles, they have a much much shorter life, and they’re more likely to leave you in a bad way, especially if neglected, however they don’t need to be neglected to strand you.