I was hoping for more reliability. But ive replaced at a minimum of a brake caliper per annum (after having the system professionally flushed and replacing all the flex brake lines, water pump, power steering pump, master cylinder, backing plates on rear brakes, a number of O2 sensors- and that's on top of routine maintenance etc. Currently it has an EVAP leak that no Toyota tech can trace down. I've replaced 1200 in parts on that alone. This one just had more gremlins than most
1200 bucks is potentially nothing, in that span of time... what's the mileage on it?
It also smells like you've been sold some snake oil. Were the calipers actually frozen? Those backing plates are typically "optional". Hell mine
rotted off my ES330 and my mechanic buddy just tore them off, no harm no foul. The only downside is there is more brake dust on
the wheels because the plates used to trap a lot of that shit.
Also being that this was a used car when you got it, if someone else put sketchmo reman shit on it, that stuff fails pretty fast and can put you in the bucket fast.
The evap thing is nutty though, I take it you've already replaced the gas cap?
All this aside, though, A decent brand to transit to is Mazda if you're not going to get a Toyota product. Test out the CX9 and go from there. A friend of mine has one of them (CX9 I think) and he's pretty critical of, well, everything, and he's never bitched about it at all. Otherwise I'd be getting texts and pictures about how f***ed up it is, etc... lmao. Also the only car my ex had ever bought that she stupidly gave back to her ex husband during divorce, that wasn't a piece of shit, was a mazda... I really wish she had kept that car because it would have saved me a lot of money vs the junk ford shitstar she
bought after that...
Also as much as it probably pains you to do it (or your wife makes clown noises about it)
consider a minivan, something like a Honda Odyssey or a Sienna is way more comfortable and practical than most typical shitty FakeUV/crossovers. The fuel econ is likely equal or better, and provides wayyyyy more useable cargo space and they usually ride a whole hell of a lot smoother. Not to mention as your dogs get older they won't have to climb/jump as high to get in and out of the vehicle. SUV/FakeUV/crossovers are often shitty and full retard oversold, overpriced trendy mediocritautomaton NPC garbage, and rarely deliver enough to make the juice worth the squeeze, for anyone that is actually paying attention. And before anyone says "but wat about the snow" what f***ing snow? We get about 20 days of garbage max, and that's on a record bad year which happens like once a decade, most of time that number is 10 or less) and
it's nothing that can't be handled easily with a set of snow/winter tires. Some of those vans offer AWD now, too. (not that it actually matters).
-Mike