Why is Toyota still best selling?

First of all, Toyota's engines are not known for good gasoline or diesel engines.

Gasoline- beaten by Honda and Hyundai, Subaru etc.
Toyota 2.0 has 140 horsepower, equivalent to Honda's 1.8
Honda's 2.0 has 150+ horsepower
Toyota's 4.0 V6 260 hp, while Hyundai's 3.5 V6 has 276 hp.

Diesel- Hyundai is boss
Toyota 2.5 KD engine has 101 horsepower, 200 Nm
Hyundai's 2.2 has 197 horsepower, 430 Nm MORE THAN 2x more hauling power.

Secondly, not anymore reliable. It is more of quantity over quality. Think of all those recalls, including the unintended acceleration (which they failed to get right the first time).

Lastly, the failure to upgrade mechanically. Toyota loves to change aesthetic appearances of cars in new generations. They are good at it. But, they always use the same archaic old engine for more than 10 years without even upgrading its power. Same 4 speed automatic since the 80's. Same drum brakes in the rear.

Can anyone explain why?

They were reliable back then n now everybody buys a corolla cuz they think its still the same. Honestly, they are not. They seem cheaper n like they made the new cars in a rush. They are just lucky they built up a name in the past.

Toyota is doing well because of their brand name. They spent a lot of resources into promoting and building their brand name and associating a certain type of 'low maintenance' kind of look for it. Aesthetics also have a lot to due with their success, because times change, fashions change, and keeping up with/staying ahead of/diversing these "fashions" means you will stay ahead too.

All I can say is that the proof is in the numbers, which renders your little rant as useless.

I do not fear the Ford and Toyota Recalls like I do the lack of Mitsubishi recalls
Recalls mean they fix problems when they find them.

What sells the most Toyotas is the number of well running older toyotas still on the road.

What hurts sales of Kia/Hyundia is people who owned them before maybe five years ago will not buy them again,

now that Toyota is the number 2 auto maker it is having many problems that GM has had for a long time as number 1 auto maker like keeping up the quality with the production increase.

People tend to buy the car brands that were good 12 to 20 years ago.

First of all, unless you are driving a sports car, power is meaningless. Power is what automakers use to sell cars and Honda has long sacrificed low end torque--the thing that gets 90% of the people around day to day--for high HP when you rev the engine to the stratosphere.

As for diesels… Let's just see how long Hyundai lasts. There are lots of Toyota diesels from 40 years ago still running… Is anything Hyundai from 20 years ago still running? Which goes into don't change what isn't broken.

Recalls are a part of globalization and litigation. Toyota isn't the only one to fall to them. Just the most publicized.

Some car companies choose to stick with what works. If they have a proven design, they will likely keep using it. Designers like to change things and sometimes make it better, sometimes worse. Some companies think that they must make big changes in order to compete.

Most of those are not a huge difference in HP. Plus you are not taking the gearing ratio and design into account.

As for the recalls, this is what happens when you outsource your work to others. They likely learned a lesson. Those had nothing to do with the engine design itself.

The Toyota 4.0 V6 is a reliable design. It's most likely why it hasn't changed much in decades.

I don't know. But I will never be buying one again because they drain my wallet with maintenance costs. The parts and labor are a huge rip off even if its the simplest thing.

They have to get rid of warehouses full of the old parts that prove to be reliable in the US and in other countries.

Also you forget that a majority of the sales are not to the public, its to fleet sales, to government agencies, rental car places, and the overstock supply of the parts keeps them on the road and happy.

I have had this argument before with my friend, many a times we look at the "new" Corolla that comes out and laugh at the engine/tranny combo.

Atleast during the 03-04 Corolla and Matrix had the options of a TRD supercharger.