Ever.

It would usually outlast the car.

Corollas and Camrys became two of the best-selling cars – ever – largely on account of their completely deserved reputation for reliability and durability. Neither car was especially exciting. But they (and other Toyota models such as the 4Runner and Tacoma and Tundra) were good – and that matters more in the long run than exciting. Ask any man about that.

Or woman, for that matter.

Well, that's changed, apparently.

Toyota has announced it will replace the engines in about 100,000 Tundra pickups and 3,500 Lexus-branded SUVs that use the same 3.4 liter turbocharged V6 engine. All of them made within that past two years.

The idiot press – which isn't so much stupid as it is ignorant (and arrogant) – "reports" that the affected engines "lose power while driving."

Where to start?

How about the inept construction. Engines do not drive. The driver does. Engines enable the vehicle to be driven. It's a small but not petty thing to point this out because it segues into the more serious thing, which is that the engines in these Toyota (and Lexus-badged) vehicles do not "lose power."

They self-destruct – due to "debris" – probably metal shavings – apparently having been left inside these engines as they were assembled. This can "lead to banging or popping noises" – those being the sounds of an engine failing, familiar to anyone who has been driving an old beater that just spun a bearing or threw a rod.

They are sounds unfamiliar to the millions of people who bought Toyotas like the Camry and the Corolla – as well as the Tundra and 4runner and Tacoma – back when Toyota was making them with superbly built engines that almost never made noises like that, unless you drained the oil and ran the engine without oil. Even then, it took a while for those engines to make "banging or popping noises," because they were just that good.