These recalls aren’t cheap for Toyota. I’m sure the cost for 250k engines swapped into trucks is in the ten figure range. So I’d hope that’s incentive enough for them to ensure that this doesn’t happen in the next powertrain, whatever it is.

The general sentiment isn’t “they’re definitely going to fix it next time”, it’s more like “I already have a reliable truck, no point getting a newer one with a likely unreliable powertrain”. Either Toyota learns their lesson and puts something better in the next one, or they don’t, and the people who bought Toyotas for their perceived reliability buy something else.

I am curious about how this engine will age - over time, people are going to figure out whether there’s a way to “bulletproof” the engine, or certain versions of it, and whether it’s worth doing. It could end up like the diesel Excursion, where you spend a few thousand at an indy mechanic replacing the most failure prone parts on the engine and end up with a very reliable vehicle, or it could end up like the E60 M5, where even if you mitigate the engine’s weaknesses, the rest of the vehicle is unreliable as hell so you’re just waiting until the next thing breaks.