23rd Mar 2011, 12:28
"Wrong. People who love their Honda's, Toyota's, Fords, Chevys etc and are loyal to the brand will continue to dump money into overpriced parts or repairs, where the dealership makes a ton more money."
Not us. One lemon was all it took to send us from poorly built Japanese cars to domestics. Not one of our domestics has ever cost us 1 cent in repairs in the first 100,000 miles. For that reason we buy Ford, GM or Chrysler. If we do ever get a lemon in one of those we'll look elsewhere. With us, reliability is the most important factor. The brand doesn't matter as long as it starts and runs when we expect it to.
23rd Mar 2011, 16:20
I agree that people are loyal to the brand that was good to them. I watched my father, who wanted a GM very badly, get poor products from them. He tried AMC after that, but got even worse. Then he switched to Toyota, and has had good cars ever since. Looking at him as an example, why would I have bought a domestic, despite great advertising?
I bought a used Toyota Echo for my first car, and have not had to pay anything in repairs. I couldn't be happier with it. I have absolutely no reason to switch to Ford, or GM, no matter what the advertising, or new car reviews say. If I had to buy another small car, I would choose a Toyota Yaris over a Fiesta. People say the Fiesta is fantastic, and Yaris is boring, and the reviews and advertising also claim the Fiesta is the best small car. But until Toyota burns me, I have no reason to look elsewhere.
23rd Mar 2011, 17:45
First of all, nobody is going to buy the statement about "poorly built Japanese cars" because that's a generic statement. What are we talking here? Toyota? Honda? Nissan? or ALL of them? If so that's a tad hard to believe that by default somehow ALL cars, by virtue of being Japanese cars, including the domestic brand cars built in Japan or with Japanese parts in them, are defective while ALL domestic automakers are by virtue of being domestic are perfect?
24th Mar 2011, 13:30
It would seem that many things have gone wrong for Toyota, and all their recalls has weakened demand; this will likely affect future residual values.
24th Mar 2011, 18:13
Maybe residual value has gone down a bit for Toyota. However, most of the info I have found says Toyotas still retain their value better than GM, and far better than anything Chrysler -- or is it Fiat now -- makes. My car model was unaffected by any recalls, so I plan to keep it until it dies on me. I'm not the type that needs a new car every few years.
24th Mar 2011, 20:55
I don't agree with this assessment. I own two extreme examples of vehicles from different eras. One is a 55' Ford Fairlane. The other 2 vehicles are: A 1996 Tacoma and a 2002 Prius. My brother who lives nearby has a 98 Avalon.
Now- given the Ford has amazingly survived for 50+ years. That's admirable. But it's an exception. I'm only in my 30's and I can recall a time when 100,000 miles was considered amazing. The Ford's odometer only goes to 100,000. That's because cars typically didn't go that long before needing major work. Sure- they were easy to work on. But I have to work on mine all the time. It has dozens of grease zerks, carburetor adjustments, and this and that. The car is pampered but it still wears out parts fairly quickly.
On the other hand the 3 Toyotas have far less service requirements and the components themselves last a lot longer. There has been great advances in metallurgy, precision machining, and engineering since the 50's. The truck has about 245,000 miles. The Avalon has 282,000. Neither show any real signs of wearing out. Most of the 50's Fords like mine on the other hand would've been stuck in a junk yard long ago without approaching anywhere close to that mileage.
24th Mar 2011, 21:38
Toyota, Honda, and Subaru still, as always, top the list of best and most reliable vehicles available. Read Consumer Reports, Motor Trend... read anything credible and that's what you'll find. Don't buy into Ford or Chevy's advertising hype. They ARE better than in the past, but not close to the reliability that the imports had 30 years ago. Chrysler isn't worth mentioning, as they reside at the very bottom of those long-term tests.
26th Mar 2011, 12:02
The myths just keep rolling. The most reliable cars in the world are made by Ford. The Lincoln brand has (as of March 2011) surpassed Lexus as the world's most reliable car in long-term reliability surveys. These surveys are based on three-year-old-cars and the issues reported by their own owners, so media bias and fraud are not possible. J.D. Power long-term reliability surveys have shown that GM's world-class Buick line was swapping places every year or two with Lexus for the number one spot for the past decade or so. Now Ford surpassed both of them. Since these are LONG TERM reliability studies (based on 2007 models), it clearly shows that even BEFORE the recession and Toyota's downfall Ford clearly was building superior cars.
In terms of initial build quality, which is based on the number of problems encountered in new cars purchased (again, as reported by their own owners) Ford tops both Honda and Toyota. In fact, Toyota has dropped to 21st place out of 33 car makers, so it falls into the bottom third of all cars in build quality. Hardly "better" unless you have a very odd definition of "better".
27th Mar 2011, 12:56
The myths just keep rolling in about ad hype and media bias. Why doesn't someone who keeps claiming this is the reason Toyota and Honda still dominate or have dominated domestic cars in reliability ratings, show some proof of media bias? It's because they can't, and there is no proof of ad hype or media bias.
The only thing I see from the media is temporary fixations on car company's problems. For a while it was GM's bankruptcy. Anybody remember that GM went bankrupt? Then that got old, and it was Toyota's recall Fiasco. Now that's faded away too.
I read Consumer Reports, and they clearly recently stated that Toyota has come back from their recall fiasco, and the Asian brands still dominate the domestics. Ford is gaining, but not there yet. I also completely agree that Chrysler isn't even worth mentioning. I don't believe any of their vehicles have ever been recommended by any credible publication.
23rd Mar 2011, 08:13
"People will buy anything, basically, with the right advertising. It has nothing to do with quality."
Speak for yourself but I wouldn't do that. I will never step onto a GM lot for the rest of my life, due to low quality junk that breaks too early. Imports never give me the headaches, domestics do, so I stick primarily with import cars. Advertising does nothing for me when it comes to cars. I stick with what works in the real world. In fact, I have never met anyone that keeps buying the same brand repeatedly if they have bad luck with their cars. That would be foolish.