16th May 2011, 09:41

Absolutely false! Nearly every import is at or below the cost of their domestic competition. Have you even looked at the new Focus yet? They get well into the $20K's range pretty quickly when you start adding options. They are pretty much the most expensive small car on the market now. Look at GM's Volt at $40K; the Prius is essentially the same car and is $15K less. Domestics are way overpriced, as their labor costs demand it!

As far as my experience with import maintenance... Well you use the same oil in them, and the same coolant and other fluids that get changed out, so the costs are the same. Last I checked, the tires work on both domestic and imports, and you can even find the same deal on brake pads and rotors if you try a little. Since I never have repairs on them like I have on ALL of my domestic vehicles, they cost SIGNIFICANTLY less to own for me every time.

Insurance is pretty close with my company. In fact most of the time imports are slightly lower due to their abundance of safety features, some of which are not found on domestic cars in the same class range.

16th May 2011, 11:20

"Look at GM's Volt at $40K; the Prius is essentially the same car and is $15K less."

These two cars could not be any more different. You cannot plug in a Prius and drive it for 40 miles on battery mode. Also - the Volt has wheels that are directly driven by electric motors versus the Prius, which basically has an electric motor mounted within the transaxle. The Volt also uses a much larger battery and one that is composed of Lithium Ion - not Nickel Cadmium like the Prius. The Volt's engine runs at a constant speed versus accelerating or decelerating.

But the bottom line is that these are not two of the same by any means.

16th May 2011, 12:19

True. The cost of maintaining our imports was much higher than our domestics, as was the initial cost. The imports also required far more repairs, all of which cost more for both parts and labor. There is simply no way you can own and maintain any import as cheaply as a domestic car. All current owner surveys, which are based on actual owners experience with their cars, clearly show Ford as number one in reliability (now ahead of Lexus) and GM right behind. It will take a while for the urban myths about imports being more reliable to die, but sooner or later people will see that American cars are by far the better choice.

16th May 2011, 14:12

Guess what the two most American-Made cars in the US are?

1: Toyota Camry

2: Honda Accord.

Guess what the most American-Made truck is?

The Toyota Tundra.

In the above examples there is around 75-80+% American-Made parts and components in those products. The Tundra is over 80% domestically produced - and that includes the engine, transmission, frame, sheetmetal, interior, and a whole host of other items.

So in other words we can talk about "Imports" all day long, but in reality the "imports" I suppose we're talking about are actually the most American cars and trucks you can buy. If we want to use this as a classification, then yes - I would agree - Camrys, Accords, and Tundras often require much less maintenance than some "Imports" out there - AKA - American cars made overseas, or using a high concentration of imported components.

16th May 2011, 14:47

Yes, but 95% of the people that buy these cars will be driving on the gas engine as much as the electric, and getting a whopping 32 mpg doing so. I'll take the Toyota, thanks, and get in the 50's for mileage all the time. The Volt is yet another bad joke from the likes of GM that will soon come to pass... And $40K?!?! Please!!

16th May 2011, 21:37

"Please move on to a new topic". Yes, can you please do that yourself? For over a year now, you have been posting the same comment with your bad GM experiences, and then putting down the people who stand by them, over and over again! Change the topic to the bad Nissan experience you had, the one we never hear about, or are you just covering up because Nissan is an import?

16th May 2011, 21:42

I'm a Toyota guy myself, but the Volt does not get 32MPG. That would be if you only ever drove in the gas engine mode at all times - which would be totally pointless, because the car is meant to be charged up before you drive. When it's fully charged, the car will go 30-50 miles on purely electric alone. In other words it isn't using any gas during that period. Now assuming you have a 10-15 mile each way commute, you would then come home and plug in the car. Thus you wouldn't be using any gas period with the small exception that the Volt has a maintenance mode that requires the engine to run on occasion. That's the best case scenario.

Let's assume you have a 50 mile each way commute. In that case half of your commute would be all electric. The other half would be gas - which is around 32-34 MPG. But then that would not be combining the total miles. Remember that the first 50 miles used zero gas.

The Volt represents the best of technology. The car has been a phenomenal success, and it's heads and tails above and beyond the Prius. I should know because I own a Prius.