31st Aug 2010, 12:32
"But sending it to Japan is?"
How about sending your money to Mexico where they build the Focus, Equinox, Sunfire, Cavalier, Malibu, or to Canada where they build the Camaro? Much more, I can't remember them all.
There are more and more "Domestic" cars being built outside of the USA these days.
The person who wrote "But sending it to Japan is" has other issues. Why is import associated only with Japan? What about the "European imports"? Fiat, Mercedes, BMW, Audi? What about all the jobs that are created in the US by Asian car makers?
31st Aug 2010, 19:48
"The domestics did it in a few months right after almost failing completely"
First of all, Ford never failed... EVER. Also, the Fusion has been rated higher in reliability than Camry and Accord for five years. Not a "few months".
1st Sep 2010, 10:56
First of all Ford came VERY close to failure. $2 stock prices anyone?? They took their private jet to Washington right along side of GM and Chrysler. It amazes me how quickly domestic fans forget the facts!! Toyota has never been close to failure, and even with their current problems, they will still never be close to failure.
It was about ONE year after the domestic car company meltdown that they were suddenly topping the charts for every survey. Also, the 5 year reliability ratings for the Fusion were mostly forecast ratings, as the Fusion was brand new 5 years ago, so they had nothing to go on. Now with transmission issues starting to surface, they will probably regret giving those awards based on what could have been. Book values tell a more accurate story, and car to car, Toyota still out values any Ford there is.
1st Sep 2010, 11:01
"How about sending your money to Mexico where they build the Focus, Equinox, Sunfire, Cavalier, Malibu"
Totally agree with you, EXCEPT the Focus is built in the U.S. It is the top selling Fusion that is of Mexican heritage!
1st Sep 2010, 19:44
Toyota has never come close to failing?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-03-03/japan-asked-to-bail-out-toyota/1607850
Sorry, but Toyota asked for a loan, too.
1st Sep 2010, 21:13
"It is the top selling Fusion that is of Mexican heritage!"
Yes, and unknown to most people, Ford SAVED 10,000 U.S. jobs by outsourcing the Fusion. Ford has been the only U.S. auto maker with the business savvy to both SAVE U.S. jobs and NOT take any government loans (which, incidentally, GM has already repaid).
2nd Sep 2010, 12:30
Yes, and it is sad that Ford has to export jobs to save jobs. Why is that? Do you know? They must be unable to survive as a company unless they make such cuts. Saving jobs by exporting more jobs to me isn't a viable solution. Try to survive as a total U.S. company like you portray yourself. They are no more of a U.S. company than Honda and Toyota, as they at least have all U.S. plants for their U.S. market cars.
And please enlighten me as to how GM paid off its loans already. Since they are STILL 61% owned by the government, does that mean they are paying themselves off? Huh... Last I heard, they repaid the tax money with more government loans. So they really are paying themselves off over and over, and probably raking in interest off of it somehow. What a scam! Makes me want to run out and buy a Chevy... NOT!
Go ahead and ride the Government Motors bandwagon. I think the government has done enough damage to my accounts. I don't need to support them further, by purchasing cars from them that are sub par and have a horrendous resale value. Thanks, but no thanks!
2nd Sep 2010, 15:10
"I drive an "Import". It's a Porsche."
Yes, a Porsche is an import so why the " " around import?
2nd Sep 2010, 22:01
Both GM and Ford handily outsold Toyota last month, while Toyota suffered the biggest decline in sales of any car company. It's obvious that many people are no longer convinced that imports are better. No current rating source thinks so either, as Toyota's 21st place showing out of 33 car makers shows clearly. Import resale values are dropping faster than buyer confidence in Toyota, and due to the always higher initial purchase price of imports domestics have ALWAYS returned more dollar-for-dollar than most imports. The GM SUV has the highest resale value of any vehicle as of last year.
3rd Sep 2010, 08:02
Steve - Didn't we go through this argument over and over and over again before, and weren't new policies put in place to put a stop to this? After all I come here to read about cars.
3rd Sep 2010, 11:26
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steven@carsurvey.org
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In reply to "3rd Sep 2010, 08:02"
OK, this is really off topic, and any replies should be directed to my email address: steven@carsurvey.org
Yes, some of the reviews have their comments dominated by a small number of regular visitors, who essentially rehash the same points again and again. I'm not a fan of this, and as suggested, I did say that it wouldn't be tolerated any more late last year.
The issue is that deciding where to draw the line is very hard, and since I don't have contact details for all those people, I'm left with the choice of deleting or accepting comments. I really don't like deleting comments without explanation, so I haven't been enforcing those rules as firmly as I should.
I've tried solutions such as the off-topic comments, but not enough people have used that feature to really make it effective.
I'm working on a new version of the site, with proper user accounts and messaging, and hopefully I'll eventually be able to get on top of the problem, but due to the workload of maintaining the current site, progress on this is slow.
In the meantime, it would be good if the people who constantly push their pro domestic or import viewpoints could tone things down a bit, and appreciate that their particular positive or negative experiences, while valid, are quite possibly statistical outliers.
Any model (good or bad) is likely to have clusters of good and bad cars, just through random probability, and people who have those extreme experiences, will tend to seek out sites like Carsurvey.org, and post their views. Nothing wrong with that, but when there are both extremely positive and negative comments about a model, I'd advise looking at the reviews and comments that don't express such a strong view, as I suspect they're more likely to represent the common experience of the model.
Steven Jackson, CSDO Media Limited.
31st Aug 2010, 10:47
I stopped buying Hondas over quality dropping, likely due to higher production and rushing cars out the door. Our lower volume imports were fine, but low mileage engine trans issues are unacceptable.
Taking a show car to a weekend show is not affecting oil dependence, when many members drive 75-100 miles a month, and insure as collector cars maybe 200 year.
We raise a lot of money for medical research, maybe make lives for some better on other shows etc. I did an autism walk recently, and also love my cars and charity shows. I worked hard and bought a car that was a long time dream. This is about cars on here, not walking. It gets so political on here. Do you sit with the new car salesman and debate, or do you specifically address applications features and like what you drive? The test drive eliminates cars immediately for me. Poor handling room, less warranty etc weeds the new ones out. Not what someone does today in Sweden.
If that's what you discuss, fine, my salesman better know specs and driving comparisons.