1st Mar 2009, 18:20

"If the warranty and quality is as high as indicated then certainly a mfr. could match to ones you clearly state are crap."

I totally agree. All of our imports have cost far more to repair and maintain than any of our domestics. I also feel the warranty argument makes sense. If the cars are so good, why can't they match domestic warranties?

2nd Mar 2009, 15:05

"Well, if you want to destroy the American economy, our rather generous laws allow you to do just that."

My wife just purchased Saturday, a 2009 Honda Accord EX-L. The dealer sticker indicates that the car is 65% American/Canadian parts and 20% Japanese. A 2009 Cadillac DTS Collection Series is roughly 75% American/Canadian parts. There is not a lot of difference. You cannot honestly believe that Japan is reaping the total profits from a vehicle that is 65% American. I told her about the debate on here and she laughed because her 2002 Chevy TrailBlazer LT was nothing but trouble almost from day one. Even the salesman at the dealer said that the U.S. will get most of the profit for vehicles built on our shores. She said she was silly for keeping it that long, paying for it long after the warranty expired.

"Of course if the country goes under (and if GM fails it WILL) then you'll certainly be in as much trouble as the rest of us."

I certainly will be, and I also am confident that I won't be the only one to have helped us get there.

"As for U.S. auto makers building "junk that should be in the salvage yard", please cite evidence before making such claims."

Previous ownership experience speaks for itself. Not only have I owned domestics, but imports as well, and from my experience, most domestic makes belong in the junk yard.

"Out of 35 vehicles owned in the last 35 years by our family, only ONE ended up in a salvage yard before 200,000 miles. It was a Honda with just under 100,000 miles that had totally disintegrated in a 6 year period. We have driven Fords over 300,000 miles, Chrysler products over 240,000 miles and GM products over 277,000 miles without problems. If this classifies them as "junk" I'll keep buying "junk"."

I'm sorry but if I have had to buy 35 vehicles in 35 years and 34 were domestics, I'd have to say they were junk. Talk about dependability, I bought my first brand new car right out of college in 1987 and was still driving it in 2008 (as a daily driver) with no problems until it was totalled and would be driving it in 2009. The vehicle of course was an import. I have no regrets at all by the purchase and would do it all over if I had to.

"The longest-lasting vehicle in Consumer Reports article (Oct. 2007) on long-lasting vehicles was a FORD. It had made (at that point) 488,000 miles without a problem. The Honda in the same article made less than HALF that."

Still not bad for the Honda, way to go! Fords are hit or miss. Sometimes you get a good one but more often you get a bad one, hence the acronym Found On Road Dead.

"If people insist on making statements attacking the U.S. auto industry, they should be able to back up such claims."

Ownership experience with poor service is enough to back up such a claim.

"Cadillac currently builds the fastest sedan in the world."

Wow, who cares, I certainly don't.

"Chevrolet builds a car that outperforms Ferrari."

This is strictly an opinion, Chevy does not compare to Ferrari and they target a completely different demographic from one another.

"Ford has a reliability rating equal to Japan's best (the Fusion is actually rated higher in reliability than both Camry and Accord)."

Yes, one vehicle and if you notice, the Accord scores 79 while Fusion gets 77.

"GM builds more 30mpg+ vehicles than Toyota and Honda COMBINED."

What's the point if they aren't worth anything? I look for dependability and good customer service at the service department, which I have yet to find with domestic dealerships.

Consumer Reports dropped its "recommended" rating for the Camry and Tundra last year due to quality issues.

Tundra is an American truck, go figure. Most Camrys are U.S. manufactured.

"A car review in USA Today (Friday Feb. 27, 2009) was titled "The Nissan Versa sings like a bird: "CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP", and discusses the rattles, squeaks and clunks in the test car as well as a "rock hard" rear seat."

Versa is a Mexican car.

"From such examples it is amazing for any person to call U.S. autos "JUNK"."

I still believe American autos are junk, otherwise, they wouldn't be skating on ice. Ford MAY be the only one deserving a look. You keep your junk and I'll keep my Hondas and Nissans.

4th Mar 2009, 19:04

"I'm sorry but if I have had to buy 35 vehicles in 35 years and 34 were domestics, I'd have to say they were junk."

I've made this point on this forum so many times that you'd think at some point people just MIGHT catch on, but, NO, so I guess I'll explain again, for about the 700th time.

I'm a mechanic and car enthusiast, and my wife and I have almost always owned anywhere from 3 to 5 cars at any given time, so 35 cars in 35 years DOES NOT add up to one per year for us. Some were kept a very long time (One Ford 325,000+ miles, one Dodge 240,000+ miles and one Buick 277,000+ miles). The total repairs for all three of those COMBINED would not total $1000. The Buick total repairs were ZERO. In addition we've owned numerous other domestics that made well over 180,000 miles before trading them. Not a single new domestic we have ever owned has ever required a warranty repair or ANY repairs before 100,000 miles. Any one of our imports required more in repairs than any 10 of our domestics combined before 100,000 miles.

That's why I don't buy imports any more. In addition, I have serviced these cars as well as just driving them. I've seen under the hoods, under the cars, and inside the brake assembles. I can assure you that the materials used on our imports was smaller, flimsier, and more poorly assembled than that of any of our domestics, regardless of what the ad hype says. I've seen bigger brake pads on motorcycles than our Honda had. I guess that's why they wear out in a third of the time my domestic's brakes wear out. My Mazda (built BEFORE Ford took over and upped the quality) could not be aligned after 80,000 miles because the incredibly flimsy from sub-frame assembly had bent JUST FROM THE WEIGHT OF THE CAR!! My tire store even had a NAME for the condition (since it was so prevalent). They called it the "Japanese Flimsies".

I also find it interesting that your wife's Chevy Trailblazer is cited as an example of an "unreliable" car. My brother-in-law is a doctor who has to be on call at times for emergencies. His medical group insisted that he purchase a very reliable 4 wheel drive vehicle to get to the hospital for such emergencies. His choice? A 2002 Chevy Trailblazer. He has never had one single problem with it, and last year gave it to his son. It had over 140,000 miles on it. And the replacement? An identical Trailblazer, just a different color.

His 2002 impressed my wife so much that after driving his she bought a 2003 GMC Envoy (exact same vehicle). It has 70,000+ miles and has never had a single problem. It could easily pass for new after 6 years. The same can be said of our 2001 Pontiac, 2007 Mustang and 2006 Fusion. All are showroom inside and out.

We hate having to hassle with getting rides to and from service departments to pick up our vehicles, so we drive ONLY domestics. Our GMC has ferried two of our Toyota-owning friends to pick up their cars, and my Ford truck (traded in 2007) once towed a friend's Civic home from a camping trip. None of ours have EVER been towed, nor do I expect they will be.