29th Jul 2007, 08:29

I feel sorry and I was one of those with transmission woes on a nearly new import. Add engine sludging, airbags, braking and numerous other issues clearly evident throughout this site and the offset of fuel savings diminishes rapidly. Read late Toyota and Honda reviews on this site. Long ago this was non existent on my new Hondas Toyotas at the time. I have saved money since switching to domestics.

29th Jul 2007, 13:35

08:29 For every problem and recall that you can name for Toyota and Honda, I can name 10 for GM, Ford, and Dodge, and most of their recalls are much more serious and occur FAR more often.

29th Jul 2007, 15:36

I saved money when I switched to foreign domestic. I have a 1999 Accord, 1997 Accord, 2000 Civic, and the Toyota Avalon. All have been great and get you to where you need to go. The 1999 Accord gets driven over 30k a year, and the Avalon once commuted from California to Minnesota 5 times a year. I might be getting my aunts 2006 Honda Civic, which has been sizzling. Much more cool than any other domestic compact or midsize. Must be the manual transmission.

31st Jul 2007, 07:54

19:00 What's a 'so-called' recall? It's either a recall or it isn't.

Don't even TRY to say that Toyota or Honda have even a TINY FRACTION of the major engine and transmission troubles that Ford, Chevy or Dodge have had. That would be absolutely, completely ridiculous.

The truly sad part is that the 'big 3' should issue far more recalls than they already do. When Toyota has or Honda has one, they ALWAYS deal with it as early as possible, and fix it correctly. You might have a bad experience with a Toyota DEALER, but they're no worse (usually better) than any Ford or Chevy dealership.

The thing is, people usually badmouth Toyota and Honda dealers because they refuse to budge on the price. You can't blame them for this. If you're a Honda dealer, and you have someone trying to bargain with you on the price of a new Honda Fit, why would you drop your price?

Honda can't even come close to making enough of these cars to satisfy demand. You can't even find one to test drive! I've seen ONE, just one, Fit sitting on a sales lot that I was able to test drive, and it was already sold, waiting for pickup that day. The Honda salesman was still kind enough to let me test drive it briefly.

People then label a GM dealer 'good' because they dropped in price $5000. They have to! The junk they sell isn't moving off of the lots, so they have no choice, but to bargain with people. It's simple supply and demand. Honda can sell Fit's, and Toyota can sell Corolla's for OVER MSRP, and they still fly off of the sales lots because they're excellent cars.

GM and Ford can't get rid of Cobalts and Fusions because they're the same old mediocre at best cars that they always make.

31st Jul 2007, 19:33

I would have sold you my last almost new Honda/Acura cheap (and in fact had to) as the Carfax had its total mechanical history in black and white for all to see. Seeing major mechanical issues is just as bad as showing it was in an accident. Car Fax are a blessing and a plague to owners when they sell. I have owned many new cars both foreign and domestic and never once had a domestic that ever required any engine/trans replacement hardly out of its warranty period. I zealously maintain my vehicles garage kept and change filters every 3,000 miles and yet still had issues. All my services have always been at dealerships at added expense to avoid warranty conflicts. But the dealership also prints on Car Fax and savvy buyers pull it right up as well. People are going to drive what they want and I believe in that. But I also do not want someone with a family to see their prized import essentually devalued before their eyes as we were through fault of their own. When my warranties are up I am not ever keeping vehicles any longer.

1st Aug 2007, 14:49

I think it is funny how there were like 600,000 Honda transmissions recalled, but for some reason there are like 10 million complaints about how their Honda transmission failed. It all sounds like fuzzy math to me...

I am wondering what the point of a Carfax on a GM car or Ford is, if it is only worth 38% of its value in 6 or 7 years, and the foreign car is still hovering at 50% or more.

BTW... throw in the high gas prices and your foreign car is worth much more than you'd think. Ford and GM have found that it does not work the same for them, since they have no offering that is really that efficient.

2nd Aug 2007, 16:36

I have had a lot of interest in buying my 2000 Honda Civic with nearly 150,000 miles on it. I have had offers on it because it is so hard to find a Honda Civic for a reasonable price in my area that has not been crashed, stolen, poorly maintained. Cars like mine can sell as high as 8990 bucks in my area in the EX package and mileage as high as 140k.

- Peace.

John, Minneapolis.

3rd Aug 2007, 09:50

14:49 some have had 3 plus transmissions replaced a disgrace in one automobile. When you trade the Car fax issue does arise. Book value and what people will pay are also different. I showed book value to my import dealer and then they wave what they buy the same vehicles at weekly auctions. Much much less.

24th Aug 2007, 18:59

I think a good conclusion regarding the Toyota VS GM, Ford, and Chrysler is to simply look at the numbers. There is a reason GM and Ford's market share is slipping. Are they slipping because they have the best-made cars on the road? Are they slipping because they are too expensive?

Simple answer is that Toyota and Honda make the better product. If-say Yugo had come into the market and sold a superior car, they too would have started to take market share. But they didn't and soon folded. This is a free-market capitalist economy. With it comes the right for consumers to buy as they please, and have choice selection over the best products. This also means the consumer wins, because they get the best products as a result of the competition.

If GM and Ford made the best products, then they wouldn't be having these problems. If Toyota made a bad car, then they wouldn't be affecting sales for domestic car makers. But they are and the reason is simply that at this moment in time, they simply produce the best cars. Whether this remains true for the future if anyone's guess.

Lastly, almost all of the arguing here has had to do with whether or not the car is American or Japanese. These cars are only foreign or domestic in name only since they're made almost entirely of parts created by international suppliers. To take sides is almost silly.