18th Oct 2010, 14:15
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steven@carsurvey.org
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Things have been getting a little too heated recently. Could everyone calm things down a little please.
Forums quickly fall apart if people can't keep their emotions under control. Please treat other participants with courtesy and respect. Remember that there's a decent human being with feelings at the other end of your comment, who you'd probably like if you met them in person, even though you'd disagree on some things.
A lively exchange of experiences and ideas is fine, but if the discussion is genuinely upsetting to you, rather than interesting and stimulating, it's probably best to take a deep breath and move on. Commenting when you're angry is like scratching an itch; it briefly feels good, but then the itch comes back, worse than before.
Someone else's experience may be very different to yours, and maybe you think they were lucky/unlucky with their car, but having exchanged emails with lots of regular contributors, I'm convinced that the site is not infested with liars, idiots or a libertarian/liberal/communist/socialist/foreign (delete as appropriate) fifth column. It's just a cross section of the Internet population, with a probable bias towards people who've had especially positive or negative car ownership experiences.
Bearing that in mind, please assume the best of others whose views do not match your own; perhaps they just got an atypical good or bad car.
Also, there is a tendency for things to degenerate into general political and economic arguments, with the same anecdotes being brought up repeatedly, across several different reviews, or multiple times in the same comment. I'm pretty liberal about allowing comments that are fairly off topic, but for example, Corvette ownership is pretty irrelevant on a Camry review, or a Civic on a Chevrolet Blazer review. I'd appreciate it things could be kept a little more on-topic.
Steven Jackson, CSDO Media Limited.
19th Oct 2010, 06:54
The simple solution is to critique a specific model from a mfr vs the entire lineup. There are so many models to make such broad based negative comments. Condition when acquired and driving habits are a factor as well. I could buy an unknown service history identical car with 100000 miles on it, and have great luck or a rolling nightmare. If you bought it new, indicate it. Even with that, multiple drivers in the same household can affect service life. My son tore the clutch out of a new Integra in one day. There are a lot of variables within these repair histories on here
19th Oct 2010, 20:18
"My son tore the clutch out of a new Integra in one day"
I'm not surprised. It's a Honda, and noted for having a very fragile drive-train. I've taught kids to drive in my stick-shift Fords and literally dogged the guts out of them myself. The clutch in my last stick-shift Ford (a Mustang) DID finally fail... at 137,000 miles.
4th Apr 2011, 12:25
Toyota quality plummeted after 2004. The best solution is to trade it for a Ford Fusion, Taurus or Focus before your falling resale value traps you into a real mechanical nightmare. Ford just took the number one spot in long-term reliability (as of March 2011) and Toyota has dropped to the bottom third of all car makers in build quality. Having the highest number of recalls in the history of the wheel is not a good sign. A lot of our friends are dumping their unreliable Camrys in favor of the top-rated Ford Fusion. None of them have been disappointed.
28th Aug 2012, 16:57
How on earth would you know what a person who comments has owned or does own? Your comment sounds like another version of saying "I'm always right - You're always wrong, regardless of the facts."
I tend to believe that most people on this site are speaking from their real world experiences, just as you say you are.
18th Oct 2010, 11:02
I love these type of stories... yes stories. If imports were so poorly built, why do they continually sell so well? Why have they dominated the charts for decades until VERY recently?
Also, why are virtually ALL cars going to the unibody design if it is so unsafe and so prone to failure? Please! Your friends Corolla was probably damaged before they got it and hidden by the dealer they bought it "brand new" from. Do you even realize how many cars are severely damaged in transit and then fixed and sold as new? Just think about that UPS box you got that was mangled and wrecked. Imagine the same thing on a much larger package that the transit company could give a crap about when they are delivering it. Happens all the time!
If this was actually a design defect on the Corolla, the millions of them on the road would be having the same issues. A friend of mine had a Corolla and she got hit three times with it. One was a major rear end accident and it still held the alignment. Using one story of a friend of yours to determine a major design defect in a car line? Yeah, you gotta be kidding me! You are the one and only person I have ever heard that has this kind of a story to tell.