7th Sep 2010, 18:51
I have experienced first hand transmission failures with late model Hondas and quit buying. How old are your dad's domestics? Are they late model GMs? If so, I have no issues on mine.
8th Sep 2010, 11:34
He actually drives Chrysler products now. GM was so horrendous even a domestic fan like him dropped them and won't go back. I will never own GM either as even the late models I have had have been terrible in the reliability area.
Go with what works for you. I am doing the same and am glad to be saving money on repairs nowadays.
8th Sep 2010, 17:30
Maybe I maintain mine better. I own V8s. I have a friend of mine, that I have an eye on his white 2006 Impala SS, so that I may grab up as a nice very used family car. 335 HP, 17 mpg, fun car.
9th Sep 2010, 15:46
If you maintain them better than my Dad, then you are achieving quite a feat. His cars are so incredibly clean and perfect every second, and he never misses a beat when it comes to upkeep. Even my cars are impeccable. I just traded my Trailblazer with 90K miles on it, and you could eat off the engine, it was so clean under the hood. It literally looked like a year old car under the hood. Didn't stop it from breaking all the time unfortunately though. I kept it extra clean, so I didn't get too dirty while I was under the hood, which was much more often than I'd have liked!
10th Sep 2010, 16:23
You can polish and then you can address the internals. I run Mobil 1. I use K and N filters and intakes. I like to order the towing package for heavy duty cooling, braking and suspension upgrades. My daily drivers are treated to meticulous attention, just like being in a major show or cruise night. And they are garaged.
11th Sep 2010, 13:11
People obviously aren't aware of the very drastic change in both build quality and refinement of modern Ford and GM cars. Just last week a review I read on the new Honda Accord referred to it as "tinny" and "dated". The Ford Fusion was used as an example of a well-built and sophisticated vehicle. The statement was made that anyone regarding the Accord as state of the art was either living in the past or biased toward Honda. I have to agree.
This week in a test of the Buick Regal the statement was made that the Honda Accord got better mileage even though the Accord's engine is much less refined.
The days of sophisticated imports is over. They are now merely struggling to survive. Resale values of the Toyota Camry are plunging due to the horrible problems Toyota has had over the past few years. The resale value of the Fusion is rapidly outstripping the Camry. Of course, finding a used Fusion here is virtually impossible. No one trades them. Our 5-year-old Fusion is still flawless.
Although GM trails Ford in both quality and ratings, they still lead most imports. The new GM vehicles are by every definition world class. I just watched the Cadillac CTS-V totally trounce the 518-horsepower Mercedes AMG in acceleration, braking and handling (including a handling test on wet roads).
Times they are a-changin'!
12th Sep 2010, 16:02
Can we stick to the post topics here? Do you own a Camry and want to list facts about YOUR experience? If not, then post a thread about your vehicle, and stop going on about Fords and GM's on a Toyota thread.
14th Sep 2010, 07:10
True, it is a Camry review until the owners make inaccurate dated domestic bashes vs current vehicles. My imports were better long ago than domestics of the time. After 2000 we saw quite the reverse and stopped buying new ones. Long ago you never saw all the major issues on TV, consumer guides, consumer affairs on the ones I owned. Why has the quality dropped so much? We stopped buying; there's no so called import cachet for us.
14th Sep 2010, 11:03
Then there is no reason for you to be posting on a Toyota thread is there? I know many people with Toyotas. One is on their 4th Camry and has had no issues whatsoever with any of them. Go and write posts based on your experience. The old "my car is better than yours" argument is old and tired really. I've known many people with both imports and domestics and they pretty much equal each other out with good and bad experiences.
14th Sep 2010, 18:11
I think the major issue that triggers the anger of the more patriotic domestic car owners is the bashing of domestics by people who have obviously never owned, driven or in some cases even SAT in one.
The other obvious trigger is the blatant statement that "Toyota (or Honda) is better than Ford" when both Toyota and Honda are ranked lower in reliability and build quality than Ford.
Not wanting to support American industry is bad enough, but trying to bash domestic workers using false and outdated information deserves to be countered.
7th Sep 2010, 15:25
If the domestic car companies were competent and built a good product, then we wouldn't be talking about their need of support now would we?? Sorry, but I am not going to go on spending thousands of dollars in repairs for unreliable American cars anymore. Again, ratings companies don't offer to pay up for my repairs, so I don't really care how they rate Toyota, or Honda. In my personal experience, which is ALL I care about, imports are far superior to ANY domestic. This is my own experience, and not some rating companies advice. In our society, things in the business world are not what they appear to be. There is a lot of deceit and dishonesty going around. I am not going to go against what I have personally experienced in my many years of car ownership, just because some rating company says I should.
Like I said before, my Dad is a die hard domestic buyer, but he is always putting money into them. I drive imports and NEVER see a repair shop. Seriously, if you were in my position, what would you buy? As far as supporting America, domestic car companies are global as much as any of the imports. They all produce their products around the world, and even many of the top selling domestics are built outside of the U.S., while most of the American sold imports are built right here in the U.S. So which are you really supporting the average American worker by buying? I think it really is a 6 of one, half dozen the other, scenario.
As far as the ratings go.... sorry, but you don't go from bust to top of the charts in one year. Never happens and never will. It isn't reality, and I won't believe it for a second. And yes, I know the Fusion was rated as a best initial quality winner 5 years ago, but now that they are having transmission problems, just like Honda supposedly is, is that rating really warranted? I only say "supposedly" on the Honda issue, because I never have had an issue, nor have I known anyone who has had an issue with any Honda transmission. Not saying it doesn't happen, just never experienced it.