22nd Jul 2007, 14:29

7:54 is exactly right.

These Toyota loving people also forget that even with the Japanese plants here, American auto makers STILL employ 8/10 US autoworkers.

23rd Jul 2007, 14:15

Are we forgetting that many American families are scared to death of fuel expense? That is the primary reason.

I have found American full size vehicles and trucks much superior than my exorbitant import repairs I had and got fed up. I think many will wake up and direct their animosity to fuel, and less so the autos we would prefer driving. Sorry I do not want to be crammed up in a tiny hard riding econo box... I would rather drive less and have more options, better ride, better warranty in my GM new vehicles.

24th Jul 2007, 11:22

11:05:

Do you know ANYTHING about current events?! Daimler sold Chrysler, it's now an American company again.

7:54 made some really good points, but of course you tried to skirt around them, Toyota not only doesn't allow unions in its plants, it also doesn't pay it's American workers as much as the domestic auto makers. American cars also have FAR more domestic content than Japanese and European cars. Also like I said, the domestic auto makers employ 8/10 US autoworkers.

Now if what you're implying is true, that most or all American cars are made in Mexico or Korea (which is a load of crap by the way), how do you explain 8/10 AMERICAN auto workers being employed by the big 3?

24th Jul 2007, 15:52

My family was tired of the fuel bills and the expenses to repair our big GM's. Maybe 49 percent of them are good, but a good half are lemons. That is why the buyer satisfaction is only 49 percent. Sorry, but Honda and Toyota are way up on the scale.

24th Jul 2007, 16:05

Fuel pricing seems to be the determining factor in what is selling in my opinion... when enough people get fed up maybe we will see pricing drop below $2.00 a gallon and not be stuck with all these mini compacts. I have less repairs to date with my domestic V8 a better ride, performance, handling and warranty... cheaper than replacing transmissions and engine repairs with late model imports I have had. Why sacrifice ride and features and warranty? If Honda and Toyota have standard 100,000 miles warranties as the quality that is so prominently indicated what is the big loss doing so? The domestics even Hyundai are doing so. No one seems to be able to indicate why someone would settle for less. I would consider them again if the warranty at least matches the competition.

24th Jul 2007, 21:31

14:15 It has nothing to do with animosity towards fuel prices. The simple fact that you so-called 'domestic' owners keep sidestepping or turning your backs on is that imports break down less and are better engineered.

I have no doubt that more domestic owners will cite 'true' examples (yeah, sure) of some imaginary Toyota or Honda they owned or knew about that was "a piece of junk". It's not true, at least not most of the time.

We Toyota owners know, and even most of you domestic owners know at heart that this is true, and it upsets you because you've been brainwashed all your lives into thinking that Ford and Chevy are the only two choices, and anything else is somehow un-American. That's where all the animosity is; die hard Ford and Chevy fans that just can't accept that a Japanese company makes way better cars than they do, and Americans are buying them.

All evidence backs me up on this. Japanese made cars are rated more reliable as a whole, every year, by every major publication that has anything to do with automobiles. Sales of Japanese cars are skyrocketing, and Ford and GM are on their way out.

Are you really shameless enough to condemn them for being smarter businessmen? Which company would you rather own? GM makes flimsy, corner cutting decisions with everything they build.

I don't mind giving to charity, but I'm not going to hand GM $20,000 dollars and get a piece of junk in return when I can give it to Toyota and get a top of the line car, (who, by the way are building plants in the U.S. and CREATING jobs for Americans while the 'domestics' slash wages and use more and more foreign labor every day).

I know that the domestics still employ a greater number of Americans, but the scales are tipping the other way, and fast. I'll back the company that is moving in the right direction, and that is Toyota, not Ford or GM. Simple, common sense.

25th Jul 2007, 15:53

These Toyota aficionados continue to state their "simple fact" that domestic cars break down so frequently and are cheaply built (while continuing to cite advertising-biased car magazines that continue to tout trendy Japanese cars).

I wonder why my family has never experienced this? The nearly two-dozen domestic vehicles (including Plymouth, Chevrolet, Mercury, Cadillac, Dodge, and Ford) that we've owned, built from the 1970's to the late 1990's, have all passed 200,000 miles with minimal repairs (standard things like brakes and routine fluid changes). Would somebody please tell me where these notoriously unreliable American cars are??? Seriously, with that history of reliability, why would I pay a $5,000 mark-up for a Toyota? A bland, boring, no-option, monochrome box, at that. It makes no sense.

Nor is it an effective argument to say that because Toyota is making money, it must be because they make a better product. There have been a number of high quality auto makers that went out of business. Cord was making cars with front wheel drive and fuel injection in the 1930's, but they went under; Packard was THE luxury car for nearly two decades, but they didn't last; deSoto made great cars, and they didn't last.

On the other hand, the Toyota pickup with 57,000 miles that my dad just bought (with 22R engine), thinking he could turn it over and sell it because of the "quality Toyota name" won't run more than two miles without quitting on the road. His Dodge Ram with over 250,000 miles has to keep towing the junk Toyota home when the piece of crap dies. Even if they saw a picture, these die-hard Toyota lovers would claim it was doctored-up, probably. Talk about turning your back on the facts.