22nd Mar 2011, 17:48

"Thus it's not a black and white yes or no answer. If you buy a Toyota, you're supporting US workers. If you buy a GM or Ford product - then again, you're supporting US workers."

True, but there is a VERY BIG difference. All foreign car companies COMBINED employ less than 10% of U.S. auto-related workers. By buying a car built by a foreign company, we are not only sending billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy, but we are stabbing 90% of our own workers in the back.

And WHY anyone would want to help a foreign country's economy AND get a less reliable car is very hard to understand indeed. The latest long-term reliability study released last week clearly and undeniably ranks Ford Motor Company number 1 in long-term reliability. Now the Lincoln line rates highest in reliability of any car on Earth. For a decade, Lexus traded places for number one spot with GM's world-class Buick. Now Ford has surpassed both Lexus and GM. These surveys are based on actual problems with the cars over a three year period, so bias and fraud are impossible. It also clearly indicates that Ford was building superior cars BEFORE the recession, since the cars involved are 2007 models. Since the awesome Lincoln MKZ is basically a Ford Fusion, which has been one of the world's best cars since introduced in the 2006 model year, these results shouldn't come as any surprise.

My family has both a 2006 Fusion and a 2008 MKZ, and both are absolutely flawless.

23rd Mar 2011, 07:14

So buying your Mexican made Fusion and your Canadian made MKZ helps fellow Americans? How is this helping the U.S. economy?

This is stabbing your neighbors in the back my friend.

23rd Mar 2011, 08:06

I think we can now end this pointless argument of domestic vs. imports, since ALL THREE of the domestic car companies are shutting down production due to the shortage of JAPANESE parts. Yes, Japanese parts folks. So your beloved "American" cars all have Japanese parts in them to the point they can't even build them without support from Japan. It is a global industry which has been stated on here time and again. We cannot survive now without Japanese technology. Even the All-American F-150 is reliant on Japanese parts. Too funny!

So can we drop this tired argument already? No need to go on anymore about what company is based where. It doesn't matter when they are shut down due to lack of Japanese parts, so save your words!

23rd Mar 2011, 10:53

"True, but there is a VERY BIG difference. All foreign car companies COMBINED employ less than 10% of U.S. auto-related workers. By buying a car built by a foreign company, we are not only sending billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy, but we are stabbing 90% of our own workers in the back."

This is a cyclical un-ending argument. That foreign automakers employ 10% of the auto workforce isn't relevant. I'm sure there are even lower percentages for other industries that happen to have domestic plants and facilities in the US. I don't work in the auto industry. Yet by virtue of being employed I add to the workforce as a whole. The workers who work for Toyota are no less at contributing to the economy than those who work for domestic carmakers. Easy as that. In buying my truck I helped a number of American workers. How is this not the case?

"And WHY anyone would want to help a foreign country's economy AND get a less reliable car is very hard to understand indeed. The latest long-term reliability study released last week clearly and undeniably ranks Ford Motor Company number 1 in long-term reliability. Now the Lincoln line rates highest in reliability of any car on Earth. For a decade, Lexus traded places for number one spot with GM's world-class Buick"

If you say so... Every single Toyota that we have ever owned has NEVER given us a single major problem. We've had a few bad wheel bearings and one faulty ignition coil in the 30 or so years that we've owned their products. What's more is that we keep our cars for 15 or so years at a time. As a result, I've had to buy less vehicles, because the Toyotas we own last for long periods of time. In fact, I know hardly anyone that has had problems with their Toyotas. So why would I switch? If Toyota made an inferior product... then how come they run for hundreds of thousands of miles without a hitch? How come the vast majority of the people who own them seldom need to have them fixed? Simply put - Report after report can come out making claims that somehow, domestic automakers have miraculously improved after decades of making junk. If that's really the case, then good for them. Perhaps they really are making a good product. But given that the Toyotas I've driven have been almost perfect, I fail to see any reason to switch.

Either way- this argument is pointless. Drive what you want. I'll keep driving my Toyotas.

25th Mar 2011, 11:05

Let's see, you keep your Toyota for 15 years, and have been driving for 30 years. Maybe my math works differently from this awesome track record. I have a history of buying new imports, mostly Hondas every 3 years. One owner, not used or hand me downs. The best way to track a car is new to date. We have been driving for over 40 years. If you care about my track record, it's what I have found in the last 3 within a decade of experience.

Low production models we bought from Japan were our best. The latest maybe we had corners cut, quality dropped on the engine and drivetrains. I recall cars we bought new that had zero return for the brief warranty, and lasted afterwards. Maybe we should have kept our 80's to mid 90 examples and rebuilt them. Repairs usually involved air conditioning failures, suspensions, heater cores, power windows in those days; not as bad as engine and trans issues after 2000.

Anyone that buys on here looks at their last experience. I was even buying another Honda without shopping. Some of ours looked identical, other than a color change. We got bored perhaps, and they 3 times all were garaged.

I don't keep cars with issues, and now we are all domestics. Where a car is built, who is a CEO, is usually secondary to your wallet. Some want styling, some want mpg, some want to avoid a service center and buy on that. The last is what I want to avoid, and quit buying poor quality. Sometimes you think you got a lemon and buy the same model. We did the 3rd got us off. I no longer go with the distant past, it's the last ones we owned.

I have a new Ford Edge as a company car. I am currently showing 21.4 mpg average, and overall it's a nice vehicle. If the vehicle was lousy, I would say so as it's not my own. I have had many company cars over the years, and still enjoy working. If the new secondary vehicles are my own, I may defend my purchase to a point, as it was my decision to buy it. However my wife was (past tense) the import fan. I wasn't a fan of picking her up at the service center in relatively low mileage late model cars.