14th Jan 2011, 01:35

"How does driving a car help the environment?"

I agree 100%. It's assumed new cars have very much better mpg than older cars, but this is really not true. It really comes down to physics: How heavy, aerodynamic and large is your car? Pulling around a 2.5 ton SUV requires a lot of energy, whether it's new or old, it's that simple.

Personally I mean a Camry is a pretty good trade off. It's roomy enough for most families, it's pretty comfortable and the mpg is not very much higher that small compact cars (assuming it's the 4 cyl Camry). But interestingly enough, the 11 year old Camry 2.2 I used to have pretty much had the same mpg as our near new Camry. The best car I ever had mpg wise was actually a 1988 Dodge Omni back in the early nineties. It barely used any fuel, but it was pretty small, and not really a family car.

12th Mar 2011, 13:32

We bought a 2010 Camry because our friends kept telling us how great they are. There are two things I dislike: one is the very tinny feel of the doors and body. The second is, how boring this car is!! This Camry is the equivalent of riding around in a Maytag washing machine, LOL. We can't wait to sell it.

Toyotas are just not for us.

J.

13th Mar 2011, 19:54

So you thought it was tinny and boring, yet you spent what, $20K plus on it anyway? Do you always spend this much on something just because someone tells you it is great, even after you yourself don't like it? Toyotas are better than most overall, but they aren't for everyone. Buy what you really want to drive, and stop listening to anyone else's opinions.

14th Mar 2011, 11:45

If you have a good running car, and kept it very well tuned and maintained, why rush out to buy new?

If a car is paid for and one adheres to service intervals, and even overmaintains, it's better in my opinion.

Some people in the economode buy cheap cars with payments, pay higher insurance on their late model, and then stretch it out on service.

If you read owner's manuals, oil change intervals seem entirely too long. We change our cars every 3000 miles or 4 months on lightly driven ones, due to sludging concerns with water in the oil, hot and cold limited driving. If you drive your car less than 15 minutes, then it hardly warms up. Sure you could ride a bike if you wished in 2 foot of snow, or walk in freezing weather several blocks from the back of our neighborhood for a bus. If you get sick medically from your being green mentality, it is up to you. I am driving.

It still amazes me with the ones that buy a new high MPG cars, and drive an hour to work each way to live somewhere else. I get home sooner and overmaintain our cars after work vs those with limited time to do so.

Also my state and the surrounding ones are extremely tough now with dual emissions tests. Rather than hand 4-5 year tags out for brand new cars that never graced an inspection lane, the older cars must pass or no tags. In 4 years, a newer car could be out of tune from day one. My friend has 80,000 miles on a Toyota under 3 years old, and knows where to put gas in and maybe get her oil changed based on convenience, not on any set interval. The cheapest gas possible is always put in as well, and cheap oil and cheap oil filters quick lubes. It's newer and a car payment though.

14th Mar 2011, 16:03

"We bought a 2010 Camry because our friends kept telling us how great they are."

Your friends obviously don't read. Toyota has recalled FOURTEEN MILLION cars in the past couple of years. Every week the news lists yet ANOTHER series of never-ending recalls. Toyota currently is in the bottom 35% of all car makers in initial quality (and that is based on actual owner surveys, NOT opinion).

As for a car feeling cheap and tinny, did you not even bother to open and close the doors or trunk before buying it? I have driven and looked at both the Camry and Accord, and there is no question that they are definitely tinny and very cheaply made, but one slam of their tin-foil doors or trunk is all it takes to tell that very quickly. A Hyundai Sonata, Chevy Malibu or Ford Fusion is a far higher quality vehicle with much greater reliability.

15th Mar 2011, 09:41

WE GET IT, there are a lot of recalls from Toyota. OKAY!! Just post about your ACTUAL experience with cars that you have owned. This does nothing to enrich the experience on this site, or provide anyone with any real knowledge, other than your rehashing of things you've read on CNN and J.D. Powers. I have no idea what Toyota ever did to you in order to make you launch such a crusade against them. It is obvious you hate them, and therefore don't own one and never will, so your opinions don't hold much weight.

There are many people on here that have 200K mile or more on their Toyotas with no real issues. Toyota is still a really good line overall, and has a higher quality than anything domestic. The Fusion is a good car, but won't hold up value wise because it is plagued with being a domestic. The Honda Accord made C&D's top ten list again for like the 24th year in a row. Hardly a low quality car. I have owned one and they are very high quality. You are just speculating once again.

As far as tinny goes. Pretty much everything new is tinny, plasticky and built to the cheapest standards they can get it out the door for. Domestic and import companies all do business pretty much the same way. It is about the bottom line. If you think Ford, GM or Chrysler really care about building you a better car, then think again. They are looking for profits and have only improved their designs to compete with better foreign car lines. You really should be thanking Toyota for making Ford a better company. The Fusion wouldn't exist as it is without superior import design to imitate.

15th Mar 2011, 19:32

The IQS (Initial Quality Survey) is based on actual owner's reported problems. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with opinion. It is cold, hard, undeniable FACT. According to the survey, Ford ranks ahead of both Toyota and Honda, and Toyota owners report so many problems that Toyota ranks in the bottom 35% of all car makers in build quality. It is not "attacking Toyota" to state this. It is like saying "The Sun rises in the East". It is just a statement of fact. Ford is better than Toyota... period. It is not a slam at Toyota, it is just a simple statement of fact.

The reason domestic owners defend domestics is simply because we prefer using our American-earned dollars to support American industry. Perhaps a few good Toyotas were built in the 80's or 90's, but the quality and concern for the buyer's safety and product quality is no longer there. It may return at some point, but the fact (and it IS fact) is that right now Toyota builds cars that are in the bottom third of all cars in the world in build quality according to THEIR OWN OWNERS. So please, let's drop the pretense that they are somehow better than current domestics.

Why people who live in America put so much energy into trying to destroy American jobs is beyond me.

The best small SUV's on the planet are currently the Chevy Equinox and Dodge Journey. The best hybrid on Earth is the Fusion. The fastest sedan on Earth is a Cadillac, and the biggest line of fuel-efficient cars comes from GM, not Honda or Toyota. When the Corvette entered the European racing circuit, sales there tripled because it was clearly a much better car than European sports cars costing three times as much. So, no, domestics are definitely NOT second to any cars built anywhere on the planet.

As for the Fusion's resale value, that is not in question. It has the highest reliability of any car Consumer Reports has tested, and has every year since it was introduced. My 5-year-old Fusion is worth exactly what I paid for it two years ago, even with 30,000 more miles.

In addition, I sold a 5-year-old Dodge truck that I had purchased brand new for only $830 less than I had paid for it brand new, so yes, domestics most certainly DO hold their value, and that IS from my own personal experience. And we HAVE owned Japanese imports. None ever made 100,000 miles. None of our domestics has ever required a single repair in 100,000 miles. Our current GM SUV has just under 100,000 miles, and has not even had the brake pads replaced yet. So far it has had one set of tires and one light bulb. That's all.