18th Dec 2006, 11:44

Thanks for an honest review. I test drove a Corolla before buying my last vehicle and I couldn't get the thing back to the dealer's lot fast enough. What people see in these things is beyond me. The quality and ride were vastly inferior to the Chevy Cobalt and Ford Focus, and it wasn't nearly as fast either. The ride was rough, and the one I drove had a rattle in the dash (and it was BRAND NEW!!). The Corolla was less expensive than the much nicer Cobalt, but even for less money it was no bargain. I also drove a Dodge Caliber and liked it, but I'm wary of buying any first-year model of any car. As for the Civic, they are just ludicrously overpriced and the one Civic our family had was not remotely reliable. We'll stick with the proven reliability and value of domestics.

18th Dec 2006, 13:38

My Ford Focus had 10 recalls and was in the shop 20 times in three years. Left me stranded lots of times. Lost a ton of money selling it.

Cobalt is no prize pig either, based on both reviews here and auto tests in every magazine I've read.

Yeah, "reliable" domestics.

22nd Feb 2007, 20:12

18:38, you are correct. The 13:38 comment is from the same person who tells the same story over and over about the "10 recalls and 20 times in the shop". When he first started telling the story, it was "a friend" of his, and pretty soon he started telling the story like it was his car, and even admitted that he just started saying it was his car because he got tired of people saying that he didn't even own the car!

I agree, I don't understand what people see in these bland Corollas. Could it be the cardboard with thin piece of vinyl glued on that passes for interior trim? Maybe it is the total lack of amenities or accouterments in the cabin--it looks so bare it probably has a "radio delete" option! Or maybe it is the narrow seat with cheap cloth upholstery that reels in the customers.

You have to hand it to the Japanese for a fabulous marketing campaign to convince so many people that less is more. These things are on par with a stripped-down, no-option 1983 Cavalier. In fact, the Cavalier is nicer!

22nd Feb 2007, 20:14

To 18:38.

Here's a myth for you: your Fords suck. That myth is true.

Here's another myth people are spreading around; Ford is doing very badly right now. Also true.

Myth #3; The Corolla and the Camry (along with the Accord and Civic) are the best-selling cars in the United States. Also true.

Myth#4; out of the 400+ comments on the Tundra thread, you keep regurgitating the same comments over and over again that prove only that you don't like Toyota's, and no proof of anything else.

Myth#5; Despite the fact that you don't like them, everyone else knows they are indeed "superior", including the Corolla, which is a better car than Ford could ever hope to design and build. That myth is also true. (I know it's hard to accept, but still true, EVEN THOUGH you don't know it).

25th Feb 2007, 10:51

My friend who owned the Focus was my roommate, and I drove the Focus a lot - as much as he did. It was easier for me to say I owned it rather than saying "my friend who is a roommate's Focus that I helped him buy and had to take him to the Ford dealership every other week for recalls".

As for your continued insistence that the Focus had no recalls, just check your facts for once. The Focus is one of the most-recalled cars in recent history.

After the Focus, my friend leased a Scion xB and now owns a Korean-built Chevy Aveo which he's had for over a year. NEITHER car has had the endless problems the Focus had, and the Aveo hasn't even been to the dealer for any repairs at all (the Scion had radio problems, but the radio was from Pioneer, not Toyota). I'm not saying the Aveo is the paragon of quality, but it has started every day (unlike the Focus), has not had flooding inside the passenger compartment when it rains (unlike the Focus), has not had the ignition mechanism disintegrate (unlike the Focus), and has never had to be flatbedded to the dealership (unlike the Focus).

And let's be clear. I RECOMMENDED that he buy the Focus over ALL the imports, and he got a top of the line ZTS with every option. I EXPECTED this car to last him for ten years as he BOUGHT it outright, and assumed that Ford would make a good product given this car had been available in Europe since 1997 and all the bugs should have been worked out.

And STOP accusing me of making posts I DID NOT MAKE. 20:14 comment was NOT ME, but, of course, you people have no argument so just have to attack anyone who remotely disagrees that domestic products aren't gifts from God.

Oh, I don't own any Toyotas and have not owned any Toyotas since 1987, so yet again another one of your arguments fails miserably. Toyotas err on the side of comfort, not sporty, and I don't like cars like that.

And, once again, you people cannot explain why, if domestic cars are so incredibly reliable, that ALL three domestic manufacturers are in deep, deep trouble financially and why Toyota will soon be the #1 car maker on the planet with record-breaking sales.

If Toyotas are the worst cars sold in America, why isn't the company suffering the same fate as Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Fiat, and other unreliable cars that were sold here? It makes ZERO sense.

You'll also explain why Scion has the lowest average age of buyer (30) of any car brand, meaning YOUNG PEOPLE prefer that brand more than any other. And young people today expect quality. Again, it makes no sense if these cars are sooooo unreliable. Young people simply don't have the money to spend on rental cars when their "quality-built" American car is in the shop yet again.

And explain why these wonders of American automotive engineering like the Chevy Cobalt are sitting on dealers' lots for months on end when Honda can't make enough Fits to fill the demand. Again, it makes no sense if Japanese imports are on the level of Yugos as you people continue to intimate.

You simply have no argument, This talk of 300,000 Cavaliers and such is either myth or just more proof that if you get one built mid-week when the workers were happy and not drunk (see the book "Rivethead" for details on American quality control) you can possibly get a vehicle that doesn't break down.

28th Feb 2007, 19:16

To 10:51; I appreciate another voice of reason and reality here.

Good point about the Fit vs. the Cobalt. That's what these Big 3 people don't understand. If Ford or Chevy could ever build anything that was that much in demand, they would simply increase production with no concern for quality, and ruin the whole project.

Wait a minute; they do that now, even with almost no demand for any of the crap they build! Hence their crappy sales numbers, and, like you say, the number of junk Cobalts sitting around. Now there's a car that lost all it's momentum in a hurry. I guess people just realized, HEY!, this is just another crappy Cavalier that kind of looks like a Nissan. Oops.

Honda will continue to build as many as they can WITHIN the constraints of their quality control, a term that the Big 3 have no concept of. And yeah, I have yet to see a Cavalier that made it over 135,000 miles in reality. I guess it's easy to type whatever mileage somebody wishes their Cavalier would have gotten when they're on line anonymously. Like a Rock, right? That's correct, they just sit there.