21st Mar 2007, 17:21

The S-10 is a Chevy pickup, so you are deliberately driving an American car. I wouldn't touch anything but imports.

24th Mar 2007, 01:21

I meant unless I have a choice. The S10 that's guzzling my gas money right now ($20 in a weekend, my Corolla lasted 2 weeks on that much gas) is a friend's, but American-made as it is, it certainly beats the *pants* off walking or riding my bike everywhere. I wouldn't be driving it if I had an option to drive another foreign car. Even a Ford Ranger would be fine, since they're really just rebadged Mazda B-series pickups. But it's only for another 2 weeks, then I don't have to deal with its slow 1-2 shift anymore and I can get back to driving a real car.

24th Mar 2007, 09:51

Actually, Mazda B-series pickups are just rebadged Ford Rangers, but does the fact that they have a Mazda nameplate instead of Ford somehow make them better?

24th Mar 2007, 18:40

You're buying a 1990 Honda Civic and you call that a real car? What is more real about it than a 1992 S-10 anyway? Personally I would never drive anything that was more than 5 years old, nor would I drive an all you can eat family bargain bucket car from any country. German and American luxury cars and SUV's are "real" cars; they give you uncompromising luxury and performance in their respective class. Asian cars are nothing but compromises, including Lexus, Acura, and Infiniti; they are for people who couldn't afford to buy and maintain a nice BMW or Audi, or keep gas in their GMC Yukon Denali.

27th Mar 2007, 13:59

Dis Honda and Toyota all you want, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are more 1987-92 Hondas and Toyotas on the road right now, with more mileage on them, than there are 87-92 Chevys, Fords, or Dodges. And the few Chevys (the 87-90 Nova comes to mind) that *are* still on the road are really just rebadged Toyotas.

Let's see an American car company come up with a car that can compete with, say, a Honda S2000, or a Honda CRX, or a Toyota AE86, or a Nissan Skyline, or a Mitsubishi Lancer, from stock. There aren't any.

Fact is, the D16 engine, and the 4A-GE engine, are the most reliable, fuel efficient, peppiest engines in the class. Sure, my Corolla had a 4A-C, but it had enough torque and peak horsepower to keep up (and pass) a 95 Sentra SE-R and compete with a Lancer in a race. I know. I did it. The S2000 in the race completely schooled it, but my Corolla had better handling than any car I've ever been in.

And to the person who won't buy anything older than 95, dude get your head out of the sand and try racing a CRX some time. Not a Del Sol, they're too heavy. Some of the best power to weight ratios I've ever seen come in the 87-92 Honda brackets, and B16 swaps are quite common.

2nd Apr 2007, 18:26

"there are more 1987-92 Hondas and Toyotas on the road right now, with more mileage on them, than there are 87-92 Chevys, Fords, or Dodges"

Prove it! Backup your statements with stats.

2nd Apr 2007, 21:19

It's already been proved on this site about a 1000 times with statistics, and solid evidence as to why the imports make better cars, as almost any survey, car magazine, or competent and unbiased mechanic will tell you. It doesn't need to be repeated again. We all drive what appeals to us, but the imports are more reliable and better built overall. If you disagree, then you are either uninformed or too stubborn to acknowledge the truth. There is no third category.

3rd Apr 2007, 13:04

I see a lot of domestic cars from the eighties on the road, however whenever I look to see what mileage they have, they are actually cars once owned by old people and have only 60,000 miles on them. I cannot easily find an old Japanese car with under 200k on it from the same time. Think about it?

3rd Apr 2007, 20:32

You must have missed my '85 Dodge with 256,000 miles on it when you were looking. I've got a dozen other examples of domestic cars that we owned that went over 200,000 miles. Where are you looking?

3rd Apr 2007, 20:43

To 18:40, why talk to him about driving a nice car? He obviously either wants to, or has to drive cheap old beaters. The nice cars that you're talking about aren't even remotely in his price range. That's fine, to each his own.

Consider the source, right now he's driving a friend's '92 S-10 (wow, can you visualize the gray primer, cracked windshield, rusted out wheel wells, and bungee cords holding the Igloo cooler in the bed?), and is dreaming of "stepping up" to a 17-year-old rattle-trap Honda (same primer, rusted out wheel wells, cracked dashboard and windshield, except the battery is held in by bungee cords).

That's great, I'm all in favor of people driving old cars and getting the last bit of use out of them.

4th Apr 2007, 00:47

Just restating what everybody says doesn't make it true.

You see, how about you go to DMV, get all the registrations from cars that are from the 80's. Tally up which are domestic and which are import.

Or how about you give me a link to a credibable magazine that has stats to show which cars live longer.

I've seen plenty of domestics from the 80's this year with more than a 100k on them. Most are trucks/Suv's.

Every car can fail... and since I've seen too much contrary to the Toyota Quality myth, with my own eyes, I have a hard time just swallowing what you Toy lovers say.