4th Jun 2011, 17:13
I just read a comparison test of compact cars. I was happy to see that Toyota is finally being recognized for its level of quality. It was ranked dead last.
4th Jun 2011, 19:24
Gee, according to this site, GM has the worst dealer network. Anytime someone has a problem with their GM vehicle, people pipe up on here about dealers that rip you off and such.
My GM's have been repaired at multiple dealer and private service centers. The costs were on par with every last thing I researched, from the problems I found on multiple forums, to the costs of the parts that were replaced. Funny how the vehicles were making crazy sounds or feeling like they were falling apart in the steering and rear ends, but EVERYONE that works on them is ripping me off. Please!!
GM is very sub par. I will never take a chance on another one. It is funny how I never seemed to get ripped off on any of my imports... Oh yeah, I never have to take them in for anything!!
5th Jun 2011, 09:28
It seems like the the person who wrote this thread didn't have the best experience from the Toyota dealership huh?
5th Jun 2011, 12:24
My family has a 55-year-old Pontiac with the original drive train. It still runs great. Two years ago we sold a 30-year-old Buick with 277,000 miles and still running great. My last GM car (Pontiac) was 8 years old when traded, and had never had a single repair other than brake pads at 70,000 miles. My wife's family finally retired their 1983 Silverado last year. Yep, you just gotta love those "sub-par" GM vehicles!!
6th Jun 2011, 11:58
Guess you got really lucky. I wish I could have seen 6 digits on just ONE GM product before retiring it due to excessive repair bills. Sub par is sub par, and GM knows all about it in my experiences with them. You can list 100 GM cars that went a million miles, and it still doesn't erase the $8K in repairs I have made to the crappy ones I have been unfortunate enough to own.
I will stick to trouble free imports from now on. You can talk about recalled Toyotas and Honda tranny issues, but I have never had a problem with either of these supposed issues. Until any of my imports lets me down, I will continue to drive them. GM has let me down immensely, and therefore they are off of my list... except for old muscle that is. I still love Pontiacs from the 60's and 70's and Old's 442's. GM in the past 30 years though?? blah!! The only domestic brand I will ever own is Ford today.
6th Jun 2011, 21:24
I really respect your comment, good job! Even though today I drive a Town Car, I am still a fan of GM. Even though quality has dwindled a bit, I would still consider a GM car, because all but one out of five gave me no trouble.
All the vehicles that you mentioned were really a golden era for GM; pretty much everything that was mid-size to full-size in the 60's, 70's and mid 80's were great cars.
The first car I ever drove was my father's 85 2 door LeSabre RWD. That car had over 240,000 miles before he sold it.
17th Jul 2011, 12:49
All of this GM vs Toyota stuff just tells me one thing: Toyota has unfortunately copied old GM, and this argument has almost entirely replaced the old GM vs Ford one! I feel that all manufacturers actually make mostly good cars now.
For example, for all of the whimpering people do about foreign cars being "expensive to maintain," well I had a BMW for seven years that I drove from 98,000 miles to 219,000 miles, and it NEVER left me stranded. The car still lives on; my friend who bought it (I had a line of people wanting it!) has 240,000 miles on it now, and JUST NOW has the radiator spring a leak. Let's see, a seventeen year old car with a quarter million miles, and the radiator, an easily replaceable item, is the only semi-major problem the car has EVER had. I now have an Audi with 63,000 miles on it (I bought it at 50,000 miles), and I have yet to have any of the hair-raising issues people have gone on about on here.
My mom has a 2007 Camry she bought new, one of the "awful new Camrys that accelerate by themselves and kill people," yeah, right. This is one of the finest and safest cars I could imagine putting my mother in. She also had a Buick Regal before this that went over 160,000 miles before anything at all went wrong, and all that happened then was a starter failure. $280 repair for a car that had been paid off for three years =-O.
The point of my storytelling here is that through ownership of a wide variety of vehicles, including GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, VW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and BMW products, I have had mostly good experiences. There will be defects when you look at how many cars are manufactured, but when you consider how many of them have no problems at all, it is pretty amazing.
People should not be so frightened of cars; find a mechanic you trust, LISTEN to their recommendations, and ALLOW them to keep you going!
30th Jul 2011, 21:33
My 2009 RAV4 valves just started rattling at 40000 miles. I do have one of those lemon RAV4s. I can't wait for someone stupid to buy it. My other SUV was an S10 Blazer; yes, they are also junk. I'm going to buy a Subaru next.
12th Nov 2011, 16:32
I have taken road trips with two clients who owned RAV-4's. Both were so noisy inside that talking was difficult. Both had numerous rattles.
The real clincher was gas mileage. One client stopped for gas, and like me, they keep up with their mileage at each fill-up. Theirs was a 4-cylinder RAV-4 and we were on a highway trip (not in town). It was getting 19mpg. My large truck-based GM gets better than that on the highway.
3rd Jun 2011, 20:38
You know it's funny, I've owned both domestics and imports, and had about the same luck with both. I currently own 2 domestics, a 1999 Chrysler Cirrus and a 1997 Saturn SL2, and 1 import, a 1996 Toyota Corolla. My Chrysler has 86,000 miles on it, and the only repair it's ever needed was a brake master cylinder.
I purchased my Saturn with a blown engine (the previous owner let it run out of oil), and replaced the engine with a used engine with only 81,000 on it. It has a little over 82,000 on it now, and has been fantastic so far.
My Corolla has 193,000 miles on it. It's only given me one serious problem (a heater core at 187,000); that's it.
I've owned 2 complete pieces of junk from both domestics and imports. My '95 Dodge Neon was dead at 90,000 miles, and my '95 Subaru Legacy rotted so badly the entire rear end punched through the trunk floor.
Overall, I wouldn't really base purchasing a vehicle on what country it was made in. All of my cars have been flawlessly maintained, and all perform flawlessly. Each one is a perfect example of how taking care of any vehicle will make it last.