9th Jun 2008, 17:35

19:25 This is a tired argument about the Toyota warranty, and you domestic guys are trying to spin it around in a way that makes no sense at all. What if you owned Toyota? Think about it: you're making a quality product, people are buying it because they know that, and you can't keep them on the lot. Which is exactly the case; I know; I just bought a new car last week, and the Toyota salesman wouldn't drop a nickel in price. Why? Because he knows that the public knows that that car, along with any Honda, is the best car on the road, and that someone else will come along if I don't buy it, and will pay full price for it. Why sell it to me for cheaper? He's not an idiot, he can get full price based on Toyota quality proven over and over again.

SO...why spend money to extend the warranty if people are buying them as is? That would be stupid. People know they'll buy a Toyota and most likely, the damn thing will never break down, or not at least for the first 200,000 miles or so.

GM, on the other hand, makes crappy cars. People also know this, so, GM HAS TO offer a longer warranty in order to sell cars. If you're buying a GM, you might be thinking, "well, it's a cheap piece of crap, but at least it has a longer warranty". Which is how they sell them, and that logic is still dumb. 100,000 mile warranty is only as good as the company that backs it up, and 100,000 miles is nothing anymore, even for a crappy GM car. When that runs out, you're screwed. Buy the Toyota, and drive it twice or three times that far with no trouble. If GM only offered as long a warranty as Toyota does, NOBODY in their right mind would even look at one.

10th Jun 2008, 07:46

09:56 You're replying to my comment. I have driven the Aveo, and it's what I would expect from GM, which is to say not much. Neither the Aveo or my new Hyundai can compare in quality to Toyota, I've driven them all.

I would have never consider buying a GM product, for plenty of obvious reasons, and I only bought the Hyundai because I had a set price in mind that I wasn't going over, and couldn't get the Yaris for that price.

My new Accent seems to be a good car, I really like it, but the comments about the Aveo are way off. I read several reviews from several different car magazines, and other sources, such as Consumer Reports, Edmund's, etc., and the Aveo is rated dead last in every single one of them. After looking at it, it was easy to see why. Of course I drove it. That's part of the reason why I didn't buy one.

10th Jun 2008, 09:59

I find it ironic that somehow, amidst the "Domestic versus Import" argument, the Aveo got thrown into the argument, and that a number of GM fans are lining up to claim that it's somehow superior to Toyota or even Hyundai.

What if the badge was changed to what the Aveo really is, which is a Daewoo. Remember Daewoo? They sold them in the US for a few short years. They were supposed to be the next big car maker, and were compared to Toyota in the 70's in terms of what they offered in regards to value. Well, the cars were terrible. I know someone that actually had one. The engine destroyed itself one day. One of the pistons rods broke, broke the crank, and the rod and crank came flying out of the engine. They were truly awful products and when Daewoo went bankrupt, GM bought their automotive division for a song.

The only reason GM bought it was because it gave them a super easy way to suddenly have a line of extremely cheap cars in which to re-badge as Chevrolets, which would allow them to more easily get into the European market with lower end Chevrolet models that were significantly cheaper than the competition.

Here in the US, they're exactly what they are in Europe: cheap, inexpensive, and poorly constructed cars. They are in no way, shape, or form a "domestic" car. So let's not fool ourselves.

In regards to Hyundai, well I rented a Hyundai Sonata last week. The quality is actually quite nice for what these cost. It was comfortable, spacious, and got decent fuel economy. But as the previous poster mentioned, they're not quite up to par with Toyota. But the fact that Hyundai made terrible cars just 10 years ago is testament as to how far they've come.

As far as the Yaris, well I'm not exactly a fan either. Not EVERY car or truck that Toyota makes is golden, and in my opinion the Yaris is pretty ugly and cheap. Then again, these cost about as much as an Aveo, so you get what you pay for in my book. I'm also not a huge fan of some of Toyota's other cars because they seem a bit bland. But their trucks are fantastic.

In regards to fuel prices, well I think it is safe to say that no matter what side of the fence you reside, the types of vehicles we drive, how we drive, and so on are going to be changing dramatically. We can talk all day long about the good ole' days, muscle cars, and sock-hops, but that kind of lifestyle and the resources it required are entirely unrealistic or practical by today's standards. You might very well be driving an electric car or truck in coming years, while cars and trucks with V8's will have gone the way of the horse and buggie.

I've been paying close attention to the Chevy Volt program, which if completed will offer a dramatically different approach to manufacturing vehicles. We'll see how that turns out. But in the meantime, I still feel that if given an overall assessment, the engineering quality of Toyota is still better than what GM, Ford, or Chrysler produces. The proof is in the results, and with the consumers who buy their products.