15th Jul 2008, 11:02

Its pretty interesting to just show how focused on MPG people are at the moment. Imagine owning a great car like a Corvette, having a better mpg and 100,000 mile warranty as well, than the V6 Tacoma or Tundra. With a great V8 engine. That has to be the greatest bargain; to do the same with an import would cost 2-3 times as much.

If you quit buying full size trucks, look at what MPG you can have with a great sports car. The Solstice is another great car if you want to stay small engine and not be bored to death driving a lot of bland boring offerings out there.

15th Jul 2008, 13:08

Comment 12:31 is quite right. High fuel costs ARE bringing to an end the large truck and SUV craze, and as far as I'm concerned it should have happened years ago. Naturally there will always be a niche market in industry for large trucks, but no private individual really has any need for an 8 mpg, 3-ton vehicle to haul the kids to soccer practice and pick up groceries. A 100 pound woman driving a Ford Excursion alone to Wal-Mart makes no sense whatsoever.

I can't really see the Tundra surviving the new market, as I know of no companies or industries that use them. The Tacoma is a good small truck, and it should do very well for families or individuals wanting a fairly economical smaller truck. Ford is coming out with a totally new mid-size, smaller-engined truck, which will probably be called the F-100. They are also coming out with a replacement for the rock-solid and venerable Ranger line. Both should do extremely well, especially in view of the Ranger and F-150's record of rugged reliability and quality.

In driving to my office yesterday I saw 3 nearly new full-size trucks with "For Sale" signs on the freeway. The high cost of gas is finally bringing a little common sense to the forefront in America's driving habits. It's about time.

15th Jul 2008, 17:02

11:53 Uhhh... I don't know if you were referring to my comment about our recent Ford headaches; the two that broke down, but the neither of them have anywhere close to 200,000 miles on them, of course, they're Fords.

Oh, and by the way, Nissan is much more reliable than any Ford. In fact, I don't think there's an automaker with worse overall reliability than Ford, possibly GM I suppose.

I always get a kick out of Consumer Reports' "used cars to avoid" section, and there's the majority of everything Ford has made in the last 10 years on the list, followed closely by GM's lineup of scrap cars. It's kind of funny to read all of the Ford fanatic comments about how they run forever, and all the miles they put on with no trouble, when in reality it's the complete opposite.

Ford owners seem to think that they're driving a good car or truck as long as it's still on the road, even after they've put an engine and two transmissions in it to get to 115,000 miles or whatever.

I guess if they ever buy a Toyota and get at least double that mileage with no problems whatsoever, they'll know better.

16th Jul 2008, 05:14

The Solstice really isn't a good car. I've heard a lot about its lack of fit and finish and quality control.

The Corvette is an epic car that can indeed get good mileage if driven correctly, but it's beyond most peoples' price range.

I'm selling my GM SUV and getting a '99 Buick Regal, which gets 30mpg+ on the highway, and is not expensive at all, while doing 0-60 in 6-7 seconds. Not to mention the engine is a bulletproof design that should last 200k+ miles.

All you have to do is a lot of research, and find out which car has the right balance of mpg, power and price.

16th Jul 2008, 10:16

I think you'll have to do a lot better on MPG than switching to a $50,000 Corvette; that might get 20MPG.

The fact is that the future of cars and trucks as we know it, will be that the 30MPG standard of yesterday is no longer the gold standard. People are going to start buying vehicles that get 35-40, and even 50MPG+ from now on.

As of now, there are very few cars or trucks that get that kind of economy. But all this will change with time. All automakers have new vehicles coming out that will accomplish this.

Once more, Toyota and Honda have a leg up over GM and Ford because they've been building hybrid vehicles in mass quantities for almost 10 years, while GM and Ford barely have anything. I suspect the outcome will be much the same, with the Big Three playing catch-up and doing a lot of copy-catting.

16th Jul 2008, 11:23

My wife has been involved in a study of financial efficiency and planning for the past few weeks. Car buying was discussed last week. I was not at all surprised to find that the financial experts teaching the classes regarded the absolute best buy for low cost of ownership and maintenance to be a 4-year-old Ford Taurus. If you look at the overall cost to own, nothing beats a new or used Ford, Chevy or Dodge.

16th Jul 2008, 15:47

Oh no, Toyota isn't terminating the Sequoia and Tundra! They are simply "cutting back production." Yeah, cutting back production to zero, and closing the plant!

So, when Toyota terminates models, it's a minor cutback in production due to high gas prices, but when Ford and GM do actually just scale back production, it's an "indication of poor sales because of lack of quality."

16th Jul 2008, 17:20

I love convertibles... people caught up in the mpg focus trap could perhaps own a Corvette rather than pay $300-400 more a month on less fuel efficient alternatives. I wonder what qualifications the Tacoma owner has on the 2008 Corvette V8.

I'd rather work a bit harder maybe take the train partially to work and own a great new American sportscar. If I owned a blah boring ugly tiny sedan, I think I'd have zero incentive to drive anymore. My insurance rate at 50 is not really a difference, my home is paid for, and I am not driving little crappy vehicles.

17th Jul 2008, 11:36

GM has been building MORE 30+ mpg vehicles for a decade than Toyota has. That is the primary reason their sales are not down as much as Toyota sales. They have more to offer, and 3 times the factory warranty.

And as for "little crappy vehicles", "little" does NOT mean "crappy". I'm a big guy and I'm much more comfortable in a good-handling smaller car that gets decent mileage than in a hard-to-park, gas guzzling aircraft carrier. Granted, no Japanese maker builds sporty small cars, but GM and Ford still do, and some of them get decent mileage.

17th Jul 2008, 13:11

Once again, read for comprehension, not selectivity. The plants are staying open and the Tundra and Sequoia will go back into production after a three month delay in production. There is no termination of models. Please recheck the article and you will see that you are mistaken.

As far as the loss of sales for GM and Ford, it started well before the high gas prices. Both have been seeing a drop in their sales numbers for the last 10 years, as they lost customers to other brands, not just Toyota and Honda. If you want to look at failed and terminated models, you need to look no farther than Ford and GM.