24th Mar 2011, 20:55
I don't agree with this assessment. I own two extreme examples of vehicles from different eras. One is a 55' Ford Fairlane. The other 2 vehicles are: A 1996 Tacoma and a 2002 Prius. My brother who lives nearby has a 98 Avalon.
Now- given the Ford has amazingly survived for 50+ years. That's admirable. But it's an exception. I'm only in my 30's and I can recall a time when 100,000 miles was considered amazing. The Ford's odometer only goes to 100,000. That's because cars typically didn't go that long before needing major work. Sure- they were easy to work on. But I have to work on mine all the time. It has dozens of grease zerks, carburetor adjustments, and this and that. The car is pampered but it still wears out parts fairly quickly.
On the other hand the 3 Toyotas have far less service requirements and the components themselves last a lot longer. There has been great advances in metallurgy, precision machining, and engineering since the 50's. The truck has about 245,000 miles. The Avalon has 282,000. Neither show any real signs of wearing out. Most of the 50's Fords like mine on the other hand would've been stuck in a junk yard long ago without approaching anywhere close to that mileage.
23rd Mar 2011, 12:28
"Wrong. People who love their Honda's, Toyota's, Fords, Chevys etc and are loyal to the brand will continue to dump money into overpriced parts or repairs, where the dealership makes a ton more money."
Not us. One lemon was all it took to send us from poorly built Japanese cars to domestics. Not one of our domestics has ever cost us 1 cent in repairs in the first 100,000 miles. For that reason we buy Ford, GM or Chrysler. If we do ever get a lemon in one of those we'll look elsewhere. With us, reliability is the most important factor. The brand doesn't matter as long as it starts and runs when we expect it to.