25th Apr 2011, 03:04
You are right. All the newer cars are mostly disposable junk, no matter what brand they are. Japanese and domestic are pretty much the same, interchanging and outsourcing parts between companies to save costs. The newer cars are built to be disposable and for planned obsolescence; there is just no money in building a car that lasts, as all the companies have found out unfortunately.
25th Apr 2011, 00:02
Unibody cars don't have "frames" as such, but they do have supposedly strengthened areas (sometimes referred to as "subframe assemblies") that suspension components attach to. It is these areas on poorly built Japanese cars that easily bend and sag, preventing proper wheel alignment at both front and rear ends. My Japanese car could not be aligned because the front had sagged beyond the range of the alignment adjustment. My friend's 3-year-old Toyota had sagged so much that the rear wheels could not be aligned. I am told this is very common on Japanese cars. I have switched to domestics, and none of them has ever required an alignment, even after hitting curbs or huge potholes. They are far more solidly built than imports.