Chevrolet Malibu sales jump 51.5%; dealers pleased

Some 50% of the people buy based on the cup holder ;>)

 

Well, there's a couple things that would be deal killers for me...

1) high beam DRLs (unfortunately, this excludes a LOT of GM cars)
2) headlights as simply awful as, say, those originally fitted to a
US-market Corrado

Extra consideration would be given to vehicles with

1) "harmonized" ECE/DOT approved headlights
2) standard-sized sealed beams, which are easily replaced with E-codes

nate

 

Forgot to mention, an acceptable alternative would be a vehicle that
might not be factory equipped with particularly good headlights but is
sold in identical form in European markets, so decent headlights could
be somewhat readily obtained (e.g. aforementioned VW Corrado...) was
reminded of this as I do have a set of Corrado E-codes and a friend just
offered to buy them

nate

 

That's the way many guys pick their women--- holder size...

 

Yeah, those are horrible, though mostly for other drivers!

In any case, I'd disconnect DRLs on any car I bought, there are just way
too many issues with them.

 

The other 50% take the advice of Consumer Reports, like they do when they
buy a TV or leaf blower

 

posters top by posted statistics up made about care don't 50% other
the and

 

That's nutty as hell but cup holders probably has swayed a few folks to
buy one car over another. I'm not picky at all and any car is just fine
with me - just as long as they have spring loaded change compartments
under the dash on the driver's side...

 

OK, so some folks will not buy a car based on headlights. I'm feeling
kind of dumb now cause the only thing I understand is that you don't
like daytime running lights. This is ok - just as long as you know what
you know what you're talking about.

 

I recall when cup holders first started to appear and the Camry lacked
them and the Accord had them, or vice-versa. It apparently _was_ the
deciding factor between two vehicles, very similar in other regards.

 

One has to wonder how many accidents have been caused because of the
presence of cup holders. I don't recall having a bottle of water or
coffee in the car all that often 20 years ago.

 

I used to commute at night on a completely unlit 2-lane road; the
benefit of good headlights was immediately apparent. Fortunately my
daily back then was a Porsche 944 so replacing the old non-halogen
sealed beams with Cibie H4s was easy.

My objection to the high beam DRLs is based on having to share the road
with vehicles so equipped. It's painful to have one coming at you when
it's overcast or near sundown, unless the driver has manually turned his
low beam headlights on. Old saturns are especially awful.

nate

 

I must like to live dangerously; I've logged lots of miles in various
German cars with a cup of coffee jammed between my legs.

nate

 

That says a LOT about the folks that buy Camrys and Accords LOL

 

I don't recall this happening but, if it says anything, it says that
there are a lot of car buyers who will switch between Honda and Toyota
but don't trust anything from the American companies. We call them
rational consumers.

 

The problem is that most of those buyers were burned by the big 3 at
some time in the past and simply don't trust them anymore. When you have
a big 3 vehicle that fails catastrophically after five years, then have
a Honda or Toyota that runs without any problems for ten years, it tends
to create these trust issues.

 

More likely, the cup holder appeared as part of a complete redesign which
brought customers away from the other's relatively aging design.

 

Witness my father's attempt, after being a foreign car owner for many
years, to try GM. 1995 Olds 88. It was big and roomy, and had the
typical American front seat area that extended all the way across,
without a console in the middle. He liked it, and bought it.

3 years later, after many trips to the dealer for many things and after
a bad run through the mountains (that never gave any of his other cars a
problem before), where a third-time burned out coil pack almost stranded
him, he dumped it and bought a (old style, small wagon) 98 Honda Odyssey.

10 years and 68,000 trouble free miles later (including many, many trips
through those same mountains), the sole reason he sold the Odyssey was
because mom died and he didn't need two cars, and he kept mom's much
newer car and sold the Ody to a young couple with kids.

Funny thing--they were the first ones to respond to the ad, and after a
test drive they came back and wrote dad a check on the spot. No
haggling, nothing. See, they understood the value of what they were
getting, too.

After 18 years of Jaanese cars, in 1988 he figured it had to be safe to
try GM--but got burned badly. Neither he nor any of our family will
ever "look back". Trust issues? Yep.

It's not just GM or American cars--with me, I had the same issue with
VW, and witnessed a few people at work getting burned with the VW coil
pack issue. Cars aren't something that I say "oh, well" to when the
manufacturer burns me like that. I can't afford to, and nowadays most
people realize they can't afford to, either--despite having acted
differently in the past.

 

People now have higher expectations about not being stranded.

 

When I visited the Seattle area in 1987, I did notice that folks would
drive with their headlights on in the area where my brother-in-law
lived. I thought it was strange but evidently,this was considered a
safety measure for travel on those 2 lane roads.