Import owners are to blame for the recession

So we would like other nations to buy our American cars,
but we should refuse to buy theirs?

 

Why would I want to buy a unreliable car made by overpaid monkey wrench
turners?

JT

 

My local Honda dealership appears to be staffed and run by Americans,
most of whom I'm sure live in the community and spend their wages in
the community. Well, all except for the illegals who send theirs to
Mexico...

 

By the time that most Japanese cars are ready for old car shows, they
have 300K plus and have served their purpose.

BTW, I have five that I could put antique plates on...

JT

 

Then stay away from Toyota.

 

No, we should have other nations - like Japan - buying our
American cars at the same percentages that we are buying
their cars.

That isn't happening in Japan for many reasons that have nothing
to do with pricing, or quality, and a lot to do with cultural biases.

Ted

 

What, in Gods name, does living in a housing co-operative have to do with
buying a car? Did it occur to you that your community might be selling you
items that were manufactured in the third world? This would be buying
"imported"....

A very close friend has both a Corvette and an SRT10 - along with a couple
of late 60s Dodges just for fun. So what? A car in your wildest dreams just
doesn't have the wow factor of a car in your driveway. And the car in your
wildest dreams is still going to have a lot of parts maked "Made Elsewhere".
No sense in dreaming too hard in case you can't make your financing, anyway.
Or does buying a performance car make you more of a patriot?

If you want to wave your flag, consider how much of your dollar gets to stay
home.

 

Bush I and the rest of the world 2 is sorry he did not use a condom

 

, Gosi at

Bush is a hero .. he tried his best to get Ossama Ben Forgotten and then he
forgot about him years ago ... why that is when Ossama died of natural
causes in a hospital just a mile from where they blew up that US crusier at
DuBuy.

it is what Jesus would do !!!

All Hail Moses and his Serpent Staff from the Jealous God of FIRE !!!

 

The recession is going to force even more people to do what you suggest.
How many people will choose a vehicle that will last 5 years versus
one that will last 10 years? Compare how many 10-15 year old Civics,
Corollas, Accords, and Camrys are still on the road to any of the big
3's similar sized vehicles.

The Big 3 are unwilling to take steps to restore confidence in their
products. Look what VW and Hyundai did when their was the perception of
quality issues with their products; they offered extra-long warranties
on the power train.

 

Got any real statistics that will allow me (or anyone) to do this?
From what I see on the local central NC roads, old domestic cars far
out number old Toyotas and Hondas, but that is just the way I see
things. Personal experience leads me to believe, given similar
maintenance and driven in similar manners, domestic cars will far
outlast Japanese cars. But that is just based on my personal
experience and I have no data to back it up.

Just this morning I was behind a Generation 2 Camry and was amazed by
how nice it looked. Most old Camrys look like s*&t. This one had a
temporary license tag and an out of state dealer logo on the trunk
lid. I suspect it had been repainted (it was two tone, with the lower
half silver - never saw one with a paint job like that before). And
amazingly, it wasn't even smoking. It was a rare sight. I am more
used to old Toyotas like the ones my neighbors own - faded paint, and
smoking on start-up.

Geez, why would I want to have the cost of crap hidden by bogus
extended warranties. Even if they cover the failures, you still have
the inconveniences of having the POS hauled into the shop and losing
the use of the car for a day, or if it is a VW, weeks. No matter how
mediocre I think Toyotas are, I'd pick one over a VW any day, unless
the VW dealer delivers two for the price of one and guarantees one
will always be available during a 150k warranty period.

Ed

 

The poster lives in California, so the car population there doesn't
allow him to see the big picture in his anecdote.
I notice the same here in the Chicago area that you see - most of the
older cars are Chevys/Buicks, and old Toyota/Hondas are a rarity.
Could be local car sales favor that, or maybe not.
There is a data crunching company that has access to all state DMV
records regarding model/year vehicles that are registered.
Can't remember the name of the company.
I actually called them once and talked to a real data cruncher to find
out what it would cost for them to do a data extract for me.
Think I wanted state/year/make/model - maybe 30 bytes or so times
registered vehicles.
Can't remember how much it would cost, but it was way more than
I wanted to pay.
This was maybe 8-10 years ago.
So the data to answer this eternal question is out there.
Comparing the registration records to sales numbers for the model
years would answer the "longevity" question on a country wide basis.
Since cars are often moved and registered from state to state,
state wide results would only be an approximation, but probably pretty
close.

--Vic

 

Already been posted.

 

The statistics I posted on this earlier were not for California.

 

ditto...

If the American cars were worth buying I would instead of buying Toyota.
Probably would buy a Honda without any problem either.
First new car was a 1968 Dodge Swinger 340. Ran ok but front seat cracked
the covering at 20,000 miles. Total loss it at 23,000 when someone ran a
stop sign in front of me. Bought a 1972 Dodge Deamon 340 I ordered and it
came in with a bad spot of paint on the back about 6 inches in diameter. It
ran so much slower than the 68 that I stopped on the side of the road on
the way home to see if they had put in a six cylinder instead of the V8. It
was back to the dealer so many times for not starting and other problems I
traded it at 18,000 miles. Got a 74 Pontiact and every 40,000 I had to
replace a gear on the timing chain. They used a 'paper' gear. Also heater
core at 70,000. Had one other American car and it did no beter. Went to
the Datsun in 1981 and only replaced the break pads and lightbulbs and
battery and normal service scheduled items. Put 100,000 on it and traded.
1991 Camry, 200,000 no problems. Wife had several Toyatos and no problems.
Made a mistake and got a late 90 or eairly 2000 something Ford and it had
many problems. Back to the Toyotas. That is not counting on all the
problems My mom and dad had with the American cars they had. They had been
buying new ones from about 1966 and had problems with most all of them.

 

The poster lives in California, so the car population there doesn't

You are thinking of RL Polk. Even the registration data doesn't give
you "perfect" information since you have no idea of the mileage on the
car, how the cars are maintained, or how they are used. The only time
I ever see this sort of information used in ads is when Chevy claims
they have the longest lasting most dependable trucks. And even then
there are a bunch of disclaimers and I suspect if you got to the
bottom of things, you find that there are a higher percentage of some
older Chevy trucks on the road than other brands because more of the
Chevy trucks are bought as urban vehicles than as work trucks. There
was a time recently when both Chevy and Dodge were claiming to have
the longest lasting most dependable trucks based on RL Polk
registrations. The current Chevy disclaimer is something like "1
Dependability based on longevity: 1981-July 2007 full-line light-duty
truck company registrations. Excludes other GM divisions." Dodge quit
making the same claim, but as I recall, they used a different span of
years and a different definition of what was included.

Ed White

 

Where?

Ed

 

What thread was that?
I'm interested in seeing real statistics instead of anecdotes.

--Vic

 

Here it is again. Feel free to make up excuses as to why this data is wrong.

"http://www.desrosiers.ca/2007%20Update/Documents%20and%20Reports/2007%20OBS/Trends%20in%20Vehicle%20Longevity.pdf"

 

Looks ok to me. I'll leave the critical analysis to others.
Thanks.

--Vic