No, its because they are #1 in the world for realibility and durability…thats a fact.
Based on what I see on the road and in the shop Toyota and Honda have hands down stepped ahead of the competition in engineering, design and workmanship in dollar/dollar comparisons. Forty years ago Detroit bungled and stumbled in misguided efforts to build automobiles to compete with the Japanese competition. Vegas and Pintos were the best they could do and as the Japanese built their market share their never ending upgrades and improvements weighed against Detroit’s continued cheapening of their entry level models.
Also, on the maintenance/repair side of that dichotomy it appeared that people who bought the Japanese imports new kept them for many years and maintained them quite well compared to domestic buyers who were more often than not fanatical members of the"if it ain’t broke don’t fix it" club. And second owners were usually “drive it till it dies and then walk away” club members.
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My personal experience is that I found my GM vehicles to be trouble prone enough even with obsessive maintenance that I just stopped caring about them. By the time the wheel came off of my Vega, I just wanted to get rid of it. I never had that feeling with my Toyotas. I knew that if I maintained them, they’d serve me well for years to come.
If there were any justice in the automobile business General Motors should be required to find everyone who ever bought a new Vega and refund their money + interest.
The sad part is that I liked that Vega when it was new and everything was working right. Had it also had reliability and longevity, I probably would have been a GM fan. I might have even accepted the cheesy plastic valance panels and the paper thin fenders. Of course, after only four years the driver’s door had to be manually lifted to close it. The hinges were already worn out. And the seat back was falling backwards.
Oh, never mind. I really liked the car, but unfortunately it was a hunk of junk.
OH CRAP SHOULD GET RID OF MY 03 TRAILBLZER NOW! Not, I was told in college once you see experts agree, mark the question as false.
We prefer the term “frugal”, but no complaints otherwise … lol … it’s amazing how much fun you can have with the extra money by not having two monthly new car payments.
They had one called the “Pontiac Fiero” that I liked in the early 80’s. Pontiac is GM, right? Two seater, mid engine, frugally priced, & unbelievably, 50 mpg on the highway. True, it was said to have a tendency to catch fire , hey, nobody’s perfect 
Like I said, I dunno. I wouldn’t exactly refer to the lists as facts that they are more reliable. You’d need to see more of the detail of how the list was compiled. And all the talk about how great Toyota and Honda is but if you go to Europe, you’ll not see many, but mostly Mercedes and VW and the Skoda the cheap VW. But they can’t keep their cars as long due to regulations I believe. So I sorta think longevity may be what your first experience has dictated. seeing Daewoo on the list though has to make you wonder.
Car payments are optional, I have never had car payments or a Toyota. How do you get two monthly car payments? Second mortgage on the Toyota?
Neither have I, which is why I’m always so cheerful 
I believe Honda and Toyota were more reliable than domestic brands years ago for certain. In the late 90’s, early 2000’s, domestics may have caught up somewhat. The GM 5.3 and 3.8 were great engines and very reliable. Current models, I have no idea. Toyota (and Honda I assume) in-line 4 cylinders with manual transmissions were probably more reliable than anything else. I’m not certain if their latest offerings are as reliable as say a 1999 Tacoma 4 cylinder with a 5 speed. Hopefully a 2013 Highlander V6 lasts forever, because I own one!
Spending less per month on a lease than I was for total ownership on the last car, no brakes, no tires, no expenses as it is all under warranty, I am laughing now especially with all this new fangled crap that is going to cost big bucks to repair, CVT? x Speed Trans, etc etc, I am out of the keep it and cross your fingers you avoid a big repair bill. 
That is for the wifes car, my beater I repair and fix and keep on rolling, not one answer to any question.
Once you get used to having a new car, you just treat payments like a normal expense like the heating bill in Minnesota. I will also say too that when you go for years without a payment, it’s a shock to get back into the swing again. However, I have no intention of going back to the days of 8% interest. I’m into 1-3%, or it’s pay it off. Like we talked about before, if you are making 10-20% on your money, it doesn’t make much sense to pay cash unless it makes you feel good.
Nothing wrong with feeling good, though.
Again, people talk of engine and transmission longevity as the end all. My Buick got 530,000 on it with no real engine problems. I overhauled the trans at 350,000 and the guy said it didn’t look all that bad. The problems though were with electrical and electronics. Those can eat you alive and cause reliability issues.
[quote=“Rod_Knox, post:22, topic:111125”]
Vegas and Pintos were the best they could do [/quote]
I’m going to rephrase that to
"Vega’s and Pinto’s were the best they WANTED to do."
I’m a firm believer that GM/Ford and Chryco could build better quality vehicles, but chose not to because it would eat into their profits too much.
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I agree @MikeInNH. The Big 3 chose to market cobbled up second class junk just to offer something to compete with the smaller imports. The Big 3 found the trashy stigma from their junky small cars becoming albatross hanging round their necks. But not caring to notice the public’s eroding loyalty the Big 3 cheapened their larger cars using the poorly designed low quality light duty drive trains in larger, supposedly ‘top line’ models while the Japanese were designing larger and more luxurious high quality models to take their place which they found very successful. The Lexus appears to be the most highly regarded brand out here in the hinterlands where 50 years ago those who bought Japanese cars were looked on as traitors.
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I believe the workers could, but not under that management.
Many workers who used to work for GM and Ford ended up working for Toyota and Honda…
and they build great cars. But under different management.
The tragedy is that through the '60s the “big three” built the best automobiles in the world for the working class, and even the upper class. Cadillac, Lincoln, and even New Yorker were names respected around the world. Then along came the '70s…
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Agree 100%.
Hmmm. I understand there were engineering and management issues but when we studied the industry in class, absenteeism seemed to be an important quality factor. Maybe that’s when drugs were really taking hold but when workers didn’t show up on Mondays and Fridays, temps had to be assigned to do their jobs, and the temps were not necessarily good at it. Maybe the higher wages allowed the absenteeism, I dunno, but I don’t think its a cut and dried issue.
Even in the can plant we had a very good mechanic that was paid a lot of money but often would not come to work but spend the day in the bar. He had an old truck, old house, etc. and all the money he wanted, so the social part of the bar was more important. High wage scales may at some point become counter productive to not only the company but the employees.
And now they build Toyota’s (Corollas I think?) 5 miles from me in Blue Springs, MS. And my college buddy is an engineer at Honda in Alabama. Lots of Ford parts are made in China. I wonder if anyone would’ve believed me if I told them that in 1970? Probably not. Especially since I was born in 74.