Its great you like your domestics.
Many get really excited about good reliability or perceived, I always wonder though if that masks over the fact that the vehicle otherwise may not be want the buyer wanted?
I drive a Subaru WRX wagon and absolutely love the thing. Reliability is incredible for me and by Consumer Reports but would never recommend purchase of it based on that.
More Dollars Staying In Or Returning To The U.S.
But that’s NOT happening. The Big-3 have been doing the OPPOSITE for years. In fact it’s in their management plan. They all follow the Jack Welch plan on how to run (ruin) a company.
"Keep Management here in the US..but ship manufacturing and engineering to cheaper labor cost areas of the world."
That’s why GM has made a big investment in the past 20 years to build plants in Mexico and South America and then ship the vehicles or parts back to the US.
Why would it matter what company produced the car? are you worryed about warrantys?(they go out of business and you are stuck with a broken down car?)
And I heard from my neghbor that the '09 ford duramax desel trucks will make it (when tuned properly) 29 mpgs in the city. not bad eh? try and top that toyota!
The investment company that bought Chrysler from Daimler-Benz wants to sell Chrysler. The auto company has litle to do with it, except that they are the one for sale.
I drive a domestic car (Chrysler) and am up to 239,000 mostly trouble-free miles with it. When it does break it’s cheap to fix, and has never left me stranded anywhere. I live in the rust belt, and while I garage my car, I do not drive it gently most of the time. I am glad that you love your Subaru. The last Subie I drove I did not, though I’ve respected the performance of the WRX line since it was introduced. I’ve been impressed with the build quality of the last few new cars I’ve driven, both foreign (Honda) and domestic (Ford, which I swore I’d never own again) While it disgusts me that the ‘big three’ are outsourcing jobs to foreign lands, so are the Japanese automakers. (to the US) While it’s great that Toyota for example, builds many of their cars that sell in the US, in the US, providing much-needed jobs, it doesn’t really mean that that money is “staying in the US”–it’s still going back to a foreign-based company. Likewise, Chrysler is building cars in Canada and Mexico, and while I may not approve of the jobs lost here, the money is flowing back to a domestic company. But it’s a twisted path to follow, with GM putting Honda engines in Saturns, and bidding to buy Chrysler to put them out of business, while Kia’s building plants in the US, and most everyone is trying to build and sell in China. It’s a cosmopolitan global economy, and hard to follow the twists n’ turns, even for professional economists. Perhaps I’m a little naive, but I’ve always thought that if everyone would just refuse to sell out, whether it be the big three keeping jobs in the US, or consumers refusing to buy from companies that do things that seem advantageous to the consumer at first glance, but ultimately harm our economy in the long run (like Walmart for example), things would just work out. But apparently everyone has to either make that extra buck or stretch that extra buck, and not care about the long run or their fellow humans. It saddens me that many folks that think they’re doing their utmost for ‘the environment’, or ‘supporting our troops’, still shop at Walmart or buy a Hyundai to save a few bucks. (not that they’re bad cars)
I have a lot of respect for the decision made by the GM CEO a couple of years ago to take $1 as his salary until things turned around. Unfortunately, the company I work for, the CEO decided to collect an obscene bonus on his way out the door while the company descended into the hell of Chapter 11.
Now that I’m done ranting, bring on the flames!
We buy GM & Chrysler vehicles, used only, and have had no problem exceeding 200k with just normal maintenance.
Even if the company goes under, it’s safe to say that the vehicle will still be fixable if anything should happen for several years to come, as warehouses run their parts out. It’s not like if you bought a car from Chrysler, or GM or Ford that it’s gonna fall apart as soon as you drive it off the lot
That’s a great question and one that I just had when I wanted to trade in my 1998 F-250 for something that gets more than 12 mpg’s. The Big 3 all have models that are good, depending on what you are looking for. However, take a look at Saturn. After looking and driving several different small cars from the Japanese, Germans, and American makes, I was thrilled to find Saturn got rid of the loathsome Ion and imported the Astra from Germany. The Astra is technically an Opel/Vauxhall, but both are European branches of GM, therefore you are getting superior German quality while supporting GM’s bottom line.
It is true that many cars are multinational efforts, from design through assembly.
That being said, your question prompted me to consider how I have been ‘voting with my wallet’ through my lifetime.
I started with a '49 Chevy Pickup, then a '66 Chevelle, then a Vega GT (that was an educational experience in what is wrong with the Big 3) then a '64 Chevy pickup.
In the past 25 years, I have owned a Toyota (280k miles and still running fine when I sold it), a Volvo (270k miles and still running perfectly) and three BMWs (ranging from nearly new up to 230k miles and all still running perfectly). As for the cars from the Big 3, some are fine, but I found better options.
The Aura shares the Fairax, KS assembley plant with the Malibu.
Both my father and uncle have had American cars (Dodge Aspen and Buick Sabre). Both vehicles were prime examples of why the American auto makers are in such sad shape. I wouldn’t dream of buying an American car. A truck, maybe. These days Toyota has many plants in the US and employs lots of Americans right here at home so you needn’t feel unpatriotic for buying one. I think Japanese cars, Volvos and Saabs are the most trouble free and the Swedish ones, in particular, are engineered extremely well for safety. On the flip side, I had a Dodge 3500 van a few years back and my experience with Dodge was great, both in terms of reliability and also in terms of how the manufacturer helped me when I had an out of warranty problem (they supplied the part at no charge).
You should buy what you like. Many foreign cars are assembled in the US.
When you bring that foreign car in for service there are Americans working on it. So in the long run you are sill helping Americans out.
Agree that voting with the wallet makes the most sense. I bought a 1965 Dodge Dart and 1966 Chevelle Malibu becuase they were basically good cars compared to what was available, including Japanese cars, at that time.
My 1971 Mercury Comet and 1976 Ford Granada were mistakes; I assumed that Big 3 quality would not go DOWN!
My 1977 Dodge Colt, a Mitsubishi, Chevy Caprice and Impala were basically good value for money and reliable.
Subsequent purchases of a 1994 Sentra and 2007 Corolla were done after I confirmed that the Big 3 had given up on making good small cars. Both cars were built in North Amerca, while a Saturn Astra is 100% built in Belgium and designed in Germany.
In an age of globalization, the customers seem to care more where somthing is made than the manufacturers. The Ford Crown Vitaoria has so many foreing parts it qualifies as an ofshore import!!!
Don’t forget that Toyota has a big design center in Los Angeles.
OTOH, the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V holds the record for the fastest lap by any production sedan at the Nurburgring. That includes every M-series BMW and every AMG Benz. Eats. Them. For. Breakfast.
It all comes down to what you like, really. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a Pontiac Vibe, Chevy Malibu, Ford Fusion or Escape. I’d love to have the new Dodge Challenger, but the one worth getting(SRT8) is about $10k outta my price range for a new vehicle
Richard - I’ve never written anything on one of these websites before and probably never will again, but - - my family has been involved in automobile-related businesses for generations and I assure you that buying a NEW car is the poorest financial decision you can possibly make. Check the internet, used car dealers, newspaper ads or get to know someone who can buy from dealers’ auctions and save yourself a ton of money. Buying a brand new car is exactly like buying a used car and then giving the salesman $5,000 to $10,000 cash just for being such a sharp dresser.
I disagree. If someone buys a new car and keeps it for 8 or more years, it’s not that bad a deal. You know exactly who the previous owner was, and you know the maintenance record. This is true for popular cars that retain their value well. If a new car is only 10% to 20% more and has 40,000 or so miles less, why buy the used car?
I had no problem keeping my last GM truck to over 100k miles. The problem was how much money I had to put into it to get it there. Wifes Honda Accord…cost me less then $5 beyond normal maintenance to get it past 220k miles. Her 87 Accord cost me less then $500 to get it past 300k miles. My wifes sisters Taurus…was junk less then 100k miles…and after she put THOUSANDS into it.
I know for the price of a 2~3 year old Toyota or Honda, you’re gonna be only a couple grand less than brand new, so you might as well get brand new with what you want and nothing you don’t want. A used Hyundai, Kia, or Saturn would be the better choices used, but you never know how they treated their vehicles