The thing is, some of us do not like to shop, compare products, etc. etc. I hate buying decisions. So if I have come to rely on Milwaukee, Porter Cable, DeWalt tools, I would like to expect that I don’t have to search 20 brands to figure out what I want. Same thing with cars. What a waste of time and effort having to research every single major purchase. But I agree, the brands have let us down so we can’t really depend on them as we once did. (Or is it the influence of the investment groups who have bought a lot of these companies?) They have turned companies into profit driven rather than product driven. Suck 'em dry, then sell off what’s left, and on to the next opportunity.
Well, I like the car shopping part, so that’s my problem! Car BUYING, not so much. And keeping cars 10+ years gives me plenty of time to compare.
Curious what year(s) were the domestic models? If you’re comparing 70’s and 80’s domestics to 90’s and 2000’s foreign cars, it’s not a fair comparison. I’m not saying you’re doing that, but it seems possible assuming you haven’t bought any domestic vehicles in a long time. I absolutely believe the domestic manufacturers were lagging vs. the Asian manufacturers for a period. The domestics put out some fairly reliable stuff in the 90’s and early 2000’s, possibly narrowing the gap. The current models, it’s anyones guess. But I don’t blame you for guessing with the manufacturers who treated you well in the past. Only makes sense to do so.
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Wow, you have quite the network! “everyone my age”!
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To be sure, I have no problem with somebody avoiding a brand that did them wrong. None of my cars have done that, even the '83 VW GTI had none of the reliability issues that affect VWs, that era in particular.
I make my purchases based on my needs and not on the brand name. I was satisfied with both Ford minivans I once owned, but Ford quit making minivans. I then bought a Chevrolet Uplander, but when I was ready for my next minivan, GM had gone out of the minivan business. I am on my second Toyota Sienna since selling the Uplander to our son and later selling the first Sienna to our son
My experience with our first Toyota product for the first month of ownership was not pleasant. We bought a new 2003 4Runner. I almost made the dealer buy it back under the lemon law. On the 5th trip back to the dealer, I told the owner that if it wasn’t repaired correctly, I wanted my money back and he could dump the 4Runner on someone else. Fortunately, for him and me, the problem was solved and we have had no problems since that time and we still own the 4Runner. Now the original problem was simple–the serpentine belt chirped. I took it back, the serpentine belt was replaced and two days later, the new belt chirped. The minivan went back to the dealer. The serpentine belt was replaced again. Two days later, not only did the serpentine belt start chirping, but the 4Runner was leaking oil. I went back to the dealer. It was determined that the belt had not been installed correctly and pulled out the crankshaft oil seal. The oil seal was replaced. Three days later the serpentine belt began chirping again. It was at this point that I issued an ultimatum: fix the problem or buy the 4Runner back, and give me a loaner car to drive. The problem was traced to a weak spring in the belt tensioner.
Now, was this 4Runner a lemon? One simple belt tensioner spring caused me a lot of time and grief. Now the dealer should have figured the problem out after the second belt. Any vehicle can have a defective part. However, I didn’t have problems like this with the 2000 Ford Windstar or the Chevrolet Uplander.
I am not saying Toyota products are any worse or any better than GM or Ford products. I didn’t condemn Toyota based on my first month of owning the 4Runner. In fact, I have purchased two Sienna minivans since the purchase of the the 4Runner.
We buy what best fits our needs. I don’t care about what name plate is on the car I drive, on the appliances in our kitchen, or our laundry equipment.
A lot of people used to call cameras “Kodaks” even if they weren’t made by Kodak.
My grandmother was bad about that. She also referred to her Amana refrigerator as “the Frigidaire”, it drove me nuts.
Today it’s “Jet Skis” even if it is a Yamaha, Honda, or Polaris.
@B.L.E. A home freezer was called s deep freeze even though there was a company named Deep Freeze that made home freezers and other companies made home freezers. A vacuum cleaner was called the Hoover, even though companies besides Hoover made vacuum cleaners.
OK Got me on that one…Everyone I know my age or older.
Henry Ford was the first person to export cars to China many years ago,
The cars were called Fords of course.
When GM entered the market with a low priced Chevrolet, they were called “Chevrolet Fords”!
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Yeah, Mike has a thing about anecdote that he’s married to and won’t give up. Life in his personal bubble is representative of life everywhere, dontyaknow. 
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Brainwashed censorship to maintain the Stockholm Syndrome.
Keep lying to everyone including yourself and claim to drive your Asian cars to 200k with just oil changes.
I know the reality of the overpriced overhyped junk, and will never again settle for paying more for less.
What is even most hilarious is the brainwashed CamCord masses have never even owned a European car.
They literally have no clue about the reality and are just parroting mythology they know nothing about.
Mr. Econobox, I promise you I don’t have Stockholm Syndrome. I don’t even own a car. So as long as you’d like to stick around with us, please don’t call anybody a liar. Thanks.
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Whatever he thinks, we know one thing- he’s wrong.
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Things change over time. Many brand names of old are now just labels on cheap commodities, such as. GE and RCA TVs.
With respect to cars, of course no car can go 200,000 miles with just oil changes and tires. All cars need additional maintenance and certain repairs such as timing belts, batteries and many other items that just wear out in 200,000 miles.
I might repeat a study done in the 80s in Germany to determine which nation’s cars were the most reliable. The ADAC (German version of the AAA) and the German Consumer Association jointly did the study.
The results: two lowly Japanese econoboxes, the Toyota Tercel and the Mazda 322 we the winners with the fewest reported breakdowns.
This caused a National “angst” in Germany where citizens even turn their noses up at French and English cars, and initially there was total disbelief.
So, those cheap oriental cars were already better that German Volkswagen in the 80s.
This site for many years had diehard adherents to US vehicles regardless of quality and dismissed anything Japanese or Korean. If you have a beer in a Texas roadhouse you may still hear such opinions.
I am a long time member of the SAE and a past regional chairman. My engineering thesis was on the 1960 Chev Corvair.
What do I drive? Well, after owing US cars from 1958 till the 80s I gradually switched to Japanese vehicles and now own 2, a Mazda and a Toyota. I considered European vehicles regularly and after pricing in the initial, cost, required maintenance and the life of components I found none that had a better LIFE CYCLE COST than Japanese cars.
However, if I had to buy a full size pickup truck I would seriously consider a US model along with a Toyota and Nissan model.
I am not sure that brand name names mean as much as they did 60 years ago. There were appliance stores that specialized in a particular brand like GE or Whirlpool. These stores usually had a service department to take care of its customers. Now, stores like Lowes, Best Buys, Menards, sell multiple brands in the same store. Warranty repairs are contracted out. Multiple brands of televisions are sold at stores like Walmart and Target. The independent stores that handled RCA or Philco or Zenith are gone.
With automobiles there are multiple dealerships owned by the same person or company. For instance, there might be Joe Smith Chevrolet/Cadillac, while down the street is Joe Smith Honda and a few blocks away is Joe Smith Chrysler/Dodge/Ram/Jeep. This is known as the Joe Smith automotive group.
All this is causing brand loyalty to disappear. I really don’t care what brand name is on my refrigerator. I really had no brand preference when I bought television sets. Our main vehicle is a minivan. It happens to be a Toyota Sienna because GM and Ford no longer make minivans and I have never been able to work with the Chrysler dealer. If you’ve driven one minivan, you’ve driven them all.
Now I don’t know if this is progress or not. I used to buy appliances from an independent store that sold Whirlpool appliances because the store had an excellent service department. I bought a Chevrolet Uplander minivan because the dealer is less than a mile from my house. The Toyota dealer is a little over a mile down the road, so it is still convenient. I don’t have brand loyalty whether it’s an appliance, a television or a vehicle.
The only censorship going on is in response unto your disregard for community standards (read potty mouth).
But it could be worse, you could be spending a national holiday being petty and bitter.
You obviously need a hug.
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If they (any manufacturer) was still using timing belts in the 2005 model-year then that’s a repair in my book and caused in part by not enough research prior to purchase.
The last car I owned with a timing belt was 10 model-years older than that. I had no idea any cars still used them in 05.
I got to a point that I would purposely buy cars that did not need a timing-belt repair/replacement when others were available with a chain. My many 3.8L GM cars have never needed timing work beyond 300,000 miles.
Besides, any car I’ve owned has needed no repairs, including timing belts, in a 100,000 miles and way beyond that.
That’s part of the myth. Many people fail to realize that virtually all modern cars are that reliable. It’s not limited to mythical Asian cars.
CSA
Dumb question maybe, but why do manufacturers ever choose to use a timing belt vs a timing chain? Weight reduction? Cheaper to manufacture? Or what?
@Scrapyard_John. Maybe a timing belt set-up is quieter than s timing chain. I think back to my Dad’s 1939 Chevrolet. It had fiber timing gears. He never had a problem in the 110,000 miles he drove that car, but it was a known weakness in those stove bolt 6 engines. Some years later, he owned a 1969 Pontiac Lemans with the 350 cu in V-8. That engine had nylon timing gears. He did have to have new timing gears with that car. The new timing gears were steel. I couldn’t hear that the steel gears were any noisier than the nylon gears , but quieter operation was the reason given for nylon timing gears.
It seems to me that there was an overhead camshaft 6 cylinder Pontiac engine back in the late 1960s that used a timing belt. If so, Asian makes weren’t the only cars that used timing belts.