Would you buy an American car?

If it satisfies my needs, then certainly. Chavs are good, and they're American. :-)

By the way, how did you make a thread without initial post?

 

Not unless it was made in Japan

 

My parents have always been loyalists, and have always had American cars. They have always sucked. Transmission rebuilds after 32k miles? Electrical problems that no one can solve?

My girlfriend and I both have Hondas. I have an S2000, which is a little two-seat roadster. You'd think it would be likely to have a higher failure rate, seeing as it's designed for performance and speed and what not. However, 100k miles later, I've done nothing but change fluids and brakes (twice) and tires (four times!). The engine and drivetrain are top-notch. The body is getting slowly beaten up by rocks and road debris, but it feels like the mechanicals will outlast the body. My girlfriend's Civic has likewise been virtually maintenance-free.

At this point in my life -- with the current trend of globalization meaning that "buying American" no longer means keeping the money in America -- I see absolutely no reason not to buy the best product on the market. The best cars on the market almost inarguably come from Japan.

- Warren

 

I own two American cars: a Ford Explorer and a '91 Jeep Cherokee. The only problem I've had on the Ford was an ABS sensor. The Jeep takes some maintenance, but it has at least 150,000 miles on it (the odometer doesn't work). At least the Jeep is easy to work on myself.

In fact, I've only owned one foreign car: a Fiat 128 hatchback (the little rolling boxes). What a piece of junk. Of course, part of that is because I bought it used and the previous owner did his own electrical work. The radio didn't work. I installed my own 8-track, instead, so it was quite a while before I got around to looking at the wiring for the radio. The previous owner had wired the radio directly to the battery cable, which blew the 2.5 Amp fuse. Figuring maybe he misread it, he replaced the 2.5 Amp fuse with a 25 Amp fuse, which he blew. Wrapping the entire fuse in tin foil must have done the trick; but maybe not. The wire to the radio had eventually been disconnected and was sitting loose behind the dash. Hence dead batteries for no apparent reason and numerous other electrical failures whenever the wire wound up resting against something grounded.

Actually it was fun little car to drive and probably would have wound up being a good car if I hadn't burnt up the clutch. With the battery constantly dead, I often had to pop the clutch to start it, plus the brakes didn't work very well, so I usually had to downshift to bring the car to a stop in time (there finally came a time where the combination of the brake pedal to the floor, downshifting, and the emergency brake just wasn't adequate anymore and I wound up coming to a stop with an outboard motor from the boat trailer in front of me about six inches from the front windshield - I figured that was time to finally replace the brake pads). And, of course, with new brakes and a new clutch, I finally blew the engine.

 

My parents have had nothing but American cars and trucks and never had problems with them. They don't have anything against foreign vehicles we just don't have any dealers in the area that sell them. I know quite a few people who have American made trucks with over 500 000 km's on them and they are still going strong.....one guy's chevy silverado just turned one million klicks and somehow it's still going. There are lemons in every bunch american made or foreign made, doesnt mean they dont make good vehicles. Someone I know just traded his old ford truck in for a Toyota and the thing has been in and out of the shop since he bought it, Toyota makes good trucks but every manufacturer will kick out a lemon once in a while.

 

Probably not.

 

I have had and do have both. I have a Chevy Blazer and a Honda Accord. We used to have a Honda Civic. I must say that I have not had that many issues with American cars that were serious show stoppers. The knocks I have had on them were very specific, such as interior components that did not fit right and squeek and rattle issues out the wazoo. My American cars required basic maintenance like fluids, rotations, brakes, etc...nothing major.

That being said, the Civic and the Accord opened my eyes as to what I was missing. Even though they are hardly considered sporty or even noteworthy, I am very impressed by them. The Civic, at 150k miles drove as well as it did when it was new. It's interior had no squuks or problems even after many cold-hot yearly cycles. From an engineering standpoint, I am very very impressed.

I will also say that a lot of people that I know that have had really serious problems with a vehicle, broke the cardinal rule...never buy a first or second production year vehicle. I have seen what happens in assembly plants and there are tons of things that get pushed through to get the car out in time. 'We'll fix it at the dealer' is a battle cry of new launch vehicles.

Will I buy American again? Yes. However, you have to do your homework before you buy.

 

PF crashed when I was making this thread so I'll need to repost the initial

Ford, Dodge, and GM are offering 0% interest rates on 6 year lease plans. On the other side of things you have Honda and Toyota keeping their interest rates at 5.9% for Honda and 3.9% for Toyota. Ford, Dodge, and GM are giving all sorts of discounts such as family pricing and cash allowances. Honda and Toyota give absolutely no slack on price. Ford, Dodge, and GM have a low base cost for their cars, so you can get something like a Ford Focus for around $7,000 less than a Honda Civic with similar features (power locks, power windows, AC, cruise, etc), which means the Focus is around 30% cheaper to drive off the lot if you pay cash.

Despite all of these things, Honda and Toyota absolutely dominate the market of new cars. I can't say the same for used cars because people simply do not sell Honda or Toyota vehicles; a Honda Civic with 90,000 km on the odometer is only worth about $2000 less than a brand new Civic. If you buy something like a Ford Focus, it is worth $2000 less the second you drive it off the lot, and you'll have a hard time selling it.

Ford and GM have had their bond ratings cut to "junk status" meaning it's a high risk to invest in them. While companies like GM continually lose market share and layoff thousands of people, companies like Toyota are building new factories in Canada and the US.


It really seems like people no longer want American cars. Where do you stand?

 

I don't think that people don't necessarily think that they never want to buy American again. I think most will. However, the recent developments are exactly what the American companys need as a kick in the ass to get rid of the old mentality they have had for doing business. They are realizing (painfully slowly) that they don't have a captive audience any longer.

 

I'm happy with my Ford Focus. If I didn't live around mountains, I'd keep it until it died, and then get another of the same thing. Very dent resistant, runs well (I haven't had any problems at all with it), gets good gas mileage, and was the best price for that size and class of car when I bought it. I did a lot of comparison shopping at the time, and it came out the best for what I needed. However, I need to upgrade to something with all wheel drive or 4 WD (hopefully I'll have time to go car shopping before the bad weather hits again...I'm not in a hurry, just want to get it before winter hits hard), and there isn't anything the American manufacturers offer that suits what I'm looking for this time around. They also have a big gap in the mid-size car range...it seems you can get a decent compact car, or a decent monster SUV, but if you just want something in between, forget it.

But, even though all my cars have been from the same manufacturer, most of that has been happenstance and that they just had what I wanted when I wanted it. I've comparison shopped with other manufacturers, and will continue to do so each time I'm looking for something different. If price wasn't a factor on my last purchase, I'd have chosen another manufacturer. And, by contrast, while I've had good experiences with Ford, I would never, ever, ever buy a Chevy. I just cannot stand the way they feel when I've driven any of them. They all feel so soft and squishy and unresponsive.

 

I have a couple Dodge vans 300k and 150k.
Err, its now a German Company.
So far the 150k one has been brakes and an EGR valve, with a couple misc items while under warentee.

I've had foreign cars.
My big gripe with them is the cost of repair parts.
For example, once I had to replace the exact same part for a foreign ($70.00) and american car($1.50). The parts were close enough in design that I tried to use the american part, but the screw holes didn't quite line up.

 

Being European perhaps my perspective is skewed slightly but I wouldn't buy american. In europe they do have quite the reputation for being expensive and prone to break downs.

I did hear recently that GM and ford and other american car companies were really struggling to stay afloat so I presume all these deals they're offering are just a gimmick to try and get people to be loyal to them again in light of flagging sales.

 

I have no brand or country of origin loyalty here. I've owned American and Japanese cars. I live in the USA, and don't like German cars because of the expensive parts and maintainance. Regarding motorcycles, I would never own a Harley. In the distance past, I owned a English made Norton 850 Commando, but now I ride a Japanese Suzuki Hayabusa.

My wife drives an Infinity SUV, and I just got a 2006 Z06 Corvette, just because I've always wanted a 500+hp super car, and the Vette is the cheapest supercar around. I'm not too worried about maintainance, as I also got a 7 year, 0 deductibe warranty. In the past I've owned a Caterham SV, a Pontiac Trans-Am, a Ford Mustang, a Toyota Corolla, a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, ... (I'm 54 years old in case you're wondering). Typically I buy a new car once every 7 to 10 years (except the Caterham was only 3 years old when I sold it, since the only guy that could work on it's custom engine was now in San Francico, so I sold it to someone there).

 

I don't know if that's the reason behind them. I think they messed up on their marketing strategies. Several years ago, when loan interest rates were up ridiculously high, people weren't buying ANY new cars...not just American, but were just plain avoiding car loans if they couldn't purchase outright. So, they started these promotions of 0% interest, or really low, like 0.2% interest to entice buyers back. It wasn't just the American manufacturers who did that. But, the American manufacturers kept it up a few more years as a promotion to get the leftover cars off the lot before the new model year came in (usually they arrive in August or September). They've now done it long enough that people won't buy a car any other time of year because they're waiting for the promotional deals with low or no interest loans. Even if you can afford to pay cash, why not sign up for a 0%, same as cash, loan and spread the payments out a bit while you earn interest on your money instead of paying interest on it?

 

Holy crap, my Grand Prix (pontiac is american right? or am i not a guy) has like a ghost inside its electrical system. I think we've sent it into 3 people and the same problems keep coming up (and with the last "fix", i lost the ability to use cruise control ). What a bastard! But no 34k mile transmission problems at least...

I gotta hand it to my dad though... i always made fun of his little Ford Ranger.... but I think that thing went like 120,000 miles without as much as a headlight going out.... or at least not requiring new transmissions or major things like that. Then it was smashed by a weed smoking kid. Bye bye truck.