The truck is good for one reason. Look at the exact model that I posted. It's an awesome off-road machine. It's not a family car or commuter car or anything other than an incredible weekend trasher machine :)
Reliability isn't a big issue to this crowd - they want functionality to be the primary concern.
And you can still get it in a couple of models, which I listed. :)
My inlaws just bought a new 05 Camry. Here is a message I got from them yesterday (anyone else know of any steering related issues):
I was driving down Century, went to turn a corner... heard a noise and then the steering froze. I made it over to C's parking lot and called Mike. By the time he got there (like 10 minutes) the front end of the car was sitting in a pool of power steering fluid. Called the dealer, they towed it in...no word on it yet. Mike looked under the hood...the belts are all dislodged on the power steering and one of the pulleys broke off and was laying on the under frame of the car. Not drivable for sure.
Then we follow the tow out to the dealership and the assistant service manager trys to stick me with a DODGE NEON loaner car! I had a fit! Mike had to go get the salesman that sold us the Camry and have him intervene. I finally settled for a Corolla only to get home. The salesman personally drove a rental Camry out to me this afternoon and picked up the Corolla. I am very upset about this Dan......the Camry is only six months old and has less than 5000 miles on it. This assistant service manager is a jerk. The Enterprise rental agent told us after this confrontation was over that what they do is give the owner the cheap ass rental and then stick Toyota with a Camry rental charge. Well he did not get away with it this time. So who knows how long my car is going to be at the dealership. Have you heard anything about 2005 Camry's having problems with their steering?
It is not the gas mileage but technology itself in which the Koreans are miles behind the Japanese manufacturers. Additionally, the same problem is with GM and Ford. GM and Ford are plagued with bad management, poor marketing and lack of R&D and as a result losing out to the foreign competitors.
The Koreans are desperately trying to capture the market share by there cost structure alone. It will survive in the long run only if they can hold up in quality. Toyota and Honda still rule in these aspects regardless of small number individual experiences otherwise.
I had to buy a small car recently for my work commute and before I bought a 2005 Corolla, I drove an Elantra. I did not like the Elantra at all. And what is more, in that segment, Corollas are very well equipped now-a-days with good options and a decent handling. I am very happy with the decision made.
BTW, I used to drive Fords for many years before starting to drive Japanese cars recently and I think I waited too long.
In addition to the wrong engine, you're way too far back in time. The rest of us are discussing the Duratec V6 (a Ford Engine) not the Yamaha based V6 used ONLY in the SHO Taurus - which you probably haven't ever driven. Get with the program.
The Koreans today are doing what the Japs did when they entered the US market, copy the engineering advances of other and then built them over seas for less. Worked for the Japs and it is working for the Koreans. The Hyundai was rated the number one entry level car by CR, the bible of Jap car buyers.
Perhaps you should have driven and gotten a drive home price of one of the newer Fords, like the Focus, before you made your buying decision. The Focus is highly rated by all the buff mags, has a better warranty and can be driven home, similarly equipped, for a lot less than the Corolla. ;)
The only thing Yamaha designed and built for Ford were the four came heads, not the engine. One would expect the V8 SHO to out run a Mustang GT, it cost $5,000 more. The truth is it barely out ran the blown 2.3L 4 cy Mustang SVO and did not handle nearly as well because it was FWD. The best SHO was the blown V6 but it too was out performed by the RWD Supercoupe
(Edmunds.com - all manual transmission models) Chevrolet Aveo(Daewoo Kalos)
11.9 Gallon tank EPA Mileage Estimates: 26 mpg / 34 mpg; Range in Miles: 286 mi. / 374 mi.
1.6L 108hp
2364 lbs
Hyundai Accent
11.9 Gallon tank EPA Mileage Estimates: 29 mpg / 33 mpg; Range in Miles: 345.1 mi. / 392.7 mi.
1.6L 104HP
2280 lbs
Toyota Echo
11.9 Gallon tank EPA Mileage Estimates: 35 mpg / 42 mpg; Range in Miles: 416.5 mi. / 499.8 mi.
1.5L 108HP
2105 lbs
Chevy Cavalier
14 Gallon tank EPA Mileage Estimates: 26 mpg / 36 mpg; Range in Miles: 364 mi. / 504 mi.
2.2L 140HP
2676 lbs
Note that the GM 2.2L 140HP engine does the same with fuel as the Aveo and is 300lbs heavier to boot. The Echo whomps on them all - same HP and better city mileage than the Korean copy gets for highway. The Hyundai is even worse. Kia is simmilar.
Speaking of Kia - let's go with big sedans since they often get better hp/weight efficiencies with their larger engines and tall gearing automatics:
Buick LaCrosse(not a Toyota, but a plain old U.S. sedan)
17 Gallon tank EPA Mileage Estimates: 19 mpg / 27 mpg; Range in Miles: 323 mi. / 459 mi.
3.6L V6 240HP
3568 lbs
Hyundai GX530
18.5 gallon tank. EPA Mileage Estimates: 18 mpg / 26 mpg; Range in Miles: 333 mi. / 481 mi.
3.5L V6 194HP
3651 lbs (the Kia version is much worse, so I left it out)
Or this: Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
17 Gallon tank EPA Mileage Estimates: 19 mpg / 28 mpg; Range in Miles: 323 mi. / 476 mi.
3.8 V6 260HP(!)
3583 lbs
25K in my pocket - kind of a no-brainer between the GX530 and the GTP. 1-2mpg better mileage and 66 more HP at the same time.
Pontiac: Total with Options $30,025 $27,465 $28,155 Incentives & Rebates -$3,500 Customer Cash Adjusted True Market Value $24,655 (this includes $2k or so in normal options)
Total with Options $27,390 $25,118 $25,713 Incentives & Rebates -$3,500 Customer Cash Adjusted True Market Value $22,213 (basic no options model)
Actually, it is a Ford of Europe design, though the US version is somewhat decontented (and remains on the old platform while the Europeans get to buy a Focus using a new generation of the platform, which is shared by the Mazda 3 and Volvo S40/V50). The new engines (Duratec 20, 20E, and 23) are derived from a design from Ford's Mazda subsidiary.
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