Japanese cars are the best

So people should buy vehicles based Consumer Reports? Maybe they can tell you what to eat next...

Reading further than the above is pretty pointless as Consumer Reports' credibility in the automotive arena is highly questionable at best. (I don't think I've ever owned a car that they particularly liked.)

and we should believe everything we read? jp ps pretty soon all that will be left will be foreign but we'll have fast food jobs(no offense meant)

If you've never owned a car that they liked, then how would you know?

I have found their reliability ratings to be dead on with every car I have owned in the past 20 years, both good and bad.

Seriously, unless GM, Ford and Chrysler rise to the occasion, their condition will continue to deteriorate. And the workers stand to lose good jobs because of issues and attitudes largely beyond their control.

I find GM's attitude particularly offensive.

Whether the quality is THAT far different from the Asian producers, I cannot say. It is the perception that it is true that makes the Camry the best selling sedan in the USA, I think.

I have a 2004 Honda Accord Coupe with 59,000 miles. It has NOT been to the dealership, repairshop, etc for anything. Maybe because I do all of my own preventative maintenance, the dealership can't sabotage me!

This car has been as reliable as a brick.

bob z.

Depends what you mean by "dead-on." They gave Cressidas like one I owned high marks - mine was an unreliable piece of crap not fit to haul pigs. They gave the 1986 Sable I owned a good review but the little circles they like to show indicated it was unreliable. I only drove mine 140k miles and sold it to a friend who drove it almost another 100k before stuffing it into a tree - I suppose that makes it unreliable. They give the Nissan Frontier I bought last year a check mark, but it has been back to the dealer more times already than the last 3 Fords I owned combined. They don't recommend a Ford Mustang, but my son's has been perfect - no problems at all. They gush all over the 2007 RAV4, but I find my SO's new 2007 RAV4 to be merely OK - certainly nothing special - noisy at highway speed, mediocre gas mileage, strangely arranged controls, uncomfortable seats, but at least after 5 months it has been reliable (no better than my Son's Mustang though, despite costing $6k more).

For non-car items, I find CR's recommendations to be almost 180 degrees opposite from my experiences. In his latter years, my Father put a great deal of faith in the CR recommendations. I can't think of one appliance he bought based on their recommendations that worked out well.

Still I am a subscriber. I like to read other people's opinions, even if I don't find them credible all the time. But I never forget, CR is only printing their opinions. And the often touted auto survey is still just a poorly organized opinion survey. It is sort of like the Republicans surveying just Republicans and claiming that GWB's approval rating is rising.....

Ed

And for some reason you think this is unusual? My parents have owned nothing but Fords for the last 50 years. They haven't taken one back to the dealer for a repair since 1980. In fact I can't remember one needing any sort of repair since 2000. The last repair I can recall was the power seat base on my Mother's 1992 Grand Marquis, and that was when the car was 7 years old after my Mom jammed an umbrella in the seat track.

Ed

My last Ford was in 1968. It was a piece of shit. I tried to buy a Thunderbird in 1990 (based on looks and presumption of quality, ride,etc) but after test driving a half dozen of them, came to the conclusion they were all pieces of shit.

No more Fords for me, in the foreseeable future.

I have had worse luck with GM than with Fords, but at least they sit and drive nicely, between failures.

Not in MY garage!

So? My wife's American car could make the same claim when it had 150,000 miles.

=> Maybe because I do

Never a bad thing.

At 59k miles, its not even broken in yet. The car I mentioned above currently has 247,000 miles on it. It's now had a few repairs, but nothing huge. Call me back in 10 years and tell me how that Honda is doing.

You ought to try a Fusion and/or a 500. I was pleasantly surprised.

I looked at the 500, by the way, but havent driven it. It is supposed to be Volvo's influence, (which might be better for Ford than Ford's influence has been on Volvo.) But it is externally attractive. It is assembled in Chicago, but the components appear to include Aisin tranny (in some models), and Volvo bits, as well as some Ford influence.

I havent paid much attention to the Fusion, but believe that is a cooperative effort with Mazda. It is said to be based loosely on the Mazda 6. The Fusion is built in Mexico, I think.

No, I do not find it unusual. I find your comments unusual. A Ford that lasts more than 2 minutes is VERY unusual.

bob z.

I will. You can guarantee it. While you are at it, give me your phone number, your home address and your bank debit card number! What do you consider a few repairs that are nothing huge?

Only an idiot would give me that information! Some would say only an idiot would buy an american car!

bob z.

to quote George Carlin, some people are f*cking stupid.

Buying a car based solely on reliability scores is like buying a house based on square footage alone.

I bought a Trans Am because I WANTED one. I bought a Subaru wagon because I needed a family car with 4wd.

Cost to buy, Cost to repair, Cost to insure are all parts of the car ownership experience. So's utility and "grins-per-mile."

And, fwiw, I'm stuck with the wife's old car as a winter beater until it dies. It's a 90 Beretta with 150k miles, and the damn thing just won't die. (I used to wish it would, now I'm hoping to make 200k miles on it.)

I do wonder, who around here has the oldest/highest mileage vehicle that they're still using as a semi-regular daily driver? I have a 90 Beretta with 150k. A friend of mine has an 88 Bonneville - dunno the mileage, but it's their family car...

Ray

I'm sure it's not the oldest, but I currently have an '88 Porsche 944 that was my daily driver up until I got a company car. I'm not real happy with it at the moment (it's in the shop for an ignition issue) but it was dead nuts reliable up until very recently. It's got a shade over 130K on it, assuming that the odo can be trusted.

The Porsche replaced an '84 VW Scirocco that I'm still trying to figure out why I sold. I bought it with 180K on the clock, racked up another 60K or so, and the only major repair done to it was replacing the transmission at about 200K because a bearing had worn enough that one of the output flanges wouldn't seal anymore. (that was a couple hours worth of work, and a junkyard tranny from a Jetta was cheap. I probably spent as much on the new clutch kit that I threw in "while you're in there" than the trans itself.) I sold it to a friend for $600 simply because I had too many cars at the time and have been kicking myself ever since.

nate

Lets see... My current daily driver (with 4 wheels) is a 1986 Volvo 740 Turbo Wagon that I recently purchased because my Astro van is down for repairs at

My playing vehicle is a 1977 Jeep CJ-7 with ~320,000 miles on it. The only original parts are the front axle and the transfer case though. I have no idea how many miles on the current motor, but I have personally added about 160,000 to it.

My wifes car is a 1997 Subaru Wagon that currently has 181,000 miles on it and is still going strong.

My truck is a 1988 Ford F-250 with the 7.3 Litre Diesel. Approximate mileage on this one is 325,000.

There are more, but I don't drive them very often. Then there are the motorcycles...

Somewhat off-topic question: Are any high-quality products made in the USA?

The "american" computers are actually made in the far east. The american cell phones are horrible. (This problem is due in part to the lack of cell phone standards.) The american rocket launchers are less reliable than russian rocket launchers...

Americans surely make the best computer CPUs, the best nuclear bombs, the best movies and music. Not much to brag about...