OT Does anyone ever feel "guilty" about not buying an "American car"?

Nope, never have. Had one - a '72 Plymouth Duster till '76, but then a Datsun, & since '84 have had all Toyotas. The writing was on the wall for years & US automakers paid no attention. In '76 I didn't have any desire to sink my hard-earned $ into a product that wasn't reliable, wasn't finished off as nicely as the imports, was overly large for what I needed, & didn't get good gas mileage. Still don't.

Cathy

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Why not buy an American car? They are great cars, just as good as all the other cars made today. With the exception of the Korean cars, they can be driven home for a lot less money than many of the others on the market.

If you want to determine if the car is made in the US look for a '1' as the first number of the VIN. A '2' is made in Canada and '3' is made in Mexico a '4' is assemble in the US but with a US content of between 40% and 70%. A '5' is assembled in the us as well but of less than 40% US content

mike hunt

Not necessarily so, the Ford Fusion, in a recently survey, out scored both the Camry and the Accord among new vehicle owners. Buick and Mercury out scored Toyota and Honda in J D Powers survey of owners of three year old vehicles. The Ford, Buick and the Mercury cars cost less to drive home than those of Toyota and Honda to boot. ;)

mike hunt

Why not buy an American car? Let's see... how about most quality for the least money spent? Yeah, that works. Sounds good to me, at any rate.

Take a quick glance at the Consumer Reports autos ratings pages - look for the red dots & the black ones. I'll take the red dots any day. (Got a red dot car in the driveway. Gee, could it be a... Toyota!? ;-} )

Cathy

With the exception of the Korean cars, they can be

One of my old domestic cars has over 300K on the clock and the tranny has never been apart. ;)

mike hunt

Do you expect anybody in this NG, but a Toyota fanatic, to believe that there are no six or eight years old Jap cars around which do not have peeling phony chrome, rust, worn or sagging upholstery and many other flaws which reflect the quality of the original manufacturer? If you do you live in a dream world LOL

mike hunt

My 92 Corolla Wagon looks brand new....

Original paint.

Original upholstery in excellent shape.

Original carpet....ditto. I gave you a chance to see it and thanks to a bar taking the day off you missed it...LOL

Except for the first one - a '72 Plymouth Duster which I had for only 4 years, I've I kept my cars (a Datsun/Nissan & then all Toyotas) a minimum of

6 years. I live in the NE, so every car eventually rusts becuase of our winters. But none of the other failures/flaws have occurred. BTW - the 4 year old Plymouth was the one that rusted the most, & it's the only one whose seat upholstery split. It had a great engine, but that was about it...

If you're so pro American cars, what are you doing posting in a Toyota ng? (Trolling being the most obvious answer.)

Cathy

Only to the extend that it buys US goods and services but not with all of the imported parts they use or with its the lower wages and fewer benefits for those they employ and certainly not with the millions of dollars they take out of the US, corporate tax free, every year. American car manufactures pay better wages and offer better benefits and pensions and American corporations pay millions in federal corporate income taxes.

The Japanese consumers are smarter when it comes to supporting their own economy. They do not buy imports unless there is no similar Japanese product to buy

mike hunt

Yes and no. They have this interesting habit of snapping up items that are american manufacturing classics, even examples that are of much lower quality than the well-engineered copies/replacements being made by japanese industry. But perhaps that's limited to disposable income-collecting rather than for practical day-to-day needs.

Wow! I couldn't have said it better myself! Are you married?! ;)

Actually, the only American car I had until now was a '76 Dodge Aspen. Need I tell you about those?!?!

I have a Chrysler LHS someone gave me, and in all honesty, it is a great car! I really like it. They have come a LONG way since the 70's. I have also had 3 Chrysler minivans, and I actually rate them pretty highly, as long as you get one that the transmission was properly maintained on! (Biggest failure? Putting in Dexron/Mercon when it REALLY needs ATF +3 or +4!!!)

Ahh... you made my day. :-)

My sister has a Dodge minivan - she likes it okay, except its transmission died fairly early. I like its upholstery. ;-) OTOH, the car before the minivan (

Time to adjust the medication Mike........

When I was young, my folks had a '77 Aspen station wagon (I think his had the Slant-6). My father keeps reminding me what a piece of crap it was.

I think that may have been only part of the problem. I know a few Crapsler minivan owners who put the right fluid in and the tranny still failed. Also, depending on the year, the 3-speed automatic was not prone to failure like the 4-speed was.

Can you give us some examples that you believe are of much lower quality than the well-engineered copies/replacements being made by Japanese industry?

Actually the 71 Dodge/Plymouth were the last decent Chrysler years until the

90's.

Even in '71 I think they were just re-using stuff from the late '60s. The real problem is that they got rid of most of their research department in the early to mid '60s. They had this idea that they didn't need new technology. Cars were as good as they would ever get and you might as well put all your money into styling because that's what sold cars.

Remember Ricardo Montalban and the "rich Corinthian leather?" Just slap a landau roof and some leather seats on a car and people will line up to buy it, even if the rest of the car is so outdated the Flintstones would pass on it.

Well, I'm here to tell you that Chrysler found out they were wrong. :-) It then took them decades to build their research dept back and start catching up with the other car makers.

LOL! But answer the question! ;)

I had a 1992 Caravan I bought with my second wife to haul the kids and the dog around, and after driving Toyotas all my life I was surprised at how well laid out it was and how much it rememnded me of a JAPANESE car in it's interior design!

Then a couple years ago I was given a Plymouth Grand Voyager, and drove it for a while. It was a beater, but the people I originally got it from took good care of it (I was working for a used car dealer, took it in trade, sold it, that customer put 70,000 on it and gave it to me!) The transmission started slipping; it was a $15 cover! I ran it for about

6,000 miles; the guy who gave it to me wanted me to SELL it back to him! He had also given me a 1983 Tercel AWD Wagon and my LHS! I called him back and said Come get it. Then he hooked me up with an AWD version for $200, I ran that for 6,000 miles (I use them sparingly; generally only for winter and moving the Band stuff around...) and am now going to trade it for a Scion. I'm going to miss it, but this one is a beater also. There is a guy in the next town over that has a '94 AWD Grand V'ger; I think I'll offer him some cash and my LHS. We aren't playing that much anymore, but I LIKE them a LOT!! My AWD has absolutely NO Tranny problems AT ALL!!!

It does have the early 3.3L Head problem, and sounds like it's going to blow at any minute, but it just keeps chugging along. If the windshield hadn't broken I probably would fix it...

But you see, I know the value of mystery. ;-)

Cathy