Gas Prices making a dent ... finally!

Have they started putting a "Best Before End" on Canadian Fords yet?

Charles of Kankakee

I have rarely seen a North American brand car (other than a handful of old GM V8's) make it to 200,000 miles with few non-routine problems, even with regular maintenance. On the other hand, I have seen lots of Toyotas and Hondas that have done so, including one friend of mine who put close to

300,000 miles on a late 80s Accord with very few problems. Another friend put 200,000 miles on a '90 Corolla GT-S, and the only major problem was the alternator (it must have been a crappy Delco!).

I buy about one new vehicle a year then pass them or sell them after two or three years, generally. Personally I prefer to drive sporty and luxury RWD V8s or AWD. I have five children, twelve grandchildren that drive whatever I pass on or buy for them, generally. I also have a half dozen cars that I bought new, over the years, that I held on to rather than passed on. As to brands, you name it I probably owned at least one of them. Currently I'm driving two 2005 V8s and a 2006 V6 AWD that I just bought a few days ago.

mike hunt

That may be your opinion but obviously the people buying all those GM vehicles do not agree with your personal opinion.

mike hunt

I don't mind helping you out but I'm not going to teach a class in a NG. Do your own homework, that's what I tell MY grandchildren ;)

mike hunt

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, buy what you wish, I do.

mike hunt

Done already. I found a wide assortment of power steering pumps for Lexus, all under $500.00. Thanks for the laugh, though.

They don't know any better.

Bingo! Too many people are easily swayed by promotions and (false/misleading) advertising.

Why would one ever think to compare the vehicles that any manufutactures built twenty years ago to the vehicles another manufactures builds today? All manufactures vehicles today are far superior in all respects to those built then, or even those built ten years ago. I sure your new Honda is a much better car than my 59 Toyapet or my first Civic. LOL

mike hunt

My friend although I have at times owned GM and Toyota vehicles I currently do not. I'm as simply pointing out that the glee with which some of you are forecasting the demise of GM, and the domestic manufactures, is a bit juvenile and asinine at best. GM is still number one, no matter how you might like that or not. The facts are more buyers prefer their vehicles to all others including the other domestic and ALL of the imports. GM will be here for a long time to come, as will Ford.

mike hunt

Nattie have I ever started a thread? ;)

mike hunt

Gee I'm sorry you had problems with your Ford trucks but I see a lot of Toyota trucks on Ford dealers use car lots. Others must have problems with Toyota trucks as well. Especially when you consider the Ford F Series is still the number one selling truck line and the F150 is still the number one selling vehicle in the world, car or truck, and has been for twenty eight years. The F150 is such a good truck that Ford sells more of them alone, in one month, then Toyota sell trucks in a whole year. Apparently, unlike your personal experience, more buyers like the buff mags think Fords trucks are better, more dependable, longer lasting trucks, than any other and keep buying more of them every year. ;)

mike hunt

Domestic cooperators? What is that?

If GM went bust? Toyota wouldn't miss a beat. It would help them.

GM is junk. Don't they still use push rod engines or something? My Toyota is 10 years and 155K miles on it. Runs like new. GM cars at half that are wheezing and coughing. Sound like a bucket of bolts. Spewing oil smoke all over the place. They are a joke.

GM's bonds aren't unrated. They're rated below BB or whatever the cutoff is. They're rating is known informally as "junk", or "below investment grade". As in "not for widows and orphans" as you may not get your money back.

200K is that all? I saw thousands of vehicles over many years in fleet service with twice that and still going strong, I have a 71 vehicle with nearly 300K on the clock that looks and runs like new ;)

mike hunt

Toyota actually has healthy profits right now, while GM is treading water to save its life. Toyota stock market cap is 150 billion, GM's is what 20 billion?

GM revenues 190B vs. Toyota's 165B.

Toyota actually MADE 10B in profit last year. They made 1/2 of GM's market cap.

You said you bought GM in 1964 and it has "quadrupled"? Maybe it has, but it has gone down 50% since 1990. The stock market since 1964 has gone up about 12-15 fold.

Junk or rebuilt or for a V6? LOL

I wouldn't go that far... The changes in the last ten years heave been pretty subtle, really... Can you give a specific example of the improvements? What I mostly see is increased features of varying desirability (think multi-airbags, nav systems), along with more weight and bigger engines to propel them.