Producing more “Made in America” cars than get sold, for more than they can sell them for, doesn’t help either.
And the people who “Buy American” will most likely still do so if they cut the brands and models on offer in half.
Decision to buy foreign vs american is really easy…
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35 mpg vs 23
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$12,000 vs $18,500
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10yr 100,000 warranty on drivetrain + bumper to bumper vs 24 mo 32,000 mile.
For me the warranty alone is enough to do it. Why did I just dump my 2006 Colorado? Warranty was about to run out and there were sounds coming from the engine I didn’t like too much.
I love when people compare apples to oranges, because then you know they’re being idiots.
Please fill me in on what foreign car gets 35mpg and is $12k compared to a 23mpg $18k American car, so I can point out how they’re in completely different size, weight, and trim classes.
I think the point being made is that America is driving much, much bigger, more expensive and fuel-thirsty cars than they need. Which is old news to the rest of the world, but culture is sort of dominant when you’re situated in it, isn’t it?
Ah, but then he will counter with how these are much safer, because when a collision happens between a Civic and a GMC SUV, then you’d want to be in the SUV… and then the whole circular argument will be a rerun of stuff we’ve talked about before.
Of course I don’t see how the size argument adresses the point about warranty (if true, I’ve never bought a new car and am not American).
America may be driving bigger cars, on average, than the rest of the world.
But that doesn’t mean that, in the same size class (big vs big, small vs small), and with other factors held reasonably comparable, that Aszurom’s ridiculous comparison is likely to hold up.
I’m with RyanMichael - let’s see an apples-to-apples model to model comparison that leads to the ridiculous comparison Aszurom is claiming…
I know the conventional wisdom is that American cars suck, but is that still true? I’ve been looking at getting a Civic-like sometime in the future and both the Ford Focus and Chevy Cobalt seem to be in that category. I drove a rental Cobalt around for awhile and thought it was fine, but will it actually fall apart after 2 years or has the quality improved? It seems like I can get a lot more features in an American car for a lot less price right now and in the near future.
I have been very happy with a series of Fords I have owned and driven over the past several years. We had a family mini-van for years, I had a little ZX2 I commuted with and put a ton of miles on, we still have our Explorer (6 years, @ 75,000 miles, runs great and has had little service needed). Plus my folks had an Explorer they bought new and put over 150,000 on that they were sorry to get rid of. I almost got a Focus when I was needing another small, high mpg commuter but went with the Nissan Versa instead. Not for anything other than a slightly lower bottom line price. (I kind of regret it now; maybe the collapse is all my fault?) Purely anecdotal but
I am certainly a Ford believer of late.
I think it depends a lot on the company and model. Companies like Toyota and Honda have an overall better record for reliability than American car makers, and some American makers are pretty bad across the board (Chrysler, for instance, which can’t seem to make a reliable car to save its life). But there are plenty of American cars that are reliable.
I’ve had pretty good luck with Ford. Our Mustang has been incredibly reliable–13 years old, and we’ve had a grand total of one mechanical problem, ever. Not counting regular maintenance, of course, but even that has been above average (the first set of brakes lasted 100,000 miles!). Our Escort was less impressive–it basically started to rust out and fall apart after 10 years (the Mustang has zero rust).
Is this true? Last time I was in China (about 5 years ago?) Volkswagen dominated. I’d say roughly 19 out of every 20 cars was a Volkswagen Santana in Beijing, Shanghai and Qingdao where I went. You would see an occasional BMW, Honda or Toyota among the status-conscious, but VW owned China, and American cars were nowhere to be seen.
It might be too early to tell but, my GM car has 22k miles and I’ve had no problems yet. Hopefully I haven’t just jinxed myself and my car melts on the way home tonight.
My last Pontiac started to have things break at 20k so I’d say you’re ahead of the curve!
Fords have always been good to me; my current Focus is over four years old and going strong. Everything I’ve heard about the new Chevy platforms like the Malibu has been good. I think there are many reasons to buy whatever car you choose–styling, performance, suitability, price–and not all cars are right for all people, but I don’t think a potential buyer would be well served to rule out American cars a priori. They are quite competitive in general.
That being said, in some niches, like small, manual transmition econoboxes, I still think imports are the way to go by and large, but move up to a car in the Fusion/Malibu/Camry/Accord class and the competition is wide open.
My last non-rental experience with an American car was my dad’s Pontiac Vibe and it was terrible. He had it on a 3 year lease and after about 2 years it was rattling all over, engine making odd noises, etc.
The Vibe is basically a Toyota Matrix.
Yep, other than the sheetmetal and dashboard. Made in the same plant even.
That article says “nearly 1 in 7” cars sold in China being Buicks.
I’d venture a guess then that the other 6 are all VW, and the rest of the bunch account for the “nearly.”
The good news is: I’ll be in Shanghai in a couple of weeks. I’ll report back what I see. :)
Guess he just got a crappy one then.
I was in Shanghai a couple of weeks ago during the F1 race and China Auto Show. VW after VW. Nearly all of the taxis were VW, though a model I’ve never seen anywhere else. I did see a few Buicks, Fords, Mercedes and BMWs, but VW seemed to dominate.