Uhh....come again? :_paranoid

No doubt that now quality with the Japanese brands is closing. But the big 3 or is it the big 2 now, have lost a whole generation to foreign cars. Many people have grown up with a honda station wagon and not an Olds Vista Cruiser like some on this board.

And as far as how those late 80' early 90's cars reliability were I agree. Many times I see these domestic cars with alot of miles on the clock. But lets step back for a moment and take a look at how cars "feel".

There is a way controls move along with the steering and the way the car feels rolling down the road. All this can inspire confidence. I been in some late model domestic cars that feel less tight than the old 1998 Nissan Maxima I used to drive around.

And some talk about reliability. When they just have to change injectors,a couple water pumps,computer etc on domestic iron . On that Nissan, other than two sets of CV shafts and a starter at 274,000 THOUSAND MILES. I did not need a damn thing up until I got hit by a drunk driver at 323,000 THOUSAND MILES! That is true reliabilty in my book.

And in closing the real big frickin elephant in the room is dealer service departments. I know the manufacturers can't control them. But God in Heaven! Even if I had a domestic ride that was desirable and some are. The absolute crap you get from "Stealerships" would dissuade me from even going in there. Okay, Rant button off.

Why does i have to come to this ?!?! Ford can do what they want; but they had to see this coming. If Bill Ford wants to assert a political viewpoint, he shouldn't do it with shareholders' money. It's business suicide to take political stances!

I'm not here to bash the unions but the contracts they came up with, wages, inability to get rid of dead weight/workers who don't produce, pay beyond the job, health care, retirements, overly high salaries to top execs. In my opinion has all led to the problems the American automakers woes. When a company's running in the red and your top execs clear way over a million dollars somethings wrong. I think your pay should be based on your job performance on salary employees. Look at what Lee Iaccoca made when he took over Chrysler during their bailout. Nothing until they turned a profit. Unions were good but now I think in allot of cases their looking out for their top brass also. We need to study what the Japanese and how they are doing things and work on the global economy not the USA economy. What worked here 20 years ago is not going to work now. Heck what went 5 years ago is now obsolete. Were the greatest nation in the world and we need to reestablish ourselves as that. I think environmental issues have also led to allot of our problems. There is a happy medium and we need to find that spot and run with it.

The Japanese car makers have to be applauded for their advertizing and public brainwashing. Funny how everybody says how great their Lexus is and how long their Honda last. Well next time you take a ride or look in the want ads tell me where are all these supposed 200k and 300k Japanese vehicles??? Heck, Try to even find a 80's Camary? Have you ever looked inside a 5 year old Lexus?

Most Japanese car owners feel paying for $400 service intervals or $600 alternators is something to brag about. Then hear about the guy with a Cavalier that has 100k and just needs say an A/C compressor complaining about what a piece of garbage it is.


Japanese cars are engineered to be built with the least cost involved plain and simple. They make their money on the parts and service. You look at ANY component under the hood of a Lexus and compare it to a German made one and you would have to be blind to see the difference. Heck the biggest mistake the Germans have made is trying to include all the useless bells and whistles that never work after a year or so.

Last but not least are the unions that are killing themselves. Maybe somebody should explain to the guy with zero education making $75 and paying 0 for his benifts that there are laywers and doctors from ivory league schools not making that much. We are killing ourselves and our greed will ruin this country.

I think the only way to help the big 3 now is to go back to a Tarriff on Foriegn Cars.

They might accually be able to sell some cars if the Jap's would let us sell on a level paying feild with them.

We charge $0 to them, but they stick it to our products over there.

This and everything else said earlier might give us a chance to survive.

tyoneral

What seems to be the problem with the HHR? I see them all over the road around here so Chevy must be having some sales success with it.

I like that GM is doing this.

http://www.gm.com/warranty/index.jsp...=en&cmp=gm_com

Sorry, but you are way off on your japanese car interpretation. In my family there have been about 6 toyota's and well over 2m miles combined. In fact I have an aunt who bought 3 toyota's in a row, all over 150k miles, she had to buy 'new' ones because her daughters kept wrecking them. I have gone to look at Lexus's in my budget and all had over 150k miles and drove like new.

Then again, I worked at a repair shop and saw many 7-10 year old 80-110k mile BMW's with major malfunctions.

My father was a GM employee for 27 years and owned nothing but chevy's and almost every single one of them, needed some sort of repair (you would not expect) in the first year.

So yeah, the brainwashing worked, when my family got good cars from Toyota that lasted for years and miles many times more than the chevy's in my family, they brainwashed me into thinking their products were better.

I have gone back to Chevy though, with a 2002 Malibu, then a 2005 Trailblazer, and both of them required no repairs, but I didn't have them that long (up to 54k on the malibu, up to 36k on the blazer) then we traded in on a 05 Durango (stupid stupid stupid) that has been to the dealer 3 times and needs to go back and has less than 18k miles, and has had interior pieces fall off in hand.

Sorry for the rambling, but I have seen a lot of toyota's and lexus's with way over 100k miles, many of them in my own family. In fact my first brake job was on a 1985 celica with over 230k miles.

When is the last time you saw a Chevy with over 200k miles? In my family I have seen 4 Toyota's with that, and they have owned more chevy's than toyota's by a large margin.

Every day, when I go out to my driveway and get in my car to go to work. (actually a Pontiac, not a Chevy, but the argument is still the same :_paranoid ) 250k and still going strong. The only mechanical repair I'm aware of (other than brake-jobs, and fluid changes) is one outer tie-rod that I replaced at 248k. This car had been my brother's since 85k, so I know most of its history.

I'm not trying to say that GM hasn't ever turned out a bad product, or that the japanese cars haven't done a good job of building quality, just stating that I have had all positive experiences with GM, and will continue to drive GM vehicles.