Don’t blame foreign car makers for our problem
No offense intended to the Generation that lived the great depression and fought WWII. My parents fall into that category. Having been born in the late 50’s I cannot imagine what the depression age went through. I can remember my Grandmother saving 6 green beans for later consumption at another meal.
But to blame the foreign car manufacturers and the people who buy their products is like trying to blame gun manufacturers and responsible gun users for the murder rate.
After spending more money to repair American made cars than what I paid for them in the first place led me to buy a Korean made product. You can look at the $25 per hour cost difference as one of the culprits, but look further up the ladder. How many executives and their bonuses does it make to assemble a car? How many stock holders pockets do we have to lube to make a car. I understand all of the above is needed, but at what cost.
I suggest the Great Generation to take a walk from their roof top to their basement floor and count the things made in the United States. Things will never be the way they were then as they weren’t the way their parents had it before them. We must learn a way to make it work now, not 60 years ago.
Richard Beyer
Arnold
Fellow Arnoldite
I was born in the early 50’s, and agree with what your saying. I am still buying American cars, but with this bailout crap for GM and Chrysler, foreign is looking better all the time. I own Fords and have all my life, but $80 per hour at the dealer, is a whole lot of steep for union labor.
I owned nothing but American cars until about 2003. That’s when my 2000 Camaro with less than 60,000 miles on it developed engine trouble. After spending over $5 grand trying to fix the damn thing it got rid of it and bought a Honda. I had no problems with the Honda and now I drive an Acura. I’m sure my grandfather is rolling over in his grave as he was a WWII vet and then worked for GM until he retired. Whenever he saw a Japanese car on the road he would say, “There goes another damn Zero!” I had no clue what he meant until I learned that Mitsubishi Motors built the Zero airplane for the Japanese in WWII.
FORD = Fixed Or Repaired Daily
Buddy
Haven’t had a lemon yet.
Well, I don’t think it is as simple as blaming the foreign dealers. You really can’t blame them for the very un-level playing field they were given by our government. Who in their position wouldn’t take it? And I can’t help but notice Buddy that you lay out the Ford acronym after you tell about putting 5g’s in a camaro. My Ranger just passed 265,000 and the only major thing I’ve ever had to do was 10,000 miles ago to rebuild the valve body, other than that it runs like a champ. My F150 just passed up 100,000 and it’s still the best money I have ever spent. If you don’t do all of the recommended mainanence within reason then you really can’t complain if something other than electrical goes out on you. (I’m not saying that you don’t, just in general)
my girlfriend has a honda but cheese fat and the car does not have mushroom i told her to move hurass back so she can drive better ,so I shoulder how,I bought two cars like this one but she rectum both, I told her juarez your problem with theese cars ,chicken get her own car next time and wheelchair it toghter, ,is thier another big forien car?
I have been driving Lincolns since I was 26 years old. Not new ones, but used, “well preserved” 7 to 10 year old cars from the original owners. For the record, they have been pretty good cars.
I realize that most of the original owners have been older and not prone to tear up their vehicles. But the cars have been mostly reliable and give me a “cheap” touch of luxury.
My wife has driven Hondas for the last 20 years and has been very happy with them. I have no problem with that. She also has no problem with my taste for Lincolns.
Either way, I agree with the regular maintenance aspect. Take care of the car and it usually works out. And yes, I realize that every brand has some lemons out there.
People buying Japanese cars in the 1970s led to cars manufactured in the United States being made better. But, when it came to gasoline efficiency, the manufacturers generally ignored it. Then, in the ’90s, the U.S. car manufacturers should have taken their cue from the European car manufacturers. Still, they ignored the information coming down the pike. The U.S. car manufacturers are now battling evolution — and they are losing, because they didn’t have the prescience of forward-thinking.
Correction: the `blessedness’ of forward-thinking.
Consumers Reports continues to publish evaluations of autos - “imports” and Detroit - and history of repair records of same provided by their readers.
Nothing has changed.
Detroit products continue to be inferior to the imports.
I bought new from Detroit for many years, the last 3 new with “Buy American” as a huge discriminator.
Last year I gave up on Detroit and bought my first new ever “import”.
My garage is now filled with Toyotas and I couldn’t be happier.
Maybe someday I’ll try Detroit again, but not until the readers reports from Consumers Reports show Detroit is truly at least equivalent to “the imports”.
Jimmy, my first two cars were Mustang’s. The first one rusted out and the other one the had a host of other problems and was in and out of the shop until the transmission locked up on me. I leared that acronym from the mechanic at the dealer. In you case I think that the large US pick-up have proven to be more dependable, but I don’k like driving pick-ups.
Back when I was a young kid my parents owned a Gremlin, like clockwork the carb would catch on fire whenever my dad started the damn thing. There was a preceedure he had for snuffing out the fire that amused us kids.
The you what though, the 2010 Camaro looks hot!