stvfurman

I always laugh when people tell me the Japanese cars are better quality, you put the two side by side and remove the badges and you can't tell the difference. That being said, I have never really cared for sedans, it's either a truck or van or a 2 seater for me.

bassJAM

Maybe you couldn't tell the difference based on quality of materials, but you'd have to pay me to own a Ford, GM or Chrysler car. The difference is in the long term reliability. Maybe it's better now, but I knew too many people with 90's and 2000's "American" cars that crapped out between 150,000-170,000. I don't think GM or Ford ever put the same quality control efforts into their cars as they did their trucks and some of their SUV's.

Stu Cazzo

I WISH my F150 had the quality and reliability of my Nissan and Infinity SUVs.
The choices in full size trucks is very limited.

Its kind of the opposite with Toyota and Nissan - they focus more on the SUV and car market.

SCrewYou

i thought it was going to stick around for 2020?

SCrewYou

many of those in the know are thinking the next couple of years will be shaky for the auto industry as a whole, not just for the domestic companies.

Stu Cazzo

GM needs to just marry Chevy and GMC vehicles together and call it one truck!
Buick makes three SUVs,
Chevy makes three SUVs plus the full size Tahoe and Suburban,
GMC makes two SUVs and a full size Yukon,
Cadillac makes two SUVs and a full size Escalade.

Plus all the useless cars they make - they need to thin the herd and focus on a specific line in each category.

wizwor

Not sure 150k is considered crapping out. I only got 155k out of my 1979 Mustang, but I got 186k out of a 1987 Bronco II and 182k out of a 2005 focus. Probably because I had a crappy mechanic (me).

RL1990

Do the same thing when they're 10 years old with 200,000+ miles on them and compare the service history. If someone was tasked with taking a coast to coast trip in a 2005 Toyota Camry with 250,000 miles or a 2005 Ford Fusion with 250,000 miles the vast majority of people would take the Camry.

acdii

I had a 1979 LTD wagon until the late 90's and put over 300K on it after replacing the engine that blew at 47K miles due to piston slap. I rebuilt a JY engine, blue printed it, and enjoyed that sleeper for years. Rust killed the frame or I may still have it. We have a 1995 Grand Marquis with 160K on it as our spare, and still runs and drives well.

stvfurman

I have, driven plenty of Japanese cars, they aren't any better. I will hand it to them though they are masters at working with plastic, heck half of a Honda is made of plastic these days. Back in the late 70s and early 80s Japanese cars got a lot of attention because American cars were terrible, for various reasons, mostly labor problems, AMC went under. But I remember a Toyota corolla back then being a very simple car, rather flimsy and cheap. Hondas were worse but, they help up well and were reliable and because of that they gained a great reputation. They also worked hard at improving their vehicles to be more like the American cars with all the trim and options to the point where they were producing cars with options as standard equipment when you had to pay extra on an American car, again beating us at the price game. In the last two decades you would be hard pressed to tell the difference if you were lead into one blindfolded, even after driving it for 10 years.

Some people have a knack of destroying a car and I also think there is that factor too, but that is another debate. People who buy foreign cars are always trying to justify their reasons for it, I have seen Toyota owners who swear they will never buy a American car and list the minor problems with the one used one they bought , then I hear then talk about their Toyota is in the shop for some issue and well it's okay It's a Toyota. Huh?

I'm not saying Japanese cars are not good cars, they are, just not buying that they are all that much better. There is a following and those people will buy them no matter what and that also helps in their resale value.
Currently driving a '09 Chevy Malibu, for work, I run the crap out of that car and it is a low end car, it just rolled over 191,000, runs great and there is nothing wrong with it, our company bought it used at auction, fleet cars. In fact we have 3 of them.