69stang390

Pontiacs are EXPENSIVE to work on...i will not buy another one again. I had a 95 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, and just the headlights were $112.00. What about Mazda and Nissan? Now those are some cars that will last you past the 150 mark withminimal problems.

Waffles

had a 97 F-150 with 285,000 miles and it NEVEr gave me a problem; I took care of it, like I would any other car, and it ran like a champ. I don't even care if you buy a GM or Chrysler, please just buy American.

("oh, it used though, buying a used car doesn't affect its manufacturing company value wise. " is such a common defense. Where does it get serviced at? a Dealer that SELLS that make, most often. And with more money, they can buy more import cars...)

In Japan, there is a $20,000 USD tariff on ALL american made vehicles. Lets level the playing field. Add $20k to the price of a Camry, think they'd sell as many? One day we're going to need a President, or someone in serious power, to pass a bill preventing importing of autos... or at least makng iit as expensive here for imports as it is for our imports over there. Level the playing field.

boss_dude_429

or he could drive "this" go-cart hehehehehe at 103 mph

hahahaha when you can squeeze 43 hp aout of a briggs you know your messed up hahahaha

bluovalguy

I bought a Euro car. Yesterday I was almost going to buy a 4Runner. There is no way that you can honestly say that US cars are on the same level of quality and performance as the Euro or Asian cars. As far as tv ads that may be misleading, how about the ford ads wherer they talk up how great the fusion handles over the camry and accord. Of course, most people miss the small print that tells you they are comparing an AWD fusion to two front drivers. Of course it is gonna handle better. All manufactures play with words to make their profucts look better, that is not just a asian trick.

Waffles

Ok, so instead of buying a 4runner, why dont you just cut a check every month, put it in the mail, and send it just to "JAPAN"

And fine if you don't want to compare quality between American made and European, why don't you compare quality of life between OUR workers and theirs.

Where do you work? Lets say you're a waiter at TGI Fridays. If I am a Ford employee, and so many people buy Toyotas, Hondas, etc, and my company suffers, they take away from me. Maybe my pay decreases. Maybe they take away my pension. Maybe they take away any bonuses or annuities.

Suddenly, MY quality of life changes.I can no longer afford to go out to eat with my family. Guess whose tips decrease? The servers at the restaurant. So guess whose QOL NOW decreases? YOURS. No matter what job you are in, what your CAREER is, you are affected. After a house, automobiles are the second biggest purchase most people ever make. So when you spend big bucks on a foreign vehicle, unless u work for a Foreign car company, it WILL affect you in the long run.

The less money my company makes, the less money I will make. Why? Because I have to keep my job. So I have to accept concessions. So I can't spend my money elsewhere. Where you are a Realtor, Restaurant Server, Boat manufacturer, computer repairman, whatever. If I don't have the money to pay for extra stuff, guess what? I won;t be buying it.

But no, go ahead and buy your 4runner. I totally see where you're coming from.

[sm=smiley21.gif]

gothand

Waffles,

I totally understand where you are coming from but I just don't believe it to be as black and white as you state. On one hand you are critical of buying vehicles from foreign makers that are manufactured domestically because the money gong to the "big wigs" is going overseas (which is not necessarily true because there are plenty of folks here in L.A. making very fine livings for American Honda and Toyota, and until recently, Nissan (now in TN), yet you don't seem to have any disdain for American companies producing in Mexico. As for profits, aren't all of these companies (with the exception of the recent change at Chrysler) publicly held? If so, why not purchase some of their stock and re-divert the profits stateside?

As for "being uneducated or not caring about their country", is it really that simple? Do the myriad of countries who purchaseweapons, warplanes and defense systems from American companiesnot care about their country? I try to buy American to a point, but when it is either economically unfeasible, unobtainable or the quality and value discrepancy is so great, what is a guy to do?

I have owned a total of three foreign vehicles compared to the many more domestic. In those three cases, there was not a suitable domestic product available. Those three were a VW Baja Bug (my Jeep is great for the rocks is out of its league for desert running),a Honda Civix GX (uses compressed natural gas, is very clean burning using DOMESTIC fuel and can ride solo in the carpool lanes) and a Honda Odyssey minivan (have you seen the domestic minivans?).

I'd like to buy domestic exclusively, but for most products that is impossible. Not only are many products no longer mass produced domestically, history shows that the big three tend to be stagnant when not challenged from outside competition.

I share your ideal that it would be great for everybody to buy American, but not being an economist, I'm not sure how practical or even possible that is. Nonetheless, I appreciate your passion and enthusiasm and also find it alarming how much of our manufacturing has been shifted overseas.

Regards,
Jeff

bluovalguy

All right, since you wanna go on a soapbox, fine. You are curious how I make a living, I am in the army, and I am currently on orders for my FOURTH deployment. So I am pretty sure that takes away your arguement about me personally not caring for my country. I dont need to cut a check to some other country to help them out, sooner or later I will probably be in their country giving one thing or another (15 months of my life, blood, sweat, limbs, life, things you probably dont worry about when you go to work). So if I wanna buy a asian car, a euro car, or hell, a Yugo, I will. If that pisses you off cuz you work at ford, tough ****, build better products and stop letting the bean counters dictate the level of quality and convienence that domestic auto makers build into their products. US cars are much better now than they were a couple years ago, but they are still lacking, IN MY OPINION. If you dont share that opinion, great, but dont blast everyone else for not sharing your thoughts or ideas (unless you are the king of world , of course).

fast65

At least you're not going to rice it out, it's a great car for a DD.

6marc5

Me too!

Waffles

I think its great you're in the military, just would expect to see that show in your support of our economy. But hey, you essentially live for free, get paid to do so, and have little to no expenses personally (dont know about your family) so I can see why it doesnt affect you.

BTW;

For every Toyota you see on the road, 5 were built that didnt mean MINIMAL specifications. This doesn't mean your car was the best of 5. It means it was the LEAST WORST of 5. The ONLY ONE, out of 5, that barely met FEDERAL regulations.

And the reason foreign cars are so much cheaper then American... because I can actually afford to live a decent lifestyle, unlike the manufacturers of their cars.

And of course i don't applaud any american company for outsourcing ANY jobs to mexico, but the parts Ford builds in Mexico, same as Chrysler are minimal parts, and most of THOSE are purchased through BOSCH whch has recently outsourced most of THEIR factories. Less than 3% of Ford's Employees are outside the country (aside, of course from Ford of Europe, etc).

And to say US cars are still lacking compared to Foreign.... did you know Toyota and Honda BOTH had more recalls last year than FORD, GM, and CHRYSLER... COMBINED. They keep them quiet. How? They schedule you a free routine checkup and replace the part right under your nose without telling you it was ever defective.

So instead of mailing a check to Japan every month, just walk right into a Government facility while youre over there losing your limbs, or whatever you said you'd be doing, and hand it to em in person. That way you don't have to buy an AMERICAN MADE stamp and envelope.