Comments on: Teens Will Drive Detroit Three Into The Junk Yard

By: Joel A

Joel A — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:57:49 +0000

george b,

regarding toyota and honda. i don’t know about that. i think both companies realize they’re reaching saturation point in the U.S. market. i think the new battlefield will be china, europe (east and west), and south america.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:43:14 +0000

good points, stay, densityduck. i just don’t know, though, if the companies can hold out that long unless they shrink considerably

By: George B

George B — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:43:07 +0000

Its not “import” vs. “domestic”. The dividing line is UAW vs. non-union assembly and cutting corners on part quality to pay benefits vs. higher quality parts. I don’t see a way for “domestic” brands to pull out of their death spiral unless they can get more flexibility from the UAW.

I chose to “buy American”, purchasing an Ohio-built Honda Accord instead of a Volkswagen Passat. Considering the relative size of the US car market relative to Japan, I could imagine Toyota and Honda eventually becomming primarily US focused brands.

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:40:11 +0000

Domestics are going to have a long road to travel, as it were, because car journals are universally biased against them. (As the blog post points out.) As long as reviewers keep going on about garbage like “lesser-quality interior feel” or “mushy ride”, domestics will never get a fair shake. Buyers will say “hm, I’m interested in a Pontiac. Where can I find out what people think of Pontiacs?” They’ll go out read Consumer Reports, which makes DailyKOS and Free Republic look like paragons of objectivity. And they’ll say “wow, domestics are trash! I’ll just buy the cheapest import I can find.”

By: Stacy

Stacy — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:13:27 +0000

I’ve driven imports and domestics, and my Ford Escorts (a 91-wrecked, and a 95-sold with 160k nearly trouble-free miles) weren’t noticeably worse in the reliability department than my Hondas or Subarus. And the Escorts’ engines were definitely domestically designed and engineered.

On the other hand, I made my parents test-drive a Subaru Forester, which they ended up buying to replace their early 90s fwd Olds Cutlass. They live in the north and are older, and it frankly gives me more peace of mind to know they have AWD and a vehicle that’s known for reliability and longevity.

In my mind the problem with domestics isn’t so much the reliability as the perception of cheapness and the reality of lack of refinement and attention to detail. Some of the newer GM cars have addressed the latter quite well, and whatever else happens I think if they can keep that up for the next ten years they’ll largely turn those perceptions around. I haven’t driven any newer-model Fords, but from what I read they are also putting in much nicer interiors these days, so the same should apply to them.

By: Joel A

Joel A — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 02:08:32 +0000

Another Joel. Kewl!

haven’t seen the commerical so i can’t comment.

By: Joel

Joel — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 00:22:08 +0000

I dont get all of this backlash for the GM robot commercial. People are talking about suing GM because they knew someone who commited suicide. Well, what about Budweiser, Miller light, Bud light, coors and so on. I knew people who died as a result of drunk driving but you dont hear me threatening to sue Anheuser Busch do you?

By: Rhett

Rhett — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:59:42 +0000

People are buying Asian cars because they are made with efficiency and affordability in mind obviously. I can go and buy a beautiful looking Nissan 300ZX thats ~15 years old, goes like all hell, and it still looks great to this day.

Anyway if you’re a car enthusiast please check out my website http://www.ridehustle.com , kind of like a myspace but for cars =)

By: Danio

Danio — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:27:14 +0000

My mother was influenced to buy a Camry by my teenage cousin and my uncle for the same reasons. (of course they really don’t know much about cars) Before that she had a Taurus and an Intrepid and the Camry has had far MORE major issues than either of the domestic 2. I know this is hard to swallow for many people who believe in the new status quo, but it sure hurts when you have to pay 2-3x more for Toyota parts and the vehicle is LESS reliable.

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 23:49:07 +0000

My problem is that I got my mother to look at a Camry years ago and now I can’t get her to even consider anything else. She’s on her fourth Camry now. I actually think that the Hyundais are better deal now.