America's finest... Cadillac!

[gbsean]

Originally Posted by The Radius Kid

That makes you dumber than his Chihuahua.

are you kidding me...he is "Hot"

[CallMeMud]

Originally Posted by firebird_1252

oh and jesse, mazda is ford

It is now. I had the real Mazda... all Mazda! Back when they were real good. Ford started using their running gear not the other way around (think Escorts).

[firebird_1252]

the navajo was a explorer. the mpv was a aerostar...


never the less... everyone has the chance of the lemon. just so happend that, that prick video'ed it. i dont see anything wrong with it. there was a problem, the dealer fixed it. the rear dif is known to be piss poor weak. it happens. by all means if you feel the same way then your entitled to your opinion. i and alot of people here dont feel that way

[CallMeMud]

Originally Posted by firebird_1252

46k on the clock and to this day i still treat it the same.

my freinds tahoe 250k on it still towing with it never been touched

my friends farm trucks everyone of them over 200k never been touched

my friends montes, gp's, bonnies, it goes on and on and on!


you should stop reading on the net and get real world experence with them. i'll only buy gm because thats what i'm comfterable with. to me they're the most relaible

46k? Are you kidding me? Double that at least and let's compare notes. Some of the Toyotas and Hondas are not even broken in at 100k miles.

In another thread I gave the nod to the GM trucks and SUV's. That is a fact and I don't dispute that. They have also been in that business longer.

[CallMeMud]

Originally Posted by Nasty Wendy

Because he loves ME.

Exactly!



I post to all kinds of boards. I am on a Honda board but nothing ever goes wrong so not much to discuss. That and I am not trying to make one go fast!

[firebird_1252]

46k never once added oil to it. i couldnt tell you what under the hood of that car looks like. it dont burn or leak a drop. i wont have the car for another 100k because the lease is up. i'm 100% confident that at 146k the car will still be solid. look at all the GTP's out there with over 100k no problems.

[CallMeMud]

Originally Posted by firebird_1252

i finaly watched the whole thing. its pretty aparent that there was a problem with the coils. the dealer fixed it and he still bitches. how do i contact that tool?

Did you listen to any of it or read the responses? He also lost the entire rear and a wiring harness besides what ever other problems he had. He stated a couple of others but I didn't catch them because they didn't appear big. So the coils make the tach not work?

[salvageV6]

Here ya go.

From a 2 second google search.

And it wasn't from biased "consumer reports" either.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...nsmission.html

Looks like Germany's finest has a few problems as well, engineering wise....

Trannys at $4K, tires wearing prematurely, sub-frame problems...

Hey anyone remember the Toyota radio that could burn down the car.

Toyota has very good "damage" control. Internally and externally.

Including internet tools.

[Zap]

I remember the Consumer Reports Child safety seat report. Are their "reliability ratings" as accurate? Prove the "imports are better engineered than domestics"...if you can't find proof, just say so! Perhaps if you would narrow your focus and say "the Toyota Camry is better engineered than the Chevrolet Malibu, and here is why...."

Sweeping statements are seldom right, and seldom is one able to prove them.


Consumer Reports bases most of their ratings on customers reviews. Hardly scientific. It's a rag that appeals to import lovers and the reports become self-fulfilling prophecies touting the greatness of the imports the "knowledgeable and well informed owners" buy.

There is still confusion as to proof, anecdotal stories and pure BS. Most of what I have read are the later two. Maybe global warming would be easier to prove?

[CallMeMud]

Those that don't like or dispute the import thing... Do you own one or have you owned one? If not I can't argue/explain/educate you on it. We really can't discuss it to be fair.
Resale value points a lot in how well something is viewed as reliable or better engineered. Not uncommon at all to see a 100k mile import going for a ton of cash. How about that domestic? You give me a domestic and I will try my best to match it up to the import clone of it and let's see what is higher in value vs. mileage.


Like I said... I own both now.


Trucks = Domestic
Cars = Imports

On average that is the way I view it. You have a few lemon types by every MFG. You have less chances IMO with the import.


BMW and Mercedes both made the list I put up so that doesn't surprise me.

[BLACK6PACK]

That's why the big 3 are having troubles now. People like to make sweeping statements about the american built cars being of poorer quality than the japanese cars. For every jap car that has 100k miles on it, I can show you 3 american cars that have similar problem free miles. Resale value isn't a true indication of quality either. The BMW and Mercs have killer resale value, but on average have higher warrenty repair problems than Jap or American cars. Your best bet is to compare warrenty claims for each manufacturer to get a true idea of quality.

[CallMeMud]

Here is a 2005 Cobalt LS with 30k according to KBB:

Condition Value
Excellent
$12,655
Good
$11,825
Fair
$10,740

Original price was $14,885 so 7.5% loss per year so far.


Just wanted to compare it to my 6 year old 2001 Civic with the same equipment and 2.5X the miles:


Original price was $14,835 so 5.7% loss per year so far.



Condition Value
Excellent
$9,805
Good
$9,140
Fair
$8,245


We can look back at this in 4 more years and see how the Cobalt compares then.

[forzfed]

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette........


By Roger Simmermaker (Commentary)
Dec. 19, 2006

Ford and General Motors have taken turns besting the Toyota Camry in quality surveys for the past two years, but if you talk to many Americans – especially the ones who would never consider supporting home-based auto companies – you'd never know it.

Last year, the Chevrolet Impala beat the Camry in initial quality, according to J.D. Power & Associates. And Consumer Reports just announced that both the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan scored higher than both the Camry and the Honda Accord this year.

Even as GM and Ford have accumulated award after award on vehicle quality, you'd almost never know about such quality gains made by American companies.

There's also the mythical perception that foreign automakers produce the most fuel efficient cars and that Detroit only makes gas-guzzlers when the truth is that all automakers – including Toyota, Honda and Hyundai-Kia alike – have allowed fuel economy to slide in the past 20 years since they all now sell bigger trucks and more SUVs.

Perhaps the biggest perception problem is that American automobile companies GM and Ford – Chrysler is now German-owned – squander all their money on plants overseas and foreign automakers build their factories in the United States. Foreign car lovers will surely point to Kia's plans to build its first-ever U.S. plant in Georgia, but they probably won't mention that they received $400 million in tax giveaways to do it, which translates into $160, 000 per job.

Among the many benefits for the foreign-owned company, your tax dollars are going to be used for road improvements surrounding the complex, complete with flower beds and other beautification features. Hey, as long as we're going to allow states to bid for private jobs with our public tax dollars, we might as well make it look good, right?

And the foreign car lovers will probably also not tell you (or maybe they just don't know or don't want you to know) that GM and Ford pour more money into existing American facilities than foreign automakers spend on new plants, usually with little or no tax breaks. GM has already spent more than $500 million upgrading two transmission plants this year, and has spent nearly a billion dollars over the last decade, for example, for facility upgrades in Texas.

And what do GM and Ford get for making their existing plants more efficient? It isn't tax breaks. Instead, they get accusations of not being "competitive" enough! Maybe here I should also mention that the average domestic parts content for Kia is 3 percent, while the average domestic parts content of Ford and GM is 78 percent and 74 percent, respectively. This means that buying a U.S.-assembled (or even foreign-assembled, for that matter) GM or Ford supports more American jobs than a U.S.-assembled car or truck with a foreign nameplate.

Fortunately for our benefit, the United States remains the overall global leader in research and development, and a big reason for that is that American automakers. According to the Level Field Institute, U.S. car companies invest $16 billion in research and development annually, outpacing any other industry one could name.

Admittedly, the Level Field Institute counts German-owned DaimlerChrysler as an American automaker, so Ford and GM's combined R&D contribution to America is closer to around $12 billion. But who's counting, right? Certainly not the American auto-bashing media.

Japanese companies do employ 3, 600 American workers in R&D, but that still leaves the foreign competition behind in the dust staring at American rear bumpers – 3, 600 sounds like a big number until you realize that 65, 000 Americans work in R&D facilities in the state of Michigan alone. In fact, two of the top four R&D spending companies in America as reported by the Wall Street Journal are – you guessed it – Ford and GM. The other two are also American companies: Pfizer and Microsoft.

Ford has recently made headlines as the American automaker with the most challenges to its future, but these challenges certainly are not because they "aren't making cars people want to buy." Toyota did outsell Ford in July, but since then, Ford has reclaimed the No. 2 spot.

GM has the highest market share, increasing over 2 percentage points from a year ago, so it apparently can't be accused of not making cars people want to buy either. Ford sales also are up in Europe, and Ford doubled its sales in China, where GM has the highest market share of any automaker.

GM also reported a 3.9 percent rise in August vehicle sales despite high gas prices and a supposedly slowing economy. And even though Toyota reported record sales that month, it couldn't match the non-record setting sales volume of Ford. GM's sales rose 17 percent in October from the year-ago month and Ford sales rose 8 percent the same period.

And for all the talk about the lack of fuel efficiency of American automakers, it seems three-fourths of all automakers failed to meet Europe's improved fuel-efficiency standards intended to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. Japanese and German automakers topped the list of the study's worst performers, but according to an environmental group's study, GM's Opel division and Ford both "come out well."

In closing, I'll leave some encouraging numbers for those of us who actually like to root for and support the home team. The J.D. Power 2006 Vehicle Dependability Survey reports that Mercury, Buick and Cadillac (in that order) grabbed the No. 2, 3 and 4 spots to beat Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW and everyone else (except Lexus) in having the least number of problems per 100 vehicles.

Perhaps someday the American media will give GM and Ford the credit they deserve. And once they do, perception among the majority of the American public will rightfully change. GM and Ford aren't only doing what they should to make gains in the American market to deserve American consumer loyalty; they're also doing what they should to make gains in the markets of China, Europe and across most of the rest of the globe.

[Ttype83]

Originally Posted by BLACK6PACK

That's why the big 3 are having troubles now. People like to make sweeping statements about the american built cars being of poorer quality than the japanese cars. For every jap car that has 100k miles on it, I can show you 3 american cars that have similar problem free miles. Resale value isn't a true indication of quality either. The BMW and Mercs have killer resale value, but on average have higher warrenty repair problems than Jap or American cars. Your best bet is to compare warrenty claims for each manufacturer to get a true idea of quality.

Guess you didn't read this mud.....Not worth anymore of my time then that

[forzfed]

Originally Posted by CallMeMud

I've gone to visit my buddy a few times at the dealership and I've seen him and fellow mechanics changing the tranny's on the Vibe. That is a toyota tranny you know! My Colorado has been an extremely good truck with 0 problems and will get better milage than a Tacoma. I will admit the Toyota interior is a tad nicer but they both have the hard plastic dashes and are made in the same assembly plant. You have to have a V6 to get a locking rear diff in the Tacoma. GM offers them in the 4cy model. It makes a word of a difference in the winter. A friends Nissan Titan is absolutey useless in two wheel drive in extreme conditions.