When Japanese cars first started selling in the United States, a lot of people were angry because they fought the Japanese in World War II and they were not gonna buy anything made in Japan and you shouldn’t either. My Dad was one of those. A Ford man, he. Died in 1987. I wonder what he would do today.
RE: When Japanese cars first started selling in the United States, a lot of people were angry because they fought the Japanese in World War II
Well, we fought the Germans in WWII as well.
If this is going to be our attitude towards former enemies, we shouldn’t be buying Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans, Subarus, Volkswagens, BMW and Daimlers, etc. at all.
I’ve owned cars from Companies based in Japan, Korea, Germany and the US.
Without question, sadly the one’s I owned made by US manufactures were the worst.
Ford LTD II... Solid engine, the inline 6 was a brute, never died.. unfortunately transmission lines used rubber grommets that rotted out and it was such a common problem it was next to impossible to get the parts, because you would order them and the dealer would use them on the cars in their shop when they came in, rather than actually hold them for the customer who ordered them.
Minor annoyance, but still stupid design.
GM, won’t even go into what a crapbox that LeSaber was... Crapped the bed with 80,000 miles the tranny just dropped, after nothing but problems with it.
Mazda Protege - forced to buy when transmission dropped in the GM 700 miles from home. Okay car, but never something I wanted... only owned it for a few years before selling it. No major problems with it.
Hand me down TOyota Tercel... Never had a major issue with it. Thing just ran.
VW Fox - Solid car. Never had any issues with this car, Without question one of the best cars I have owned to date. Small, tiny engine, but so many simple features that just made sense. IE, driver side door could not lock with door open. Had to lock it with the key, after the door was closed, so very unlikely to lock your keyes in the car. Headlights had a timer, so if you left your lights on all day, they headlights would turn off and only running lights would stay on... This feature saved me from having to get a jump more than once where I accidentally left them on and went into work for the day. etc etc etc.
E150 Conversion van. Very solid vehicle... drove it until the frame rotted out where the steering box attached to the frame. Engine did lose compression in a cylinder toward the end, but it still ran.
Chrysler Sebring Convertible. As bad of a rep as Chrysler gets, honestly this car held up very well, a few minor issues over a decade of ownership, had nearly 200k on it when I finally got rid of it.
newer Chrysler Sebring... crap car. Snapped a strut etc. Definitely a completely lower quality car than the previous one.
Kia Rio - Honestly a decent little basic car. Did replace the timing belt as a precaution since they were notorious for breaking at around 60k because they were undersized... nothing fancy, very poor delivery of the HP to the wheels with the 4 speed manual.. merging onto the interstate from a stop was often a sphincter pinching experience, but it did what it advertised.
Hyunai Santa Fe - Decent reliable vehicle. 4 Banger non turbo model, decent enough model
Newer Hyundai Santa Fe with 4 Cylinder Turbo engine. Very reliable car, no major issues.
Kia Sedona - Good value for the money, but did start to have perpetual parts start failing after 100k.
Hyundai Sonata - Decent reliable vehicle, decent value.
Nissan Rogue - Not crazy about the CVT, doesn’t deliver power as well as I would like but well appointed and decent value for the money. Wife is happy with it, and it’s her car so that’s all that matters.
Honestly, given I can get 5 year 60k bumper to bumper, and 10/100k on drivetrain from various manufacturers its hard for me to even contemplate a vehicle like Ford who is only giving 3 years on their vehicles...
GM I will never ever touch again, learned my lesson.
I personally do have a special place in my heart for Ford, I truly do.. but if they aren’t willing to stand behind their vehicles, kind of hard for me to.
Next vehicle will probably be a used hard top convertible Chrysler 200 when I can find one I like, or possible a used Armada (NO CVT) or 4Runner or Highlander. Nothing set in stone, but those are where I am leaning at the moment.