I never thought about it in terms of longevity, but you’re right. We buy Toytotas and then drive them with nothing more than routine maintenance for 15 years. Our 4Runner is almost 12 years old, looks like a new car, runs like a new car, rides like a new “truck” (that’s the one thing I never liked about the 4-Runner, the ride is stiff, but partly because of the tow package we have on the car.)
We’ve had the same luck with Hondas, and wonderful service from the Honda dealership (better than service we’ve had with any other make of car.)
Before 1984 we bought American made cars, but in 1984 we bought our first Toyota...and since then we’ve never gone back to American made.
I have a 1991 Toyota p.u. that’s rusting. We have a 2000 GMC with 190,000 miles on it that looks new, runs like new and has retained it’s value. Not only that, but we contributed to an American company. I’m proud to own a Chevy.
See, I had a Ford as my first car. Pretty good until I bought a new Chevy. It lasted 3 years before so much work needed to be done that it made more sense to trade it in upside down.
I had a Datsun for a while after my Ford (which was pretty good, but it was a 72 model) and that thing didn’t have a floorboard, but ran and ran and ran. So I bought a Nissan and never bought anything else.
My sister in law bought a Ford Focus. She went to trade it in at five years old. Bought it for $11,000 new and they wanted to give her $1,200 for it. In five years!
She never bought another Ford since this was the FORD DEALERSHIP she was trading it in at that basically told her that her car was crap.
Oh yeah, and even the paint jobs are better!
You see Chevy’s with stripped paint and such, but most Lexus (Toyota), Nissans, Hondas, and so on usually hold a nice paint job up to 20 years.
Not everyone of course, but most.