buy GM,FORD,OR CRYSLER

had toyotas back in the 70s, bought first crysler in early 80s, no regrets. take a good look at the fords , gms , cryslers, they are as good or better than others! BUY U.S.A.(PLUS MY STOCKS MIGHT GO UP)

I had a Ford pickup that wasn't too bad. Then I got a Chevy, and while I love the Chevy, I'm pretty disappointed with how rusty it is now. The truck is 12 years old and I am coming to the realization that I will need to replace it within the next few years because of rust. Also had problems with it nickling and dimeing me lately.

The experience I had during 10 years as a Claims Adjuster handling vehicle service contracts is that it's simply a myth that imports are better than domestic vehicles.

We found that Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans blew just as many engines and transmissions as domestic products, and usually cost at least twice as much to fix. Toyotas had a HUGE problem with engines being destroyed by sludge, and since engine sludge was excluded from coverage on our service contracts regardless of make, Toyota owners were on their own, although as I recall Toyota did eventually admit to a problem.

We were once involved with a paint sealant, and found that Hondas probably have the worst bodies in the industry and Ford products the best.

By the time Motor Trend Magazine came out with an article to the same effect, we'd already figured out that BMW's are the most grossly overrated cars in the industry. Mercedes had bigtime wiring problems, and it was routine to replace the main wiring harness for close to $2,000. The flat rate book shows 24 hours to change a heater core in one model of Mercedes, while people complain about some domestic makes taking 5 hours.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Import superiority is just a myth.

A friend of mine told me about his son's girl friend. She was driving her Accura, luckily slow, in town when there was a "clunk". She immediately pulled in to a parking spot, looked around the car and didn't see anything. Tried backing up, it locked and the front suspension literally fell apart with the front wheels askew! If it would have happened at highway speed it would have been a nasty wreck. But those cars get a high rating. I have a cheap '93 Dodge Shadow, poorly rated no doubt, but has close to 200k trouble free miles and still a daily driver.

Like my Ford truck but do not want a Big 3 built car.Will never buy a Big 3 product again once they take the Corporate Welfare from the gov't.BTW the Gov't gets their $$$$ back ahead of the shareholders of common stock which makes your stock now worthless

Oh really my wifes 2000 honda odyssey that she bought new still has a clean body while on the other hand I bought a new dodge pickup in 96' and at 5 years old the bottom of the doors started to rot out.

We bought a 98 dodge stratus new and still have it. 2 headgaskets (1st would have been warrenty /recall but the German Chrysler couldn't get reimbursed to honor it. But, it still has the original battery in it, original exhaust and I replaced the original thermostat last spring. Not bad. But, it looks pretty faded and worn even with regular cleaning.
However......
The same cars that were made to be sold over here still look like new, ride completely different, get better gas mileage, and hold up to 100mph + driving conditions.
The ford escape is called a maverick here and supposed to be produced at the same factory.
Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi call the US version by one name and the European by another but it's the same vehicle with different expectations.
Maybe it's not so much the brand as it is the workmanship standards????

Just a thought........

Dave

GM has the most over rated products out there, they must spend a fortune buying the opinions of the writers of the articles that praise their products in the various automotive magazines. Ford, however, despite having the highest quality ratings and customer satisfaction in numerous independent surveys is NEVER rated highly in these publications.
At least Ford did NOT take any govt. money at this time.
I cannot see how the govt. would allow a GM/Chrysler merger, that would seem to fly in the face of every anti-trust/anti-monopoly law ever written, but the 'bailout' proves that stranger things can happen.
GM should "sink like a rock". Any company that has problems keeping both daytime running lights burning on their new pickups, cannot be trusted to have a quality product, plus their designs, ala, Aztek, Avalanche, slanty eyed pickups, etc, show that they haven't a clue, and deserve a quick trip to the land of bankruptcy, just like American Airlines, whose 'customer service' absolutely sucks.

They just started selling chevrolet's over here. You see a lot more on the lots than on the roads...........


Dave

I have heard about tranny problems and fires with the odyssey's. The Japanese like to keep things quiet though.

Buy American? What's this guy smoking? Do a little research and see how much USA is really in that Chevy!

The three only offer vehicles here that couldn't be given away anywhere else. Everywhere else they sell great cars. Guess underestimating Americans don't pay any more.

and forget the toyotas

Very true, the japanese will pay threw the nose to keep the customers quiet and not report it to the news.
Parts for Japanese cars are expensive. A good friend of mine had a 1986 Mazda Rx7 and the parts were real expensive, $400 for a starter, a brake job was over $600, Fuel filter expensive, oil filter expensive. In the end even IF you get a higher quality Japanese car the parts will cost triple of a USA car and all Alternators, starters, brakes have to be replaced in time. The Rx7 lasted 150k miles and it was junked.

I love Chrysler vehicles, from the 67 Satellite I drove in high school to the Durango we have now.
But the thought of supporting the UAW doesn't sit well with me.
We'll have to make some hard decisions before our next purchase.

I don't think GM is buying off anyone. Ford didn't take the money because they didn't need it, they just didn't want the govt telling them how to spend it. They wanted the money, they just didn't want the stipulations. I want the perfect vehicle as much as the next guy, but there will never be such a thing. GM vehicles have been too good to me for me to buy anything else. Uncle's 88 half ton 4x4 went for 260K until someone rear ended the fertilizer buggy he was pulling. Bent the frame rails up like a banana so insurance company totalled it. I sold my 89 half ton 4x4 to a good friend of mine with 150K on it. He drove it to about 215K then slid off the icy road one morning and hit a utility pole and shifted the frame rails. Both trucks had factory engine and trans. Guy at work drives a 92 Lumina with 200+K on it, all original. My 96 olds is at 150K and going strong. (Knock on wood). Friend of the family is putting a tranny in his Tauraus wagon over his xmas break from Ford. He just finished getting his son's F150 up and running because it needed a new head. Changing a light bulb every now and then is ok with me. I agree with the others on the fact that imports are overrated. Just because something isn't any worse, doesn't make it better. Parts are outrageous, and it is going to need the routine stuff. Brakes, alternators, etc, and that's if you can get them. Most parts stores in my area don't stock alot of that stuff. I suppose if you're closer to a big city, that is not as much as a problem.

I will be very hesitant to donate money to the big-3 to subsidize overpaid executives, poor management practices, and crooked unions with overpaid workers and corrupt union bosses. You can buy several "Japanese" brands that are made right here in USA with real American workers, paid decent wages, without corrupt unions, and with good management practices. And, IMHO make a much higher quality product. The big-3 need to go through bankruptcy, reorganize, break the unions back, move into new factories, cut managment perks and bonuses and get comptetitive in order to earn the customers respect. Tom

You can always tell a GM pickup from a mile away ! LOL only one lamp working.

Buick Rendezous were still selling very good and they stopped makeing them ? WHY ? Many customers complain that they did as they would buy another one if they could. The 3.4 engine choice was a bad one with all the coolant leaks and the wheel bearings were all junk wearing out VERY early.

after reading all these replies, I'm gonna start driving my farmall around town, now thats American!

UAW has to go back to their memberhsip and tell them straight-up what must be done. But--that won't happen and O'Bummer doesn't want it to happen. Why? Because he wants to be able to say to the UAW--"I saved your jobs!" (So now you'd better support me!!)

BTW-For 27 years in a row, the leading selling vehicle in the USA was the Ford F-150.

Guess you've been hanging around the liberals again; that's their usual ignorant response.

Too early to invest in the big three. We haven't heard them hitting bottom with a thud.
I recall some people made good bucks on Chrysler when Lee Iaccoca (spelling?) took over. Investors in Harley stock in the days before the near bankruptcy made money too.
The big three are not going away. They are just going to look, sound and smell different.

Bingo! on the imports being overrated. And grab your butt when you need to get one fixed!!!

Sold our 97 Plymouth Voyager to our son a few years ago. 165,000 miles on it. He drove it a couple of years and sold it to our daughter. 230,000 miles on it at that time. My daughter put another 35,000 on it and just sold it to a friend who is the fourth owner. So--this "lousy piece of American crap" is still on the road with 265,000 miles on it.

Absolute worst car I've ever come in contact with (and I've had a lot of contact with it becaus we are alwys fixing it) is my DIL's 2000 VW Jetta. The electrical problems this vehicle has had could stump an electrical engineer.

Its going to take some more time. American cars are as good as the imports. But they had lost out in the 80's with some bad products. Customer loyalty is a big thing. Takes many years to get it back if ever.

As far as buying a Honda assembled in Tenn or one of the others. Not for me.
Yes they are assembled here so some jobs are here. But were does the profit go?
Japan. Need to keep that money here.

Starting to feel that the USA is just becoming the place to sell your stuff.

Here is hoping our industries can get the next gen stuff worked out. They shure messed up with this gen.

Will our States give our big three all of that money like they did for the transplants to build new factories and train the people. I agree that some of the union rules and perks have to go, but without the unions soon the Japanese will not be paying a good wage either. They are not over here to help us out, it is our money that they want. Who is going to be paying the taxes. When they only make $10 an hour they probably won't even have pay any Federal taxes or at the low 10% rate. Of course then the big boy will be forced to raise all of the tax rates unless he gets good at printing money.

Yes--That"s part of the problem, A large number of these F-150 Ford trucks have never had anything other then a cardboard box in the bed.

a large chunk of chrysler so how is that "buying anerican"?

how much did Germany kick in to save Crysler?

I believe Ford is using smart marketing! A company considering bankrupcy will sell fewer vehicles. Ford is betting that people will buy Ford products because their purchase would be safer. In the near future, I believe GM and Chrysler will fall and Ford will prevail.

A commentary by Mark Morford. Oh so true:

This is what I think whenever I see someone plodding along the freeway or struggling through the city streets in some older and terminally bland or even brand new and yet still terminally bland Malibu or Cobalt or Taurus, Sebring or Nitro or Mustang or Corvette or Neon or hell, almost any car from any American manufacturer whatsoever...

I think: Oh, you poor thing. I think: Do you not have any friends? Did no one tell you? Have you not yet heard of this crazy thing called the Interweb? Did you not even bother to do ten minutes of research and comparison shopping before you purchased that squeaky, ill-built lump of misfit steel and crude design, homework which would've instantly revealed to you what even the most amateur automotive buff knows the instant she becomes a fan of quality engineering and design refinement and, you know, basic drivability?

This is what you would've learned: that American cars are, to this very day, still uniformly awful. Or if they're not awful, they're just passably mediocre. And your money would be oh so much better spent on German or Japanese or even Korean. I'm so sorry about your urine-yellow Chevy Aveo. Here, have my parking space.

You might disagree. You might say, hey wait a minute, not all American cars are as dreadful and ill-equipped as Sarah Palin at a science fair. There are a few exceptions, a few gems among the dirt clods.

Like the new... um, the Ford, uh, what was it again? Right. The Flex (that's not a car, but whatever). And hey, the new Fiesta is supposed to be hot, because they brought it over from Europe -- aka "land of wonderful, efficient, well-designed little cars we almost never see." And wasn't that big pseudo-gangster slab, the Chrysler 300, sort of cool about five years ago? Sure it was.

And you're right. Those cars are exactly that, exceptions. Rarities. Flukes. The truth is, American cars haven't been interesting or exceptional in decades. When it comes to small and efficient, there isn't a single truly desirable American car on the road today. And innovation? Dear God. The last new idea a U.S. manufacturer had was sticking a mini fridge under the seat of the Caravan. Neato.

And now here's the other thing I think when I hear that the bloated American auto industry is on the verge of complete collapse, failure, bankruptcy, that the Big Three -- Ford, GM, Chrysler -- are losing billions hand over tailpipe, and that external_link and Nancy Pelosi are right now considering shoveling many billions into their voracious maws to try and keep them afloat for a while longer, just so they can keep producing crap no one really wants.

I think: Are you kidding me? We have a chance to let this fat, lazy, top-heavy, SUV-glutted industry implode like it so very much deserves, and we might not take it? I think: What an opportunity. We could begin to reinvent the American automobile starting next week, and we might instead keep the old ways alive simply because the Big Three were too stupid and greedy to see past their gross SUV sales figures for the past 25 years? Come on.

Look. You are free to reminisce all you like about some hazy, throbbing, "American Graffiti"-tinted golden era of American cars, all about Steve McQueen and 'Cudas and '67 Mustangs and peeling out in the high school parking lot. Knock yourself out. But the truth is, this economic crisis might be our best chance yet to wipe the flabby, useless U.S. transportation slate clean and begin anew, armed with a whole new set of tools American auto manufacturing has never used before: efficiency, ingenuity, agility. Can you imagine?

I realize I am no economist. I fully understand there might be reasons far larger and more fiscally complicated to justify keeping the Big Three alive for awhile longer, simply because, like AIG, so many billions are wrapped up in their operations and in the various supply chains that support them, to let them all fail nearly simultaneously could rip a hole in our sinking ship of state far larger and more dangerous than the one that results from letting them suffer and die slowly, bleeding billions all the way.

What's more, I'm also not so heartless to ignore the brutal job losses, the tens of thousands of collapsed pension plans and failed retirement accounts that would result from the end of American auto industry. It would be horrible indeed. But maybe that's where the government's billions would be far more useful, to ease the meltdown and provide retraining.

(I am also urged to note that the enormous, overstuffed UAW isn't exactly a saint, either, and that a large part of the responsibility for Big Auto's lack of innovation and change lo these past decades rests squarely on its petulant shoulders, too. You can't blame all the ills of American auto on the greedy CEOs and their shortsighted accountants. Just most of them.)

Here's the upshot: The American auto market is the biggest in the world. Our near-religious adoration of cars isn't vanishing anytime soon. There are hundreds of billions of dollars still to be made. Let prehistoric Big Auto die now, put the old, tired, sickly circus elephant out of its misery, and watch what happens.

Innovation would skyrocket. Entrepreneurs would flood in. New and pioneering car companies -- or better yet, radical new ideas for urban human transport -- would flourish. New jobs would be created almost instantly. Those supply chains wouldn't vanish, they'd adapt. The American auto industry would convulse, struggle, acclimate, reinvent itself anew.

Hell, even most nnalert agree on this: You don't bail out lousy, overweight companies who've been dumping bad ideas on us since the Carter administration. Let the free market pull the trigger, and move on.

Yes, it might take awhile -- ten or twenty years, even -- before we'd see anything resembling a tolerable American vehicle that could compete with Toyota's manufacturing genius, Honda's simple quality, or any of the Germans' astonishing refinement or cool nnalert appeal. So what? Meantime, we'd all have to suffer driving Minis and Audis and Honda Fits while America figures out how to be ingenious and competitive again? Gosh, how horrible.

I can't argue the over paid executives and poor management, I thought there was only one union, the UAW. The skilled trades that work within the plants are all UAW members as far as I know. The crooked unions statement confuses me. Walter Reuther was the first union Boss (international president) of the UAW. That man did not make any more than the highest paid auto worker in the UAW system, at the time that was a GM toolmaker who worked a lot of overtime. The international UAW members are paid comparable to other international union members. Yes the UAW auto plants pay time and a half for overtime, (Federal Law) unlike a lot of employers in the south, and maybe the rest of the nation that will pay straight time for 69 hours of work. As for the over paid workers Henry Ford raised the starvation wage to five dollars a day to stop the high turn over of employees and because the work was monotonous. The company's and union recognize that today. What makes a worker in a Japanese auto plant a real American worker? I have heard that a Japanese auto plant pays more per hour than a US plant, they just don't have the benefits of a UAW worker. Like job security, (they enjoy being fired when they are injured on the job) They don't want a pension, they want to contribute to their own 401K plan, and if they loose their butt on that they always have social security to live happily ever after on. They haven't worked there long enough to think about retirement. What kind of a medical plan does the Japanese give their employees, Is it something like Wal-Marts? The only good management practices I know of is the daily anti-union rallies in the plants, and the smaller cars that naturally get better mileage per gallon than a larger vehicle. Look at Toyota's Tundra, it gets worse miles per gallon that Ford GM and Dodge.
What in the world is IMHO? Ford has the highest quality of any vehicle on the market. If Ford, GM, and Chrysler went bankrupt they would financially ruin hundreds of thousands if not millions of big and small investors. Where are these new factories you want them to move? The last I heard a new factory cost a lot to build. Just to build a paint facility back in 1984 cost one auto maker 350 million. The building is roughly 5 acres in size. I know of a small assembly plant that is 30 acres in size (cost over 1 million to build back in the early 20's) and that does not take into consideration the warehouse and paint facility and other buildings that support the assembly operation. That assembly plant turns out the best quality for their product of any other manufacture, that also includes Japanese. US auto makers are getting wages down. Some people are making 14 dollars an hour, limited medical, no retirement. You could live in Texas on 14 dollars an hour, it is kind of hard to do the same in the north where the weather is much more severe. AND WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD ANYONE WANT TO SUPPORT THE PEOPLE THAT GAVE US DECEMBER SEVENTH 1941? Would you buy anything from our friend Mr. Bin Laden (AKA Mr. 911)? I would not take anything from him as a gift. You seem to have a strong hatred for US companies and blue collar workers.

If you were a 40 to 60 year old US auto worker you would not have reprinted someone else's stupid comentary. Sounds like you are in bed with the people that killed 2400 sleeping sailors. You will be supporting Mr. 911 next.

So what?? That's the owner's business.

I can disprove a couple of these opinions.

Most all the cars on the road look alike and you can't even tell what they are because they don't even label them well at all. So much for superior styling.

The Cadillac Catera was a German car. So much for superior German engineering as they were nothing but a pile of JUNK !

abundant? I think you misread. The big three sell great cars everywhere else.

Number 1: You are too chicken to even post your own name and e-mail.

Number 2: You are too ignorant to even spell Chrysler correctly.

Number 3: You don't belong on this forum, take your ignorance and hate somewhere else.

Number 4: If you are an American, then be part of the solution, not just a friggen problem that only repeats what someone else has written.

Number 5: If you are so truely in love with German cars, go buy one, but don't tell me what I have to drive. I am plenty smart enough to choose what best fits my needs at a reasonable price, and have worked hard enough to pay cash for it. I have never had a lease or car payment in my life. My money stays in America to support American workers....who supported me throughout my working career.

Number 6: You should go live in Germany or somewhere else in Europe where you can drive your BMW or Porche head on into the front of a MAN bus and then you can enjoy your ride in a VW ambulance to some big town hospital where they are using American made medical equipment to CT scan or MRI your badly mangled body. Well maybe you'll refuse that option because it is made in the US. The Germans will be happy to not waste any public funded medical Deutche Marks on your pathetic case.

Number 7: You poor pathetic feeble minded sap!

Paul in MN

Sorry didnt work on me. I have owned only American made cars. I will only own another when its time.
My Brothers who make these cars are not perfect and they need some fixing but they are my brothers ( and sisters).

If you think that emulating a country that as a normal condition of employment. You must work 14 hr days and then party with the boss to show your a good company man. Only to sleep a couple hrs just to do it again.
Jam your self and 200 just like you into a train made to hold 100. Then walk to your apt thats 100sqr' by 100sqr'. All to make cars you could never dream to buy your self. Well may you could after 20 years if you ever do get that promotion.
Go ahead.

I guess they do have some advantages but thats not the kind I want.