Anyone noticed that 90% of the 'what's wrong with my car?' questions are about american cars?

Question

Anyone car to speculate why that might be and could it be related to Ford/GM/Chrysler tanking while Honda/Toyota re thriving?

Answer 1

If you searched Yahoo! Answers-Japan (for Honda/Toyota) or Yahoo! Answers-South Korea (for Hyundai) you would see TONS of questions asking 'what's wrong with my car?' from Yahoo! users in those countries.

I take it you neglected to do this before asking your question?

Answer 2

Actually, at the auto parts store I manage, it runs about 50-50 foreign-domestic. Most problems are with Hondas and Toyota trucks, (older ones,) and Nissans. However, the Jags still have a reputation. The saying is you have to own two so you have something to drive while the other one is in the shop. When I was a young person everyone was driving bigger, more powerful cars, with big engines and lots of torque and horsepower. They were easy to come by and cheap to buy, too. Now it's more then a few years later and the easy buys are little foreign cars with little engines. Most young people do the same thing we used to do with the used cars we drove. They make them as fast and powerful as they can. They can squeeze a lot of horsepower out of them, but not too much more torque. They still can pull those little cars around pretty well and they are pretty quick. Although I believe they have about as much character as a blender, it's what is affordable to the new generation and the kids love them. It's their choice. We still get performance parts for them because those parts are in demand.

Answer 3

well this would be because we as americans have this attitude to neglet are vehicles. hence why there always breaking down. Honda, Toyota and Nissan have wonderful service programs for their owners. But price what it cost to fix a Honda if you keep it for 300k compaired to an American car. Also if you pay attention some of the American vehicles that people are asking about are on average 10 plus yrs old and they would like to save money by working on them thereselves and I will tell them what they need to know if I know the answer. the reason Honda and Toyota are thriving because you can get better initial reliability from those makers

Answer 4

I have no respect for US vehicles due to their design and reliability factors. Where is the imagination from the design teams? Where is the research and development for ensuring their customers purchase a vehicle that will last a good 10 to 15 years without serious mechanical problems and expenses? The only 'aged' US cars you really see are one's that have had plenty of work done to them for which the owner's could probably have bought 2 vehicles!

I have only bought Japanese due to their reliabilty and customer service but I had a shock when my Honda's V6 transmission failed at 64K and Honda did not do a recall knowing they had a fault with a customer supplied transmission. I now own a Nissan Titan as this is a great fullsize working truck but would have bought a Toyota if they had a truck to compete with the Titan. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND HONDA'S TO ANYONE...ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM THEIR HQ's!!!!


(jeremy clarkson rocks!!)

Answer 5

You can't draw any conclusions that X cars are more or less reliable than Y cars. None of the statistics from Y!A are available, and more importantly, they are not random - so the percentages are what statisiticians call 'self-selected' and cannot be applied to a larger population.

Kind of like radio call-in 'surveys' about who you are going to vote for. As long as each data point 'chooses' to be in the survey, it's not random.

Another explanation is that people with Honda and Toyotas just take them to their dealers and don't tell us about them.

Or Honda and Toyota owners use some other website for their questions.

Or perhaps you need to correlate the data with a full moon, or the alignment of the planets and stars.

Answer 6

Remember, car manufacturing is an international sport. Many Totyotas are manufactured in the US, Ford Crown Victorias were, on my last check, assembled mostly in Italy. I'll bet most Ford Escorts are hecho en Mexico. That Daimler may be a Chrysler; that Jag is a Ford, vice-versa.
Car manufacturing technology is pretty much the same across all free-enterprise capitalist worlds. The questions to ask, is "anybody asking questions on how to fix their Yugo?"

Answer 7

It's sad, but the American car industly is more concerned about profits than quality cars. The research and development lags far behind the Japanese, which is one of the reasons American autos don't measure up as well. The quality control is not as good and the company's are run by moron MBAs more concerned about short term earnings than innovative and reliable vehicles.

Answer 8

Yeah, American cars have gone downhill. They use foreign parts, but they just aren't put together well. I do still like Cadillacs and have no troubles with them.
The new Hondas and Toyotas are just too expensive for me because of demand.

Answer 9

Foreign Engineers are more precise in the finest measurements possible. Our engineers are out for a browny point and a fat paycheck....Sorry all, true story. Besdides, american car companies make a lot of money on parts as well as selling the vehicles to us suckers.

Answer 10

Oh,you care to post your numbers with your so-called stats. Ibelieve that right now Toyota and Honda are the only two Car co. with recalls going on