Why do people hate domestic cars?

Question

I dont get why everybodys crazy over these import cars, The north american automotive manufacturers have caught up with the foreign companies in performance and quality control

Compacts:

Cobalt/G5 - powerful, well priced

Caliber - Roomy, inventive, fun

Focus - Roomy, Fast, lots of options

Midsize:

G6/Malibu - Low price, comforable, a generally great car

Fusion - Great interior, faster than it looks

Stratus - qiuck, redesigned for 08

Full size sedan:

Dodge Charger - IT'S BACK! seems to sum it up well
and the SRT-8 has a 425HP HEMI!, even the v-6 has balls

Chevrolet Impala/Pontiac Grand Prix - A bit old but still a good car, being replaced in 08 with a RWD Grand Prix/Impala

Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Marquis - Driven by old people and cops, Dead in 09 replaced by the Ford 500

Sports Cars:

Camaro/GTO - back in 08/09

Monte Carlo - redesigned as RWD in 08, Dale Jr. drives one

Challenger - back in 08/09

Mustang - redesigned for 08 possible return of the 5.0L

Answer 1

I really don't understand the negative comments about American vehicles.

I still have the 1985 Dodge Omni I bought new. It has 195,000 miles on it. I did replace the clutch and transmission at about 150,000 miles but it got a tough workout hauling some big guys in my car pool back and forth to work for about eight years. The engine has not been torn down except to replace a head gasket.

My 1988 Dodge caravan went 104,000 miles before it needed a sensor and a head gasket. It never rattled or had a problem before then. The people I sold it to drove it till it had 200,000 miles and sold it to a cousin.

A 1993 Jeep Cherokee went more than 100,000 miles with no visits to the dealer before we traded it for the 1998 Cherokee that had 110,000 trouble free miles when we traded it in for a Jeep Liberty. That went 65,0000 miles with no breakdowns.

I really don't get it.

If I can have five American built vehicles go that far with no problems what more do you want for "quality"?

I suspect there are people who abuse cars and I know for a fact some foreign car owners won't admit it if their car has problems.

Three of them worked where I do and they were seen taking their cars in for work by someone who also works with us. They drove a different car to work and made excuses like, "the wife needed my car today." Or , I drove the truck today because I have to pickup some big stuff on the way home." Blah blah blah.......

Foreign products can suck the blood out of any nations economy if there is no balance of trade.

From the excellent service I have received there is no reason for me to consider a foreign vehicle.

Answer 2

The biggest reason people repeat buying import cars after having the first one is because, when a person decides to trade upl they find that the import still has resale value! I have seen a Ford truck bought in December priced at $62000 then 7 months later the same dealer has a truck with all the same options on sale for $48000 If ford depreciates the new truck 14000 before it even drives off the lot a truck that has been driven is worth vary little ! You will never see this happen to a V W or Toyota and that is a big reason why people that buy a import will buy a second one !

Answer 3

Two words. Gas Mileage. Yea their getting better but still not many compete with the imports and if so the prices arent comparable. The imports are proven to run forever, hell i ripped the back axel off of a mazda 626 and it still kept goin, what does that say for mazda's hell yea i would take another one of someones hands again. I got it for nothing and it got treated like a mix of a monster truck and a rally truck. I can still drive it if i have gas and a battery, she still starts i checked about 3 weeks ago.

But i must also say, there will never be a replacement for displacement. American muscle ALL THE WAY.

Answer 4

There are too many problems with domestics. One they arent reliable, two most of them are all noise, and three some of them dont even look stylish. When it comes to muscle cars, they have alot but they arent reliable. Now if we talk about cars from about 10 to 15 years ago then you could say that domestics rock. I would love to own a '89 5.0L Mustang. When it comes to imports over domestics, Imports are a lot more reliable and cheaper to Enhance. Most domestics still have japanese motors in them. I believe its the dodge stratus stx. You call domestics, domestics when some have been copies of imports. Example, A Dodge Stealth is a 3000GT. An Eagle Talon, Plymout Laser are Eclipses.

Answer 5

Until 1984, I drove VW bugs all of the time.
I let my girlfriends son drive my last 1967 VW until he ran it out of oil and it finally went paws up in about 1987.

I bought a 1985 Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo (my first new car).
The hood release broke - that's it.

In 1988 my wife traded her Honda Prelude in on a Dodge Raider (a Mitsubishi Montero). No problems with that either - had it about 10 years.

For some reason, I traded in the Mirage on a Mustang GT convertible in 1989 (wife couldn't/wouldn't do shift on the Mirage).

It was a total piece of crap
The steering was out of alignment, tachometer quit, exterior and interrior pieces constantly fell off or cracked.
I don't remember what all else (I've tried to forget, but in any case, spent about 50% of the first year taking it back to the dealer.

We were were both working and really needed TWO cars.
They should have planned and included an extra car for free for every one the sold.

It would usually crap out late in the week and Saturdays were booked up most of the time, so we had to take it in on a workday.
One of us got to drive the other one 20-45 miles (one way - the wrong one) and then drive back to the other job.

We finally just started making a Saturday appointment a couple of weeks ahead of time, and then canceling it we DIDN'T need it.

We decided that the rear seat was just a storage bin for parts until it came time to have them put back on.

Never really got any better, we just got tired of taking it back, and
quit after the 1 year warranty was up and just fixed the major stuff after that.
Luckily we'd thought ahead and bought the extended service plan for $1500, as the automatic transmission quit at the low 40K mile mark.

I let a neighbor kid test-drive it and he totaled it.
It was the happiest day of my life!

Should be needless to say, but that was our first, last, and definitely only American car.

Answer 6

I'm in the UK and the trouble is, even the current mustang GT is lame. (I work for a garage and we get them in a fair bit). For a V8 so called 'muscle car', it's terrible. It's slow, doesn't handle, has a terrible top speed yet is made out to sound amazing. I hate to say it but other countries just make better cars. I'd never have an American can for the reasons that I said above. I haven't found one that's different yet! Even a Roush tuned Mustang doesn't go round corners!

Answer 7

its just that- caught up. Would you rather buy the original widget, or the one that took the other guy twenty years to figure out how to build it.


Plus, they still can't compete on drivetrain sophistication, or content. Oh, and the dreadful reputation of being a rental car/ easy credit car (think jd byrider) with better,(than it used to be) but still worse reliability than their japanese counterparts.

Answer 8

imports are in NO WAY better quality than domestics, i don't know why people think that. EVERY car company has defects and recalls, there is just this dumb public perception that imports are somehow built better. oh and clair, by the way, you are talking about a FORD of course it's gonna be slow, how about the corvette ZO6? NOT slow. i don't care what anybody says about factory this or that i love my country and i love it's cars, there is nothing wrong with them.

Answer 9

because people are still getting the idea that import cars are "better than the domestics" but sooner or later I am pretty sure the domestics are going to make a comeback in the auto market.

Answer 10

I am all for buying and supporting american made cars...They have a bad rep but all manufacturers have some type of problems with certain cars....not just american manufacturers....you have to research before you buy.