Why are Americans so anti-American?

Question

When it comes to cars anyway. GM and Ford sell very well outside the US, yet here in America just about everyone I know will say GM & Ford = Garbage! It could be a brand new model or something that's been around for years but it's no good to them. I hear the same tired old stories when I talk to friends about cars.... "I bought a Ford back in 84 and it broke down, I'll never buy another one!" Uhhh, that was over 20 years ago dude. "I don't care they suck" Do we Americans have no pride left?

Answer 1

I totaly agree with you american cars are just as good as Japanese cars. I have worked on many cars and I have found out that bolth cars stand the test of time just as good but American cars seem to use better metal than Japanese cars I always see some rust or rot on more Japanese cars than I see on American cars. It's all because of magazines like Motor Trend and Car&Driver they are always bashing American cars and I think that allot of people have come to believe that American cars are not as refined or they don't have the same quality as American cars. The only time when this would have been true would be in the early 1980's when GM, Ford, and Chrysler were all starting to convert to front wheel drive platfoms GM's first front wheel drive mid size platform was the X-body (chevy citation, Buick skylark,pontiac J2000) they had lots of recalls on that platform and I think that this could have been one of the reasons why the press started to bash American cars. But any American car from the late 1980's to present day will last almost forever if its taken care of just like any other car out their if you maintain it, it will last. Example I have a 92 Chevy Lumina coupe (W-body) that has almost 130,000 miles with the original engine and transmission the car drives and runs like its new the only complaint is the interoir was in terrible condition when I bought the car but I have since then restored the interoir and now it looks great and best part is that it still gets me around 19 to 20 MPG with mixed high way and around town driving. I also own a 1993 Pontiac Grand Prix LE four door (also a W-body) with 159,000 miles it also has the original engine and transmission, It has the sport aperence package with 16 inch wheels and sport interor the car looks new inside and out and it runs great no problems still gets great gas mileage and still has good acceleration all of the electronic features still work on both cars and they still have cold A/C and both cars have great radios systems. American cars are just as good as anything else out their it all depends on how you take care of them

Answer 2

GM or Ford do not produce garbage at all! They have a had time undoing 20 years of mediocre products. The 70's/80's/and early 90's were not good days for the Big 3 in terms of quality. Lately they are producing much better products and quality ones. People just got tired of their 84' or 91' Chevy's breaking down and they moved in droves to Toyota and Honda to name a few Japan based auto companies.

The one point the U.S. auto manufacturers are missing is producing a class leading vehcile. They too often produce a new product that has been on the market for years from other manufactures. The Ford Edge is a good example, a nice SUV, but is not a first rate product and many auto manufacturers produce a better SUV's with more horsepower, better refinement and interior quality. A "Good" car in not good enough to sway the American buyer, they want a "Great" product. This is why Ford's and Chevy's compete on price rather than value. Try finding a $3000 rebate on a new Japanese or German car.

The Big 3 are improving, but still need to work harder!

Answer 3

Well, this is different throughout the country. Take Texas, still very big on American car manufactures. Apperantly that is why Toyota is building a new factory there, to win them over. Toyota is even sharing information and technology with American manufactures, I guess a goodwill thing. In certain areas of the country American cars are still number one, but it certainly seems it is going in the other direction.

With import vehicles now being made in the U.S. and American cars now being made all around the world, a Toyota really isn't any less American than a GM. They provide many jobs for Americans and keep adding more, while it seems that the Amercian manufactures are laying people off left and right.

Also, in the 80's the import vehicles were very well designed, and lasted a very long time. During those days, most people drove an American car, it didn't take them long to realize that the imports -especially Toyotas and Hondas- were far better than the Amercian cars. Their technology was better, they had a great desire to grow and be the best, especially in America while American manufactures were only competing between themselves.

So, without a doubt, those imports were far better than the American cars available back then, and they earned that reputation. However, American car makers have improved greatly. Their vehicles are much much more reliable today then they were back then, they will last just as long as those imports. At the same time the import vehicles are not being built as well as they were, their quality is slipping. But you will still see people swear up and down that Toyotas, or Hondas are superior and will last longer. It's all reputation. Most of the people you hear saying it are either people who haven't owned a new car since that 1985 Accord and still think all Accords are built as well as they were back then, or people who have no experience of their own, but have just been told over and over that imports are much better cars. (Like people who are just learning to drive)
Some people are still just mad, they feel like American manufacture were holding back, making too much profit and not giving them the quality they deserved.

So it's all about the reputation. Hondas and Toyotas are having more and more problems with every new model that rolls off the line, while the American cars are getting better, still many complaints, but no worse than the imports. Not that it can't go in either direction in the future though. We will just have to see.

Answer 4

Your notion of what it is to be an American may hold true for you but those of us who voted for what our notion of being an American holds true for us. Just because you support the government in power doesn't make you an American. America was created through a rebellion against the British when we found that our freedom was being taken away by the British government. In the same respect, being an American doesn't mean that you blindly support the government when it does America grave harm or tarnish the image of our nation. The easiest way for people to bring people into conformity is to question people's patriotism. It certainly worked for the Nazis during WW II. I say if you voted and wished great things for the nation in days to come then you are an American and a patriot, regardless of your party affiliation. Obama supporters want the best for America and they elected a person who they think will make America better not worse. If that's being anti-American because they say that the current situation in America needs to be change, then I would like to know how you define being American and not anti-American.

Answer 5

Depends on what you have had bad luck with. And what you want the car to do, and how it does it. I've been a Mopar guy for years for performance cars, but drive top model Buicks for daily transportation. Never had a problem. Had a Honda wagon once, great little car. The wreck with a Chevy which destroyed the Honda and bent the Chevy's bumper kept me from buying another. Sometimes it's just what your Dad drove when you were young.

Answer 6

It is all a matter of preference.. I have had better luck with American automobiles then with Japanese cars. Japanese cars in my opinion are overrated. They break down like any other cars. They require maintenance just like any other cars, they can quit running if you crash into a brick wall. If a vehicle is driven at very high rates of speed over potholes they are going to need alignment like all other cars.

Japanese cars maybe better engineered, but American Cars are getting to be very good quality automobiles. The problem was the fact that an American car can be built in japan, but if the engineering wasn't very good, The car is a piece of ****. The same goes the other way around. American Cars are probably going to be as good as the Japanese cars were 20 years ago.

Answer 7

With the extremely high wages American automakers earn because of the UAW, maybe the companies have to scrimp on research and development which results in a crappy product that Americans themselves don't like anymore.

Answer 8

Because America sucks!

Answer 9

Because in our country they try to sell us their junk. Why? I don't know why, but it's the truth.