I bought a Toyota Corrola in 1980(?) to replace our '71 Olds Cutlass. It was the middle of the gas crisis and more fuel efficient made a lot of sense. The dealer in Racine, Wisconsin gouged us on price, but the car ran well for many miles. It was generally superior to the GM products we purchased afterwards. After a while, the US auto makers caught up in terms of my experiences with quality. The last two Ford vans have had some problems (engine & brakes), but been pretty good otherwise. My wife loves her Accura TL and I thought it was relatively cheap. I blame the United Auto Workers for all the industry problems. They became too powerful. Regards, Bob S.
On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 8:14 PM, paul stenquist<pnstenqu...@comcast.net> wrote: > J.D. Power does a variety of research studies. They measure initial > satisfaction three year satisfaction and long term durability among other > things. Initial Satisfaction tends to be a measure of dealership schmoozing > more than anything else. The U.S. guys used to get killed on that, but they > learned from the Japanese, and now many excel-- GM dealers in particular. > American carmakers always did fairly well in long term durability, in spite > of what you might hear. These days they do even better. I believe that three > of the top six brands in durability were American in the last surveys. > > In terms of people defending their brand, other studies show that import > buyers are much more likely to do that than are American car buyers. It's PC > to drive an import. It's uncool to drive an American car. I used to write a > column for the service industry. It appeared in Hearst's Motor magazine, and > it was called "Troubleshooter." The idea was to help service people with > problems they couldn't solve. I had access to all the engineers and factory > bulletins and tried to sort things out for the guys in the field. Our > audience was largely domestic service people, but I got plenty of letters > from import mechanics as ell. I rarely got letters from consumers -- with > two notable exceptions. Honda and Peugeot. Honda owners were very distraught > about recurring head gasket problems on Civics. But they always prefaced > their complaint with praise for their car and a profession of deep love. > They were all sure that they're car was an exception and all the other > Hondas were problem free. Peugeot owners had myriad problems, and once in a > while one of them would search out my phone number and call me. They were > begging for help. Everything went wrong with those cars. But, still, they > loved them. Go figure. > > Car research can be very misleading, because there's a lot going on. But in > the states, the intelligentsia drive imports. It's part of their calling > card. They won't be caught dead in an American made car. Their prejudices > are based on bullshit, but they're powerful. > Paul > On Jun 4, 2009, at 9:00 PM, William Robb wrote: > >> >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "paul stenquist" >> Subject: Re: Consumer Reports on "cool cameras" >> >> >>> He had it completely wrong. Consumer Reports recommends all Toyotas and >>> no GM cars. For the most part, they're apologists for any car made outside >>> the U.S. In my opinion J.D. Power is much more accurate. I worked with them >>> over they years, and they were untouchable at any price. They gave very >>> high grades to GM cars. >> >> I guess the questions are: >> >> What are their criteria? Is it initial owner impression or is it long term >> reliability? >> Are they testing the vehicles to failure or depending on consumer >> feedback? >> If it's consumer feedback, there is still a large contingent of people >> with the "my great grand daddy drove a Ford, my grand daddy drove a Ford, my >> daddy drove a Ford, and by gumm, I'm not about to plunk my ass into the >> drivers seat of a Sake burner" attitude around my neck of the woods, though >> it seems to be more of a half ton truck driver's mental illness. >> >> I had an uncle in Montana who wouldn't have a Japanese car on his >> driveway. He'd fought them as a marine in WWII, and as far as he was >> concerned, the war wasn't over, it's just the shooting that had ended. >> He was pretty uncomfortable when I showed up on his doorstep driving a >> BMW. >> Probably if he hadn't been standing on his doorstep at the time it would >> have been better for him. >> >> Around here, there are a lot more old Toyotas still on the road than old >> GMs Fords or Chryslers, so I'm not sure what they would be apologizing for >> on Toyota's behalf. They seem to make a pretty long lived automobile. >> >> William Robb >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
