gladwins

The diffs are sourced from Mazda aren't they? The same one as the Miata?

As far as American cars go, I've had both ends of the reliability spectrum. One of my best cars I ever had was a 93' Probe GT. 90k miles (not a ton but still) and no problems except the exhaust pipe separated from the muffler the day I drove it off the lot. Oh, and wheel bearings and an 02 sensor. Still, the car was solid as a rock and I drove it pretty hard.

On the other end, the car that sent me to my imports was a 97' Explorer Sport that needed new 4 wheel drive hubs within the first 10 months. The stupid thing would "bang" in 4WD everytime I took a corner, supposedly the hubs would never fully engage, or disengage... Oh, and the brakes warped in the same timeframe.

The worst car I've ever owned was an Oldsmobile Cutlass. Sure, it was an 87' model but still, it was so bad, when I think about how many other people could have been burned by those same models, I'm not surprised to see GM in the position it's in now. They burned A TON of people, trust me.

And, they wouldn;t have run the whole "Road to Redemption" campaign back in 2004 which basically was an apology for the "crap" that they built over the years before. They also released a similar campaign right after they announced the bankruptcy threat back in December.

I've had 7 Hondas over the years and out of all of them, the only issue I ever had was a throwout bearing on a 97 Accord. But that one was bought used and the lady who owned it before pretty much taught herself how to drive stick on it... The other thing I noticed is Honda brakes suck (excluding the S ) Not so bad on more recent models, but my 98 Accord needed rotor resurfacing once a year. Other than that, nothing.

Oh wait, take that back. My Acura MDX took a hit on 128 from a Taurus doing about 80mph when he rearended us. That vehicle was never the same afterwards...

Back to American vehicles, really, Fords are up there. And I mean it, they are RIGHT THERE witht the best of the imports. THe only thing holding me back from buying one is their lack of upgraded engines which they are finally getting around to. They let things whither on the vine in the engine dept. and most of the time they were sorely lacking in the power dept. next to its rivals. Things are about to change though, they have Ecoboost T/C engines coming as well as a slew of new diesels.

GM, on the other hand is still hit or miss. The new CTS has been scoring very low in reliability. For a new model that is supposed to show GM in a better light, it has way too many little problems reminiscent of GM back in the 80's. But my biggest beef with them is this stupid bailout BS. The company hasn't made a profit since 2004, their viability in the industry has been waning for decades. Yet they still have 8 brands, including HUMMER which started back in 2002 as a novelty with big profits and is now the laughing stock of the industry. Typical short tewrm GM thinking. Sounds harsh but they are finally getting what they deserve, and I have no remorse for their position. They did it to themselves.

Anyways, I'm not one to get into Domestic vs Import debates (since all of them are my customers ) but for those sold on imports, don't get too stubborn. Import brands can go south too (Ask Suzuki, Mitsubushi, Isuzu and Nissan), things are not always rosy.

Buy what you like, you're experience is the best guide to future purchases.

zzziippyyy

Well spoken



Thats what i think.

Bass

[QUOTE=zzziippyyy,Feb 24 2009, 04:41 PM]^ there in my garage, want me to bring them down to you. I got a $50 says it aint gonna happen

zzziippyyy

Nope and that wasnt a problem it was a cosmetic issue that got caused by an accident not mine. BTW the headlight was backed into before I purchased the car. It was not a product of build quality so it does not belong on the list.