Kyras

VERY nice. Thanks for the photos. Do you have any pictures of your own car?

cthree

Absolutely. A Ford GT

mns2k

Mine is exactly like the red convertible. The color is Victory Red. Will try to get some inside shots this weekend. My interior is also red. It sounds bad but the only all red is the seats and waterfall. The rest is interspersed with black.

silvershadow

I have had several American cars since 1994 - a Ford Explorer, a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe, and I currently own a Ford F350 truck. I have also had two Tauruses, a Maxima, a Dodge Intrepid, and currently have a Ford Five Hundred all as company cars. My experience has been mixed. Of the cars I have owned, the Explorer started giving me electrical problems at about 60,000 miles and also had some strange problems that it should not have had (the fuel line had to be replaced because it cracked for no reason - yes a metal fuel line cracked). The two Tauruses I refer to as POS because they were excrement. Interior pieces falling off, check engine lights, shoddy interiors, uncomfortable seats, slow acceleration, bad brakes, ponderous handling.

The intrepid I called an under car - it was underpowered, understeered like a pig and the brakes were so bad, you had to change your underwear.

The Maxima was great - I was only supposed to have it for 3 years, but I kept it for 5 years, and only gave it up because the company made me. So far the Ford Five Hundred has been a pretty nice car. My only compaint is that the drivetrain is noisy, but it only has 13,000 miles on it, so we shall see how the reliability is as it ages.

The Tahoe was a wonderful SUV, however it did have some minor problems covered under warranty. The most serious of which was that the knock sensors corroded. But it was supremely comfortable, chewed up highway miles, had a great sound system, and drove wonderfully. I would buy one again in a "heartbeat". The only complaint I have about the interior was that the dash was made out of cheezy plastic (hard, cheap).

The Ford F350 is new and so far has been great. It rides well on the highway, and the diesel besides being very powerful (325 hp, 570 ft-lbs torque) gets pretty good mileage for a large truck. I routinely see about 17 mpg around town and have gotten 19 - 22 mpg on the highway.

So the short answer to the question of whether I would buy an American product is - yes, as I have recently done just that. With that said, I hear that Nissan, Toyota, and perhaps Honda are going to be bringing heavy duty trucks (meaning 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks) into the American market in the next few years, so I'll reserve judgement on replacing my 1 ton truck until I see how the Honda, Toyota, and Nissan trucks stack up.

svatne

All you have to do is read Consumer Reports reliability scores for the last couple years and you can see that American cars, and most German cars now, have very poor ratings. Who consistently has the high ratings? Honda and Toyota. Pretty much says it all as far as I am concerned.

ralper

Whats so very interesting about that is as I read through Consumer reports and see the rating, I expect to see very high ratings for reliability for Honda and Toyota and am disappointed when I don't. I expect to see considerably lower rating for American cars and am surprised when I don't.

For the most part, the Japanese cars and the American cars wind up with exactly the ratings that I expect.

Chris Stack

My real problem with the domestics (besides my aforementioned interior fetish ) is that they start out relatively well, but once they hit about 50k miles, they are pretty much clapped out. My two year old, 42k mile Acura still feels almost perfectly new. Put 42k on an American car, and the switchgear starts feeling loose, the suspension spongy, the interior bits wearing down, the steering feels vague, etc etc etc. American cars just don't seem to last like Japanese ( I have little first hand knowledge with the Euros), and I think this is why their resale is so abysmal.

Matt_in_VA

As I have posted here before are the root of alot of the evils IMO of the plight that American companies are now facing.

I see it, everyday in the decisions that my management makes based on their comp plans and that they plan on retiring in three years but are comped on the bottom line NOW.

Matt_in_VA

I have been "pig headed" since the late 70's that as far as I am concerned the only two words that one needed to know are: Honda and Toyota.

Our Exploder experience has helped me cement that thought. The jury is still out on our Infinity. But I think that $170 each for hood lift struts is totally outrageous!

paS2K

During our trip to New Zealand a few months ago, we rented a touring sedan....one on the N island for 4 days and another on the S island for 2 weeks. Frugal Jerry sought out a 'local company' rather than Hertz, Avis, etc. In both cases, our car was a 1995 vintage Nissan with 70-80k miles. Neither were stellar sporty cars, BUT both were in good condition with very little sign of their age. I saved about 50% on the deal....compared to renting a new model

Apparently, there is something in Japan whereby the inspection laws get more and more rigorous as the vehicle ages (someone told me that it's a method to encourage trading for new vehicles/ propping up auto production ). In any event, as the 10th anniversary the inspection cost gets prohibitive and most people sell 'em. These very serviceable vehicles are then shipped to New Zealand for the frugal folks (and rental agencies) to drive for another 10 years Maybe the same applies in Australia...maybe Jonas knows