My buddy is a mechanic at a Toyota dealership, they're not as reliable as
people think they are. They have just as many problems as other
manufacturers. I don't subscribe to that mentality that most people believe
jap scrap is more reliable than other cars. My wife's 97 ford contour has
had not one lick of problem up until this weekend, I changed the water pump
at 90,000k's. We have had it since 98. I just worked on a supra not more
than two months ago which needed a new cam, worn lobes, warped head, so
don't tell me that they're more reliable. Same goes for our Honda accord,
replaced the cam at 130,000k's, again worn lobes. I quess they use cheap
metal. I'm currrently trying a Hyundai sonota, and will never buy one of
those again, nice looking car, but never again. All of these cars were a one
owner brand new off the lot vehicles. I'm currently looking for a new car,
and may go back to a European car, particular a German made car.

> wrote in message
...
> There will always be those that can not afford a new car, that
> will be there to buy up all of the used cars.
>
>
> mike hunt
>
>
>
> John Ockerbloom wrote:
> >
> > In article >, >
wrote:
> > >GMs problem is primarily a PR problem and the survey backs that
> > >up. What they were doing ten to five years ago is hurting them
> > >today. They need only convince todays buyers, of what we in the
> > >industry already know, that the vehicle they and Ford are
> > >building TODAY are among the finest available on the market
> >
> > Er, I've been hearing them say that for nearly 25 years now. "Really,
> > the cars we build *now* are much better!" You can only do that so long
> > before people stop listening. (As for me, I'll start paying attention
> > when the Consumer Reports long-term reliability survey figures for Ford
> > and GM consistently stay up with the best Japanese manufacturers. Those
> > manufacturers were still well ahead of them on that measure, at last
check.)
> >
> > >New vehicle buyers in the US replace their vehicle with another
> > >new vehicle in three to four years. The majority of those that
> > >roam the NG are USED vehicle buyer, not NEW vehicle buyer, their
> > >opinion of the used vehicle they bought does not mean a hill of
> > >beans to todays new vehicle buyers, in any event.
> >
> > What are those frequent new car buyers going to do with the cars they
> > replace? Unless they want to collect them on their lawn or keep
expanding
> > their garages, they're going to want to sell them or trade them in. And
> > what will they be able to get for them? That depends on how much those
> > used vehicle buyers are willing to pay. Which means that new-car buyers
> > *should* care about how fast their cars depreciate (which is quite fast
> > for many GM and Ford models), if they care about keeping their overall
> > auto expenses down.
> >
> > You might as well spend a little more up front for a better-built, more
> > reliable car that isn't going to lose its value as fast, whether you're
> > planning to resell it in a few years or keep it until the wheels fall
off.
> >
> > (Or, if you think that GM and Ford have had an undeservedly bad rep,
then
> > the smart move to save money is buy one of their cars at the 3-4 year
mark
> > for cheap. If they really are reliable, you should then be able to
> > keep them for many more years, and save big bucks. But as for us,
> > we've been happy with our now-16-year-old Toyota, and will probably get
> > something fairly similar when it's time to replace it.)
> >
> > John Mark Ockerbloom
> > --
> > Due to excessive spam, the email address shown in this post is invalid.
> > If you need to reach me by email, see http://pobox.upenn.edu/~ockerblo/
> > for my current contact information.