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Well manufacturers tries to protect their designs. I get it. You R&D your azz off and you should reap the rewards. Like I said before IF the domestics made a car that had the longevity, quality to make it lasted 15 years with littleor no issues that would be one thing. But in my experiences with domestic brands it’s been only about 30% satisfactory. I had a few cars that ran great. Sure a few issues but nothing major.
I had a Chevy truck that the dealer called the white albatross. No joke. He has a mechanic that worked on that truck for 4 weeks straight. Worse vehicle I ever bought. Dropped a valve. , caught fires d lost a trans.It literally spent about 3 months in the shop one year. And I went to get it, the transmission wouldn’t work right. Can you imagine how frustrating it is to have truck that you can’t drive, dealer can’t fix and you’re stuck.
My dodge truck was in the shop after two weeks of ownership. Two damn weeks and it’s in the shop. It was downhill from there, by 72,000 mile had to rebuild the engine. Tha was after replacing the front and rear axle.
The damn battery was replaced three times by the dealer. It would just die. No reason. I carried a battery in the cab to jump it. I finally went to sears and got a Die Hard. It never had another issue starting. But it cost me $200 even though it was under warranty
Bad pressure sensor shot power steering fluid in the wiring harness. Dealer attempted repair.
I ended up figuring it out myself. Got my money back. Which was nice.
I’m not saying imports are perfect. They have issues too. I recognize that. Hey I used to scoff at buying imports. You wouldn’t of caught me dead in a Toyota 20 years ago. But after years of issues with domestics got tired and in 2004 I bought my first import. And that suv for 12 years was impeccable. I hated selling it. I had three issues. Two were less than $80 repairs and one was about $800 but I chose to do the timing belt at the same time. The repair would of been about $400 normally.
After that we bought a Infiniti and with a few recalls and a guage cluster that was replaced under warranty all I had to do in 180,000 miles was regular maintenance. I did have to replace the exhaust manifolds and front shocks but I could of welded but I chose to replace them. But it was 180,000 miles. Other than that the engine and trans are still smooth as silk and absolutely not one drop of oil or fluids. Doesn’t burn oil at all.
I can’t sit here and say yes domestics are great when I’m replacing axles at 30/60,000 engines at 70,000 miles, transmissions at 100,000 and I had trucks that literally were leaking like sieves at 60,000 miles. I had good luck with some domestics. My old gmc is a leaker but it wheezed and coughed his way to 400,000 miles on original engine.
My wife’s GMC was a great car for 19 year we kept it. Granted in its last 9/10 years it was a third vehicle only getting 5-800 miles a year on it. But it had a few issues.not many. It was a pretty reliable car.
My diesel fords run great. I did need to rebuild the front axles but they’re huge heavy trucks.
Ive had more issues with domestics than I had good experiences. That’s why I don’t have domestics at the top of my list
You just sound like one of those people who've had bad luck. I've had opposite experiences and I deal with a lot of vehicles. If all these domestics were blowing engines at 70K miles and axles at 30/60K miles of course nobody would buy them again and who would blame them. I've got a Transit Connect sitting 20 feet from my office right now that has 300,000 miles on it and we haven't done anything but regular maintenance to it, either. This was not a test mule but a regular delivery van.
How the heck are you blowing axles on Ford trucks, anyway? They don't make "huge heavy trucks" anymore at least by my definition....(33,001 GVWR and up would be a "huge heavy truck" to me.) If you're blowing them up it sounds like a spec issue to me....I have lots of experience with trucks and the only times axles blow is if they are overloaded regularly or not maintained properly. Heavy truck axles are darn near bulletproof.....
Absolutely not, American cars are junk. Even the Koreans make better cars than Americans now.
American made items are for the most part overpriced junk that plays up the patriotism and nostalgia angles in their marketing instead of just making better stuff. I see American made on something and I assume that I am getting something that will cost much more and offer similar quality as cheapo stuff from China.
Kind of helps that Korean automakers can freely sell cars in Korea and the US, while the US automakers can basically only sell in the US, don't you think?
And before you say "well American cars are crap and nobody wants to buy them in Korea," please note that here is what Toyota and Honda's market share in Korea was in 2018:
Toyota = 0.9%
Honda = 0.4%
So Toyota and Honda can't sell them, either. hhhhmmmmm......
I've driven mostly American vehicles all my life and they aren't junk past the 1990s - they are as good as you maintain them. Let's face it, all cars were junk from the 80s and earlier, including imports. I would never buy a Korean pos, nor would I pay extra for Japanese because Consumer reports says they are more reliable - they ride like sh$t.
Absolutely not, American cars are junk. Even the Koreans make better cars than Americans now.
American made items are for the most part overpriced junk that plays up the patriotism and nostalgia angles in their marketing instead of just making better stuff. I see American made on something and I assume that I am getting something that will cost much more and offer similar quality as cheapo stuff from China.
I wouldn't call them junk, because there are millions of satisfied owner all across this country. There are probably more satisfied customers than the unsatisfied customers, or these manufactories would be out of business by now. And if they were all junk, I mean honest to goodness junk, the American car company would not exist anymore. When Hyundai first started selling cars in the states, they were junk, that's what I call junk. I don't ever remember American cars being that bad, they(Hyundai) were pretty bad. I have family friends , coworkers, and neighbors with American cars, I can't recall these people ever complaining. It's not as bad as you make it seem, not even close. Yes the Japanese make great cars you can't deny them that, and their quality and reliability is hard to beat. I had three different Japanese brands, I never had any issues, I had dozens of American cars and trucks over my lifetime, and only one every put me down, and this was way back in the early 90s. And I know people with imports who were plagued all sorts of problem. My insurance rep always have her Mercedes in the shop for one reason or another, she finally got rid of it, and driving a jeep Cherokee these days.
I've driven mostly American vehicles all my life and they aren't junk past the 1990s - they are as good as you maintain them. Let's face it, all cars were junk from the 80s and earlier, including imports. I would never buy a Korean pos, nor would I pay extra for Japanese because Consumer reports says they are more reliable - they ride like sh$t.
I agree, they may not be on the level of the Japanese reliability, but I hardly would call them junk. I'm prior military, and I have driven my American brand cars and trucks all over this great country of ours without any issues.
I thought I was in an time warp twenty years into the past for a second. I'm pretty sure Ford F series is the best selling vehicle in the world. But who really cares? Japanese and American cars are made in Mexico now
You just sound like one of those people who've had bad luck. I've had opposite experiences and I deal with a lot of vehicles. If all these domestics were blowing engines at 70K miles and axles at 30/60K miles of course nobody would buy them again and who would blame them. I've got a Transit Connect sitting 20 feet from my office right now that has 300,000 miles on it and we haven't done anything but regular maintenance to it, either. This was not a test mule but a regular delivery van.
How the heck are you blowing axles on Ford trucks, anyway? They don't make "huge heavy trucks" anymore at least by my definition....(33,001 GVWR and up would be a "huge heavy truck" to me.) If you're blowing them up it sounds like a spec issue to me....I have lots of experience with trucks and the only times axles blow is if they are overloaded regularly or not maintained properly. Heavy truck axles are darn near bulletproof.....
Sorry I may of confused you. The axles were on a Dakota not the Fords. The front axle was under a recall #996. Amazingly after 19 years I still remember the recall umber. The front diff bolts weren’t tightened at the factory. I took it in for the recall. Got it back. I was in my buddy’s driveway (dirt driveway) he has a culvert so it makes a “speed bump” I literally went over it at walking speed and heard a crack. I kept driving and heard something dragging. I thought I ran over a piece of wood and was dragging it. Nope. My front diff was on the ground. Dodge covered the repair. 32,000 miles.
Rear axle snapped a backing plate. I have no idea how that happened. I just heard a big pop. Out of warranty, the extended warranty company wouldn’t cover it. Paid 1900
At 72,000 the engine had a horrendous piston slap.
The catalytic converters took a dump at 82,000. The dodge dealer did come through with a goodwill repair on that. Back then it was literally impossible to get aftermarket ones as the truck was too new. I dumped it at 110,000. I absolutely had it with the expenses.
The Fords were basically in need of ball joints hubs shocks steering ends. But the engines weigh a lot and these are heavy trucks, 160/180,000 miles I expect front end work regardless of the brand. Very reliable trucks.
Last edited by Electrician4you; 03-26-2019 at 08:15 PM..
I agree, they may not be on the level of the Japanese reliability, but I hardly would call them junk. I'm prior military, and I have driven my American brand cars and trucks all over this great country of ours without any issues.
You type of people act like you American patriot when you drive American car but you American car built in Mexico not even America. Japanese car built and assemble in America! Japanese car true American car
Last edited by AliefNorth; 03-26-2019 at 08:03 PM..
Japanese cars aren't status symbols, this is why Subaru is gaining in popularity because Toyota decided to pander to people who consider them more than just appliances. Same with Honda but not as much as Toyota's these days.
American cars lost their identities, they don't know what they're trying to be. You have a Korean engineered and designed Chevrolet Cruze, European designed and engineered Ford Focus, Cadillacs trying to be German cars, etc.
You type of people act like you American patriot when you drive American car but you American car built in Mexico not even America. Japanese car built and assemble in America! Japanese car true American car
This shows how little you know about the industry.
What's better:
1) Car built in Mexico ($2,000 in foreign assembly labor) with 90% American parts ($14,000 domestic) -OR-
2) Car built in Ohio ($2,500 in domestic assembly labor) with 75% Asian parts ($11,000 foreign)
Focusing on the final assembly point is just short sighted as it forgets about the all the supplier plants that feed it.
Also, you realize Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Mazda all build vehicles in Mexico, too, right? (Mazda3, CRV, Fit, Frontier, Versa, Tacoma are examples of products built in Mexico.) Everyone builds in Mexico...they have to, if they want to ship any vehicles to South America. If you send vehicles to South America from Mexico there is no tariff, but there is if you try to send them from the US.
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