Did some foreign cars deserve their bad reputation?

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

My bad car experience was with GM.....long term GM repeat buyer until the mid 80's sedan de ville. It stranded my wife 5 or 6 times in 4 years and nearly broke GM and I trying to keep it running. GM did an engine rebuild just out of warranty for us....but it failed again and switched to Japan.....
Lexus and Infiniti since... never been stranded once by either

Most of my cars have been GM vehicles.

What blows my mind is that so many of the repairs that I had in the 1980 models were still plaguing the 1996 models.

For example, in FOUR vehicles, I replaced all the blower motors at 80k.

I replaced at least two alternators for each car prior to 100k.

I had one GM car that would require a new starter every February ... until my FIL ( a farmer) diagnosed the underlying problem and eliminated it.

I almost expected to spend $1500 in vehicle repairs per year to drive my 12k miles.


========

I had planned to buy a used Buick Century when the engine on my Olds blew in 2007. However, the dealer would not budge off if $8,000 for a car with 70k miles.

I ended up buying a Toyota Corolla and have not spent $1,500 in six years. As it is newer, it is not a fair comparison BUT everything still works.

[harald]

Originally Posted by thunderkat59

Oh wow . . . Forgot !
Toyotas in the 70's meant you lost your job. Not the same image as they have now at all !
In my neighborhood in Pittsburgh PA, circa 1972, parking one in your driveway was the equivalent of being a leper.

Later, my 1985 Toyota MR2 was the car that ended up on the tow truck more than any other Ive ever owned. My SO has a Scion, but I would never buy a Toyota, ever again. Never.

could bee that you over there have totally different models than here,because toyota is known here as the most reliable car ever.and specially the 70 , s

[Coldjensens]

Actually there is not much difference. Toyotas became known as the more reliable car fairly recently, not in the 70s, they were terrible then)*. However it is only by a smidge. Having a Toyota is not some magic elixir that suddenly eliminates all breakdowns or problems. Today, many cars share parts, even entire drivetrains with Totoytas. When you get over 100,000 - 150,000 miles, things wear out. Alternators, small electric motors, bearings (especially if allowed to run dry). For a period, US made cars could outlast Japanese made cars becasue many of the parts could be maintained while the japanese cars parts were sealed (disposable). However most people simply did not do the maintenance. Now they are all pretty much the same. There were always models form any company that were especially terrible, but al makers make very good models as well. For a time most Japanese models were slighly better than many US models, but they all break.

In any event, the various maker have caught up with each other. For the past four or fve years at least, the maker's name does not make much difference. it is the model that matters when it comes to reliability. However again even there, the difference is not that meaningful, it is only a smidge of difference. What makes a big difference is how you treat the car.

Personal anectdotes re meaningless. A person anectdote is an example that is supposed to get generalized to the entire world. For example "Well I had four toyotas and four buicks and the Toyotas all wents to 450,000 and never needed anyhting but an oil change, while the buicks broke down every single day" (Not only a meaningless anectdote, but also an obvious exaggeration). Anecdotes may be logically used to refute such starements, but make no sense as an attempt to generalize about every car made by a particular company for all time. When people try to use anectdotes to make generalized statements, there are some CD posters who will swooop in to attack and call the poster stupid, etc. That is not very nice, a substantial percentage of people do not understanind how and why personal anectdotes are meaningless.



* Actully, in the late 1970s, early 1980s if you wanted a reliable Jopo car, Honda was the way to go. However people bought them not for reliability issues, but for economy. Japanese cars were quite a bit cheaper and got much better gas mileage. Many of them were nto very safe though, but people will always take risks to save moeny.

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by fireandice1000

Good question here. I'm assuming that you mean non-USA brands when you mention 'foreign' cars.

My parents currently have two Mercedes cars. One is a 97 E420 and the other is a 98 M320. The M320 to me drives okay but has a weird rattling sound when it goes from a stop to drive when it's in Drive. Also, the dealership said that the transmission needed to be replaced and a bunch of other stuff (including some cheap plastic cupholders they wanted $200 to install-WTF?) and the total estimate for that would be $3500 - $4000. At 130000 Miles (209000 KM) it sounds like this car might be dying. The E420 seems to have the acceleration of a bus and doesn't seem to be very well designed for a luxury car. It has a ticking sound in the engine and I've heard where that's a bad lifter or it could be an engine knock.

We've had other foreign cars and overall the Mercedes' seem to be the most expensive and problematic. It would be okay if the cars handled and performed well but they don't seem to handle or drive well to me. I've heard where Mercedes has a bad reputation over in Europe; I'm not sure if that's true but I wouldn't be surprised if it is. Their dealerships are BAD; they 'fixed' a broken side mirror on the E420 by duct taping it after I think a $100 shop charge. It's ridiculous and I'm glad I don't own one of these things!

I think that some of the foreign brands have a bad reputation that's well earned; I don't get the appeal of Mercedes and I've also seen where Mitsubishi gets crap too.

Mercedes actually made a conscious decision back in the 1990's that it's quality was too good and too costly and like Toyota, have left quality slip. They also chose in the 1990's to make their cars "eco friendly" with biodegradable parts, which means things like wiring start to disintegrate.

[outafocus]

I drove Detroit cars for 20+ long troublesome years. I usually had a VW as a second car. The VWs were virtually trouble free. My favorite VW was a 1972 Squareback. It had fuel injection, and front disc brakes which was WAY ahead of the Detroit 3. The only Detroit car I owned that didn't give me much trouble was a 1962 Rambler Classic I bought used in 1969. That was a pretty good car. I didn't realize how bad my Detroit cars were though until I experienced my first Japanese makes. They were better than all the Detroit crap, and European cars. My final Detroit 3 car was a 1990 Plymouth Acclaim LX I bought new. It gave me more problems in it's first month than my 1993 Nissan pickup has given me in nineteen years!

My 2005 Toyota Corolla has needed NO repairs in seven years, needing only tires, and a new battery which are wear items.

Some of the old European cars were quirky and troubleprone, but the Japanese companies build the best cars both in Japan, and in the United States. My Nissan truck was built in Smyrna, Tennessee, and my Corolla was built in Fremont, California. The Japanese have proven that Americans can, and do build decent cars after all!

[Jezer]

I think that it was the advent of Japanese imports into the UK in the late 1960s and onwards that gave the British car industry the boot up the backside that it needed.

Small cars were coming over here that first and foremost were more reliable.

They also packed so called extras that were not standard on many a basic British car of the day. This even included a decent radio!

There was the absolutely classic quote from a British car executive of the day who was asked what he thought about these imports having a heater fitted. His reply was that there was nothing wrong with a coat!

Some manufacturers took longer tan others to get their act together, and the demise of British Leyland was probably the best thing to happen to our car industry.

I remember the Datsun 240Z coming over and journalists all saying that that was the end for the MG. For too long there was no real competition for our cars. In 1970 a foreign made car was still pretty much a novelty.

My uncle bought Lancias and Citroens and we all thought he was quirky.

I think that the quality of our cars also needs to be compared with other vehicles of the day and my knowledge of American cars of that period is almost non existent.