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Although American made vehicles have gotten much better over the last decade, they're still aren't what I consider to be "up to Par".
I'm a Saturn certified grand master tech. I've seen the changes that Saturns have gone through over the years. Honestly, the S series was an awsome vehicle. Cheap? yes, poorly assembled? yes, but the pure simplicity of their modular construction was nothing short of genious.
I still have customers that swear by them, although the last S car was made in 2002. Ever since Saturn got taken over by GM (and not just an owned subsidiary) The cars have turned to pure crap. The L series? Biggest piece of garbage ever. And now we have the Vue, Outlook and Astra? They are nothing but rebadged GM and Opel Products. I hate coming to work everyday.
I'm a Saturn certified grand master tech. I've seen the changes that Saturns have gone through over the years. Honestly, the S series was an awsome vehicle. Cheap? yes, poorly assembled? yes, but the pure simplicity of their modular construction was nothing short of genious.
I still have customers that swear by them, although the last S car was made in 2002. Ever since Saturn got taken over by GM (and not just an owned subsidiary) The cars have turned to pure crap. The L series? Biggest piece of garbage ever. And now we have the Vue, Outlook and Astra? They are nothing but rebadged GM and Opel Products. I hate coming to work everyday.
I agree. I had 2 Saturns in the past...a '92 SC2 and a '96 SL2. They were GREAT cars....the '92 had a flimsy interior with a lot of rattles, but a reliable car. Once GM got their hands in the Saturn operation and started moving production out of the Spring Hill plant, Saturn went downhill.
When I say I would never buy an American car, I lied....if I needed a very cheap used car, I would look at a mid-to-late 90s S-series Saturn....they can be had very cheap and are a good option if you need a used car for $2000.
My American-made cars have been nothing but repair nightmares. My rice rockets have been nothing but regular maint (oil service, tires, brakes, etc). Better gas mileage, more dependable, holds value better over time. For someone like me who drives her cars until they drop, rice rockets make more sense to me. I'm not impressed with American-made cars at all..
I also drive cars until they drop. That's why I own two Cadillacs and one Lincoln.
As for not being impressed with cars, I am not impressed with several models of German cars (Audi, BMW, VW, Mercedes, Porsche).
Many of those have been trouble-prone and I would take an American-made car over those any day (I like my cars in my driveway and garage, not in a repair shop).
For my, reliability is my #1 priority, but I also like to drive something of which there are not a million others on the streets and which doesn't have styling like a soap dish or an electric razor, which eliminates Japanese cars.
Oldsmobile's and Dodges and the troubles that they gave my family....left a bad taste is our mouth....since the late 1980's we have never owned another American Brand Car. Lots of Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Acura, Volvo, Mb, and BMW models in our family since then...we had nothing but good luck with all of them with Toyota and Honda being the most reliable, trouble free, and cheapest to operate. how #1 priority is safety, then reliability. I dont care too much what the car looks like...now.
And after 20 years of course you will never try one again right?
Something interesting I notice when looking through car ad publications like autotrader.
I see 7 or 8 pages of Lexus cars for sale and only 2-3 pages of Lincolns.
Something interesting I notice when looking through car ad publications like autotrader.
I see 7 or 8 pages of Lexus cars for sale and only 2-3 pages of Lincolns.
Maybe that's because Lexus sells the pants off of Lincoln (which can barely justify its own existence these days) and therefore more of them make it to the secondary market.
Location: The Frenchie Farm, Where We Grow 'em Big!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover
Maybe that's because Lexus sells the pants off of Lincoln (which can barely justify its own existence these days) and therefore more of them make it to the secondary market.
And everyone has wisen up to the fact that Lincolns are rebadged Fords with softer "Pleather" and more chrome appliques!
I know a lot of you do not like ratings from outside sources, but here it is.
Let's just put this to rest and call it a day. The Big 3 will no longer exist! Or they may be bought out by the Chinese. Their reliabilty sucks! We just paid another 400.00 on our Ford Focus. This was after paying 850.00 for battery wires and a new altenator. We're done! Honda! Here we come with our money!
We were seriously thinking of getting the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. But after this mess with american cars. We're looking at the Toyota FJ Cruiser instead!
Maybe that's because Lexus sells the pants off of Lincoln (which can barely justify its own existence these days) and therefore more of them make it to the secondary market.
Nah... its because Lincolns are driven for decades, they are constantly being used by government transportation and private transportation businesses... they make way too much money to be parted with.
Let's just put this to rest and call it a day. The Big 3 will no longer exist! Or they may be bought out by the Chinese. Their reliabilty sucks! We just paid another 400.00 on our Ford Focus. This was after paying 850.00 for battery wires and a new altenator. We're done! Honda! Here we come with our money!
We were seriously thinking of getting the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. But after this mess with american cars. We're looking at the Toyota FJ Cruiser instead!
You paid $850 for battery cables? That's asinine! Was there no aftermarket option? $h!t for $850 I could have rigged something up!
Well anyway...just looking at the survey...everybody got at least 2 dots in the overall. And a majority got 3 dots (including Honda...and amazingly Ford and Honda pretty much score the same in all catagories accept a couple...one of which Ford beat Honda). The only ones who got 4 overall were Infinity, Lexus, Mercedes Benz, MERCURY, and Toyota. Porsche was the only one to get a 5 overall.
So Porsche gets 5/5 on your JD Power Study but look how far down the list on dependability they are.
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