Talkback: Will you buy a car?
Have you bought a new car? If so, what did you buy, why did you choose that vehicle, and what gave you the confidence to make the purchase?
Or, are you holding on to your old car and trying to limp it along? If so, is it a new model or are you driving a clunker? What are the maintenance costs?
If you are considering buying, are the new Dealer promotions – such as 0% financing, buying back the car if you’re laid off, etc. - enticing you? Or what would it take to convince you to buy?
And would you buy a new American car? Or will the specter of bankruptcy push you to an import?
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Why is CNN referring to this as the Big Three bailout? The Fed bailed out Chrysler and GM, not Ford. I think CNN is inadvertently hurting Ford by the lack of care shown in its wording.
Because of the bailouts, I may buy a Ford in the future, but I will not buy a GM or Chrysler vehicle until I am under penalty fo law for not buying one. Sad, because I really like the CTS.
I traded a 95 Mercury Grand Marquis for a 2009 Honda Fit and got the $4500 CARS allowance. It was a good deal for our family.
My 1992 GMC truck was on it’s last leg. Not worth but about 800 dollars on a good day, I took great advantage of the cash for clunker program and with the 4,500 from the feds along with 4,000 in rebates, I ended up with a price tag of 13,000 on a 09 Chevy HHR LT. I was looking to replace the old truck with 200k miles on it within 3-4 months. The timing was just right for me to get a better deal than I could hope for.
My husband and I were looking to buy a car, for our son who is going back to college. We allocated $5500.oo to spend from our budget and started searching for a good condition, fuel effeciency used car. We own 1996 Ford Windstar which has 170,000 milage on it. We were so lucky to get $4500.00 for our windstar through clunker.My son took 2300.00 from his saving acoount. By collecting the $5500.00, $4500 and $2300 he was able to buy new 2010 LE toyota corolla, for $12,300.
We are happy, our son is happy and the Dealer is happy.
I WAS APPROVED FOR 9 THOUSAND DOLLARS AND STILL ASKED FOR A CO-SIGNER.how any pepole would of been able to bring 4500.cash for a trade in I Thought the banks were helping with lending.
I got the $4,500 credit for a 1997 Dodge Grand caravan, and bought a Mazda3 (manual, as the automatic would have only yielded $3,500). The caravan had been replaced by a Subaru forester back in February, but we had kept it around. We couldn’t believe our luck when CARS became law. My 1993 Honda accord will go to my son, and I get a new ride for just $12,900 on the road.
No way!
I had a 1998 Silverado pickup with 175,000 miles on it, which I bought used in 2001. It was still in good working order, but getting old and it was a gas hog (17 mpg).
I bought a 2006 Nissan Murano with only 26,000 miles on it. I only paid $18,000 instead of the new price of around $30,000. So for a “virtually new” car, I got a $12,000 discount and a $2000 trade-in on the truck (total $14,000).
If I bought new, I would have only gotten $4500 off. My real-life everyday gas mileage increased from 17 to 23.
I saved more money, reduce my fuel consumption 30%, and made my purchase without picking the pockets of the American taxpayer, which is what this “program” does – it takes my money and gives it to somebody else so they can buy a new car.
The whole program is an unrealistic sham that is duping people into buying new cars that they can’t afford. It is designed to shovel everybody’s tax money into the American auto companies, who do not deserve it. They spent the past 15 years getting rich on gas-hogging trucks and SUVs, instead of preparing for the inevitable climb in fuel costs. The program also rewards people who have driven gas hogs for the past 20 years, and we give nothing to the people who drove fuel-efficient cars all this time! If you have a nice older Honda or Toyota getting 25 mpg, you get NOTHING from this program.
We should not be rewarding irresponsible behavior with our tax money.
Makes me mad as hell when my blazer gets sicker and sicker….first motor blows…then heater core….then transmission goes south…and mechanics I trust say “happens to chevys all the time”…I love the car when it runs good but it is nickel and dimeing me to the poor house. It’s no wonder GM can’t match up to other car makers putting out crap like this. Of course I’m thinking of buying a new car and it won’t be a Chevy or anything else Americans make until they put out a product that is up to the standards of the industry.
I bought my Hyundai Accent in 1996 and it’s still going strong. I saw this depressed economy coming a looooong time ago and made the decision early to buy a gas sipper, pay it off quick (less than 3 years) and keep it for decades. With regular maintenance my car is doing great, and even today, over 13 years later, I still get 35mpg/city and 42mpg/hwy.
Buying American was never an option – their cars are overpriced junk that you can’t even service yourself. Every American car my parents bought as a kid had major issues within a year or two of purchase.
I think we should let the car makers die a natural death. There is no reason to steal my hard-earned money via taxes to support bloated, wasteful companies that do nothing more than sell a name and an image, but nothing of true value to the consumer.
I bought another car a couple of months ago. I bought American, but I didn’t buy new. I downsized into something more fuel efficient than my Jeep Wrangler, in fact I doubled the gas mileage to 28 mpg. All of the new sales pitches, incentives, and “come ons” were not a factor in my decision to buy. I tried to buy a new vehicle but the typical “Car Sales” crap turned me off. I took my time, shopped 3 different dealerships, and held my ground. It took 4 days of shopping, haggling, walking out, letting them chase me, going back to haggle a little more, and threatening to leave the dealership a few times… but in the end I’m pretty happy in a 1 year old Dodge Caliber with less than 17,000 miles, still under factory warranty, and enough room to carry the entire family. I lowered my payment almost $100 a month, and the Insurance went down another $20 a month. I will continue to buy American cars, and products whenever possible but it has to make sense for my finances. If the product is inferior, or the prices are artificially inflated I’ll walk away. I have driven American cars & trucks for 35 years and have NEVER had any major mechanical issues outside of normal wear and tear because I service them at the prescribed intervals as required in the owner’s manual. The bail out is a joke. If they would start treating customers fairly, honestly, and with integrity they would sell more cars. I hope they all survive these tough times… competition is a good thing, but I don’t see Uncle Sam directly bailing out the small business owners who have fallen on tought times. I say let the chips fall where they may.
I would love to buy a new car and I had plans but my car – 1984 Honda Civic does not qualify for the program. Even though it has a bad engine, smokes, gets about 9 or 10 miles per gallon and bearly make it up and down the road to get me to work. I am not included – this is upsetting because someone with a 2005 or 2007 or greater can use the program to get an even newer car.
It is not fair.
I just got my new Chevy HHR for half off MSRP. With cash for clunker and incentives and $2000.00 down…my payments for a brand new car is only $180.00 per month!!!
my wife runs a Ford Fusion AWD which is a great great car for our snow belt region. mileage on the highway is almost 30 MPG which for a larger four door sedan is fine with me.
i drive a Mercury Mariner Hybrid AWD and aside from the higher purchase sticker price i paid for it as a hybrid SUV, absolutely love it. i get better mileage than the EPA figures. my worries about it working in our winters haven’t been an issue so far.
we lease both. i have owned cars and trucks for many years but we both now need a highly reliable means of transportation without the uncertainty of shop downtime.
also, the domestic and foreign auto makers don’t want to design for a lifetime or make it easy to repair a car. model change and obsolescence seems to be the way of their business models.
we are happy with our choices.
some suggestions for the domestic auto industry;
– find a way to fuel our vehicles with fuels made and sourced in the USA. it might be NG, propane or alcohol blends, but keep the money we spend on fuel in the USA.
– emphasize economy in all vehicles by weight/material design changes, and engine technology. my hybrid doesn’t ‘run’ at a stop sign and neither should any vehicle for that matter.
– reduce the vast array of models into a more manageable and reliable and i bet less costly lineup. it seems that the auto industry wants to hit every target and this ends up a difficult manufacturing job.
– if cars were easier and less costly to repair, they would cost less to insure. i am not a fan of the trend to more and more expensive and complicated vehicles.
while some segments of the market may want high performance in a vehicle, i look for a ride that gets me and my family out and back day in and day out winter and summer.
A couple years ago I traded in my old Chevy for a Honda Civic, and all in the nick of time too! Gas shot up to around $3-$4 / gal at the time, but my Honda has been AMAZING! I get an average of 35mpg with up to 40mpg on long road trips. Won’t trade it for anything right now, except maybe a Tesla once they come down in price.
I will not be spending my money on a New American car anytime soon unless GM decides to make a MAJOR overhaul and be extremely fuel efficient sooner than later. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again forever. Time for some changes.
I’d love to buy a new car, but its not affordable for me currently, and my car is satisfactory anyways. I have a 2005 Chevy Impala LS. I’ve been a GM fan for years with reservations. I’ve said for years that they have GOT to get rid of Pontiac – they’ve been plastic, cheap cars for years, and the whole G6, G7 and G8 cars did nothing to bring them back to their muscle car days. They kept the same cheap plastic interiors and same outdated technology and engines under the hood. They waited too long to dump Oldsmobile and now they’ve waited too long to dump Pontiac. I’ve also said for years that too many GM cars and trucks look the same except for different badging. Too much greed, too many good ol’ boys in the corp offices and not enough ingenuity and new ideas. GM reaped what they sowed. I love my Chevy Impala – I had a 2002 Impala before this one, as well as a 2005 Chevy Monte Carlo, 2000 Chevy Malibu and before that a highly unreliable 1991 Pontiac Grand Am. I also think they could probably dump GMC as well and do just fine – Chevy and GMC trucks all look the same except for different badging. Oh yes, and my mom drove a 1985 Chevy Caprice station wagon for over 15 years, with one engine rebuild. It didn’t look pretty but that V8 ran and got her where she needed to go. Out of all the GM brands, Chevy has always been reliable and a quality car for me and my parents.
We bought a a new car under the CARS program already. Took delivery of a 2009 VW Jetta TDI on Saturday the 25th.
I sold my 2000 Jetta VR6 and traded in a 1988 Toyota Pickup V6 4WD that got combined 16mpg. The truck had 205,000 miles and was more rust then truck.
Together with dealer incentives/pricing it shaved off close to $12k from the sticker price. There also is a $1.3k tax credit with buying such a fuel efficient vehicle to help further reduce the price.
I put 32 miles per work day on the car mostly freeway driving with little traffic. On the freeway I am seeing 42-45mpg average with the total trip netting me 38-39mpg average.
My wife traveled a lot for work and had rented several vehicles prior to us looking at purchasing. So she was very familiar with the GM models. None of which she cared for. So we set out looking at Toyota, Honda, VW, Ford, and Kia. We skipped Hyundai because we had previously test drove their cars and the ones we liked were their SUV’s and cars that didn’t qualify for the rebate. Since we already own a SUV a second one was not needed.
Out of all the cars we drove, we couldn’t justify spending the extra money on the Camery, Accord, or Fusion as in order to get an acceptable mileage figure(we were aiming for 40s) you had to be in a hybrid. The price premium was not worth it for us.
I will also admit we didn’t want to haggle over price, and based some of our decisions on dealer treatment. When we talked price, we told them we are doing CARS, we are members of two or three different fleet sales groups and we talked invoice pricing. If the dealer was unwilling to deal we walked.
Finally found a dealer when I told them I wanted invoice pricing, they came within a few hundred dollars of it, they beat the finance rate of our credit union, and went step by step with us through the CARS process.
In regards to why we bought and would we have bought without the incentive? The answer is probably not. We have never bought a new car due to the depreciation value. Our combined mileage across both of our cars is about 13,000 per year.
We previously have driven all our cars to over 100,000 miles and my Jetta only had 72,000. So we had several years left.
We just felt that in the 4 years it would take for our car to “wear out” we could get into something new at a price we probably won’t see in 4 years. And after 4 years of driving the new car it will have about the number of miles we would be looking for when purchasing a slightly used car.
But we put enough money down with trades and cash that the price would be similar.
I currently have a 2004 Ford Mustang and a 1998 Ford F150. I stopped driving my mustang and will pay it off in about a year. I purchased My Ford F150 Pickup last year from a local dealer for 3k as is and it was well worth me finding and replaceing the parts it needed and doing the math it was alot cheaper then getting back into yet another car/Truck payment. I no longer drive my v6 mustang because well my V8 Truck gets better gas mileage and is alot more functional for the family. At best I may just sell my Mustang out right for what I owe and be done with that payment. I reccomend going down to 1 vehicle if possible that the whole family can use, like our Ford F150 Extended Cab V8.
The Cash for Clunkers program was a great idea but it doesn’t help me because, even with the rebate, a car payment and full insurance costs too much monthly. I am about to graduate from college with about $50k in student loans to pay back. I have an ‘89 Toyota pickup and a ‘93 Geo Tracker, both paid for. I mostly drive the Tracker because it gets about 28 mpg but if it’s broken or need to haul something I drive the truck. The starter just went out in it and that part cost $102. I don’t know how to use HTML tags to post photos, or I would.
“AT 68 YEARS OLD AND NEVER BUYING ANYTHING BUT AMERICAN CARS i WILL NEVER BUY AMERICAN AGAIN.gENERAL MOTORS IN THEIR INFINITE STUPIDITY STARTED PUTTING 16″ TIRES ON MID SIZE CARS THAT HAD 14″ TIRES COSTING CONSUMERS 3 TIMES HIGHER TIRE PRICES.THEY PROBABLY GOT A KICK BACK FROM THE TIRE MANUFACTURES AND SCREWED THE CONSUMER AGAIN.Let them go under,why should taxpayers care about them when they stopped caring about us.”
Bob, There isnt some GM conspiracy going on here. Take a good hard look at the cars from everyone not just GM and you will find the same thing. On the midsized cars like the Malibu, Fusion, Camry and Accord they all have 16″ wheels as standard. They all are putting much larger brakes on them so they stop better and are safer. In turn because of the bigger brakes they need a bigger wheel to clear that brake hardware. A car will also handle and turn a lot better with a lower profile tire.
They are doing the same thing with trucks, they used to run a 15″ rim on a half ton full size truck. In the case of my Chevy it has to have a 17″ rim just to clear the brakes and its a tight fit. But the truck stops worlds better with a load in it then one built 10 years ago.
Speaking of my Chevy. My 06 1500 Silverado will be with me a long time. I have 75k city/ towing 4000# miles on it and its been 100% problem free. It has been an absolute dream to own.
owning 1992 MB 300E with 340 K miles
and 2008 Toyota sienna for a family
had horrible experience with F**D
Just say NO to poor designed, UNION-MADE oil burners. Lada is way better.
Bought new even though my ‘98 Jeep was still running strong. Could not pass up the “cash” for my “clunker”.
Figured it was now or never if I was going to get a new vehicle as the trade in value of the Jeep wasn’t even close to the gvmt rebate. Plus with the $1500 tax write off it would have been foolish not to do the deal.
Since i work construction i switch from a Ford truck to a Chevy cargo van. when you get older you hate crawling in to get your tools LOL but anyways trucks and cargo vans were inexpencive 25 years ago as only the construction workers, farmers and so forth needed them. I honestly believe Ford and Gm would do better in sales if they reduced the cost of building these types of vehicals as i cannot why it cost so much to build something that cost less then building a car. Also thier are many well built American cars that people can buy, by buying forgien you keep the forgien workers working, buy American keep American workers working.
My wife and I have 2 cars, a 98 GM Sierra standard cab 4×4 with 134k and 2001 Ford Windstar with 137k. They are both great cars. We considered the idea of trading in the van for a commuter with 4 doors, bur at 6′6″ I can an extremely difficult time finding a small car that is comfortable that I could drive or ride in over long distances. We are both concerned with the “small car” revolution because we may be left with no adequate choices for vehicles that are affordable, fuel efficient(less oil dependant) that will work with our lifestyles with are bpth very outdoors oriented. I wish there were an easy solution which could solve everyone’s needs, but we all know one simply doesn’t exist. At least for the foreseeable future. I don’t want to see Americans forced into two or three choices… I fear that would not only hinder the economy, as I for one as I’m sure is the same for many others, will not spend my hard earned cash on something that won’t work for me, but it mat have an adverse effect on the national morale.
I have two cars – A 2000 Pathfinder with 129K miles that’s paid off, and a 2007 Mercedes that I bought used for half what it cost new, and will be paid off in two years. Maintenance on it is $500/year – less than the Pathfinder! And because of the safety features built-in, the insurance is the same.
I’ll never buy new; the depreciation is horrible, and buying a good used vehicle of any make is a good way to find out any problems that have been ironed out. Get a CarFax and maintenance schedule as well.
I am on disabilaty and have a 1990 F150 with a six cylinder and automatic transmission. I pay a hundred dollars a month for. I can barley afford that,so how can I afford a newer car. The people that came up with this plan did not think things thru. Just another feel good plan that most cannot afford and will not work
We have two cars – both paid off. 1999 Ford Explorer and a 2003 Acura TL. The Ford has a little over 150K and the TL is over 125K. Both are in excellent condition inside and out. I have the Ford serviced at a Ford dealership and get complements of how well maintained it is (I don’t do anything special). The TL gets regular oils changes, tire rotations and a check up once a year – it’s a Honda, they don’t break.
Right now — not interested in buying any cars/trucks. Don’t want a car payment no matter how good a deal I can get. The Explorer is the perfect size for me and the Acura doesn’t break.
When I am ready to buy again – I will look at replacing the Ford with another Ford or a Hyundai. Not sure what we would look at to replace the Acura – prob another import.
I own two cars.
My proudest is my Mitsubishi Galant LS which I bought new in 1991. It has had routine maintenance, rebuilt transmission (@ about 180K mi) and new alternator before that.
This month I should turn 290,000 miles on it.
Another car I bought used in 2000 for $3000.00. It’s a 1988 Acura Legend, very nice, no A/C or radio, but still runs well with routine maintenance. Of course, I don’t fix what I don’t have to. It turns 286K mi this month. It also got a new alternator. Same transmission.
I’m going to run both to 300K, and I’m seriously considering just running them in the ground. That was my plan over 100,000 mi ago with the Mitsubishi and 50,000 mi ago with the Acura.
Much of hte mileage is highway, and so I think that has helped extend their lives.
When I do buy a new car, while I’d like an Acura, it’s probably too expensive for my budget. I likely will buy Ford or Chevy, looking at a model that has good marks.
Still….I don’t know when that time will come.
This passed March, I bought new 2009 Honda Accord. Boy was that a mistake. I am warning everyone out there considering buying an Accord, DON”T DO IT!
I have had problems with my brakes since the day I drove my car off the lot, and get this, Honda won’t do anything about it. They apparently know there is a problem with these cars and their brakes, but have no fixes.
Google it, and you will see that hundreds of other Honda Accord owner have the same issues and no resolutions. People are also reporting premature brake wear issues. They are having to change their brakes every 15,000 miles! That is insane! I am keeping my fingers crossed that my brakes are just noisy and are not going to need to be changed every 15k miles. I can’t afford that, and i sincerely doubt many others vehicle owners can either.
I am completely regretting my decision to buy a Hnda. Wish I would have never done it, and I want others to know about this so they don’t make the same mistake!
My wife and I own a 2001 Chevrolet Avalanche (the best vehicle I have ever owned) and a 2002 Mitsubishi Outlander. Both are paid off. However, when the gas prices spiked last summer (2008), we were debating on a new vehicle. We went throught eh paces of trading the Mitsubishi in vs. simply buying a 3rd vehicle just for commuting. It came down to the fact that we saw where the economy was heading and didn’t want a car payment. I started looking at motorcycles for my commute and ultimately bought one. I couldn’t be happier. The gas mileage is great and we spent far less than we would have on a new car!
I would love to trade one of our cars in for a new car and just have one payment and the other paid off. Unfortunately with the credit crunch, we had to choose mortgage over credit card bills and so the ratings have dropped. Now the interest rates offered are in the area of like 14-15% if you get something. That just makes no sense to me. So we’ll drive our 2002 and 2004 model (foreign and great cars) until the credit rating returns or they lower the standards required to get decent rates. No biggie, they are paid off and still look great!
I’m holding out for a decent electric car. So, I’m keeping my 91 Dodge till such a car comes out. I’ll stretch out my car with my Harley (now with 185k miles).
My requirements is that the car does 150 miles on a charge and doesn’t cost more than 10k over an equivalent gas driven model.
Combustion technology should be considered dead now that we are over the “peak” oil supply point.
I drive a 1985 Chevy S10. I was taught the old ways-fix up your vehicle when you have a problem and keep driving it. To bad others weren’t taught the same thing. I couldn’t imagine having a car payment every month-what a waste! I feel sorry for those that have one. I found a truck that I love to drive and don’t see a need for anything else. I’m in my 30’s, and plan on keeping this truck until I die. I don’t believe in buying a new, overpriced plastic vehicle that I probably couldn’t work on anyway if something went wrong. New vehicles are made to last 4 to 5 years at the max it seems. I know how to do everything to my truck, and it gets close to 30 mpg (its kept tuned up and well maintained). I drive 60 miles a day total commute to work and back.
I have a 2004 FORD Explorer Limited with 34,000 miles on it. I purchased it new in Sept 2004. I have been buying American for 25 years now. But I don’t keep them for more than the 20,000 – 30,000 mile range. So I am over due to purchase a new car. With the current economy, I will wait as long as I can to buy another new car. Maybe later this year, or next year I will make a new car purchase.
I have a 1997 Mazda 323 with 70K miles on it. It gets 26mph, has AC and an AM/FM radio. It’s comfortable for my short daily commutes. Mechanically, the vehicle is in great shape, and except for some minor dings and the kind of paint fading one would expect after 12 years, the exterior is OK. It was paid for the day I got it and its not expensive to insure or register. It meets my needs, so why would I spend money to get anything new
I have a 2007 Toyota Prius and am not intrested in replacing the car anytime soon. I have been very pleased with my Toyota and will continue to be a loyal customer for some time – the next generation Prius looks really good. I don’t ever see myself driving an Ford, GM, or Chrysler car ever (I have always owned a Honda, Acura, or Toyota). I guess I am just biased by these brands, but having a reliable quality car is important to me.
I bought a 2004 Sebring Convertable and the engine a 2.7 seized for no apparent reason. I had regularly had my oil changes etc. The cost to repair was going to be $7200.00, as I began to search online to find a used engine to replace the seized one I found many sites that had complaints about the same problem ane that Chrysler was not stepping up and taking any responsibility for the oil sluge problems these 2.7 have had even for those who were under warantee. Which it has been said that it is a design flaw. I called Chrysler and they said that unless I pay to have the engine taken apart (which would cost thousands) they could not determine that I had a engine flaw. They said that they do not know of any problems with the 2.7 Liter engines, which is a bold face lie. Since I could not afford to buy a new engine I was forced to pay off my balance owed on the car $6900.00 and sell my car as is for 2900.00. Chrysler in my opion deserves to go bankrupt and fail completely. They do not know how to take care of their customers and make good on what is a problem with their 2.7 L engines. It makes me worry about buying any car brand new, because I do not know if I can trust that a warantee is worth the paper it is written on. Of course the Chrysler dealership was very willing to sell me a new Sebring Convertable.
I have owned both American and Japanese vehicles since I started driving 20 years ago. I fell in love with my 1993 Jeep Wrangler and put 155,000 miles on it. I only sold it because I was expecting my first child. I next bought a Ford F-150 and the truck treated me very well. I drove it 122,000 miles until I was in an accident. My wife wanted an Expedition to replace that truck since we were expecting our third child.
I am now driving her Nissan Altima. I hate it. The interior is cheap and noisy (coming from a Jeep owner!). I am going to buy a car taht fits my needs. I liked the truck for everything but my 64 mile commute. I used the bed every weekend for projects around the house or hauling my ATV. It does not matter if it s American or not. I do not think Japanese cars are more reliable or better than American. If I can get another Ford or Jeep I would.
I hope the Big 3 can survive. I will buy from any of the manufacturers regardless of the bankruptcy situation.
AT 68 YEARS OLD AND NEVER BUYING ANYTHING BUT AMERICAN CARS i WILL NEVER BUY AMERICAN AGAIN.gENERAL MOTORS IN THEIR INFINITE STUPIDITY STARTED PUTTING 16″ TIRES ON MID SIZE CARS THAT HAD 14″ TIRES COSTING CONSUMERS 3 TIMES HIGHER TIRE PRICES.THEY PROBABLY GOT A KICK BACK FROM THE TIRE MANUFACTURES AND SCREWED THE CONSUMER AGAIN.Let them go under,why should taxpayers care about them when they stopped caring about us.
i am in the market for a new car, acually a van. my family is growing and needs more room. the problem i am running into is to buy american or not. the problem i have is the domestic auto dealers are not making cars anyone wants, or afford. i have owned a number of american cars and they always require more upkeep. i guess i dont know what i will get this weekend, its more like the less of two eveil.
Holding out for FIAT! Currently own a 2001 Mitsubishi Montero Sport that’s getting close to being paid off and two 1980 Fiat X1/9s. The SUV has been great and haven’t had any major issues. Running on 175k miles. My Fiat x1/9s have been great cars and blast to drive. I’m holding on to my cars for the time being. My maintenance costs have been pretty minimal. The Monty is dependable and I like it. While dependable and regularly (if not daily) driven, the Fiat X1/9s require more maintenance…they are after all almost 30 years old. They are toys, parts are cheap, and I enjoy tinkering on them.
The dealer incentives are not enticing me to buy sooner rather than later. Especially the “buying the car back if I’m laid off” bit. It reminds me of the Dodge/Chrysler sales push that included the discounted gas price when gas was around $4 a gallon. Gas now is less than their promotion offered. Glad I didn’t fall for that one!
To convince me to buy, I’d like to see Chrysler and Fiat join together so Fiat cars will be available in the US. I would seriously consider buying NEW in the next few years (or sooner) if I could get my hands on an Abarth version of the Fiat 500! Another car at the top of my list is a slightly used Lotus Elise.
I’m not too worried about the potential bankruptcies as I don’t think I would buy an American car anyway. I find American cars unappealing and bland. Unless Fiat comes to the US, I’ll take a Lotus Elise, Mini Cooper, BMW 3 series, Mercedes C Class, or a VW Jetta TDI before considering American.
“…….or will the specter of bankruptcy push you to an import?”
Me thinks buying imports is what got us into this mess!
I really think the dealers/sales people are the main problem in selling cars to the American public. While I fully understand the need to make a profit in these times it also makes sense to move cars off the lots and into driveways. This is not just limited to American car dealers. In the past month I have gone to 4 different dealerships. The sales personel don’t know their product, they insult your intelligence, then try to screw you. Same old story in very different times. My one good experience came at a VW dealer so if I do decide to buy take a wild guess where I’m going!
I own (fully paid) an 03 Pontiac Aztecwell; I am thinking of buying a Pontiac G8; I felt in love with the designed. (i think it looks like apoor man’s version of a BMW) but the only things holding me back in doing my purchase are the crooks and weasels at the dealerhips. Even though I have perfect credit (+760)they were offering me 12+percent interest in finance (even though I offered to pay half of the car in cash (plus the Rebate on the 03 Aztec).
They were charging me fabric protection (on leather Fabric), The cost of the car was cut down slightly (with the rebates available on the 09 models and 08 models) because it was from a previous year but it was the Demo car with more than 7000 miles on it. along with dealerhip fees; my down payment was reduced into nothing. the final price was close to the MSRP.
I finally say no to the deal and they got offended. They yelled at me, and the manager told me to leave the dealership and never to come back. After that experience I am driving my 03 Aztec untill it it gives up on me.
Maybe if we had honest people working at the dealerships and Detroit actually caring about us and the quality of their cars, they would not be in such financial trouble.
If they change their ways, Detroit start to build better quality vehicles without the useless features (who needs seat heaters in south florida in which the dealerhip was pushing me to accept) like remote starter) and the goverment start to regulate the car dealers I will not hesitate to buy and American Car
My husband was in an accident recently and we are now having to look for a car. We had a Pontiac Montana and my husband was very frustrated with having to work on it. The fuse box was over the battery with a bar across the battery. He hated having to jump the car when our battery died it was a pain in the neck to do. I am not sure what we are going to get but a van is not on our list.
I am interested in buying a 2009 Suburban, but cannot get the dealers to negociate. I spoke to four dealers, two in person, and two over the phone, and was highly suprised to find that they were not willing to move on price. The were willing to offer the 0% financing or the 2000 rebate, but did not seem interested at all to try and work at a lower price.
To say the least, the dealers seemed to be pre-occupied with other things.
In the mean time, I visited Lexus and Land Rover and at least Lexus sat down and worked through the numbers, offering more for my trade. Land Rover was the most agressive increasing the value for the trade and knocking off quite a bit off the all ready reduced price of an LR3.
In the end, I am waiting for Chevrolet to make their next move. Worse case scenario is that I wait until December when they need to get rid of their 2009 inventory. You can’t say I didn’t try though…
Oh, by the GM dealers, if you would have knocked off another $1000 somewhere, I would have bought a Suburban – you didn’t even try.
Just bought a 2009 GMC Acadia. Top notch and got a good deal on it to boot. Nothing the imports (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Kia, etc) put out can come close to this superbly engineered vehicle. Gas milage is good at 24MPG highway and 17 city It’ll tow 5200 lbs without a bit of trouble. Also have a 2003 Bonneville (130K) which gets 30 MPG highway and runs like a fine watch. No rice burners for me.
Bought a 2008 Lexus RX350 last year because our other car is a 2 door Acura 3.2CL and we had a baby and it is a nightmare trying to fit an infant carrier into a 2 door coupe. We did not consider any American brands although I did own a Chrysler in college. My Chrysler Sebring (think it was a 1996?) started to creak and parts of the dashboard were no longer working about 2 years into owning the car and I got sick of taking it back to the dealer to get things fixed. I bought the car 1 year old used.
My parents have mostly owned American cars and still owns 1 Buick that is about 5 yrs old now. It runs alright but feels unstable when I drive it because I am used to tighter steering.
Overall, we are not considering buying an American car in the near or long term future. Until they can make a car that competes on all levels with what is available to the consumer, they will continue to remain last choice for us. Even with cheaper prices, I don’t feel it is a deal worth making for the hassle I get.
I am holding on to my 1986 Reliant K-car with 100K miles until the new Chrysler 300C comes out next year. It amazes me how many people are talking trash about American cars. I and others in my family have had great luck with Chrysler products. All of our cars have lasted over 20 years with at least 200K miles with the original engines and in most cases the original transmission.
As far as I am concerned Japanese cars are overpriced for what you are get. They seem rather cheaply built using a lot of plastic. And the doors on Japanese cars are thin and light. American vehicles seem more substantial, even when comparing them to a similarly sized Japanese vehicle.
I can purchase a comprably equipped American car which is just as reliable as a Japanese car, if not more so, for several thousand dollars less.
Look around and notice what the police and taxi cab drivers are using. They are driving Ford, GM or Chrysler products. If American cars were as bad as many people claim, police departments and cabbies would be the first ones to stop driving them given the extreme conditions under which these vehicles are driven.
JD Powers and Associates along with many other automobile ratings agencies have shown that the quality of American cars is at least on par with that of the Japanese if not more so in some cases.
Got a 2001 Ford Focus hatchback, one of a limited number that Ford sold here with the stiffer European-version suspension — with the exception of a couple of little glitches, it’s been a great little car. Still a blast to drive on winding canyon roads.
It’s going on 8, and it still looks/feels new. It has held up much better than earlier cars that I’ve owned, cars that in their time were considered above-average in quality.
I plan to start looking at new cars when this one turns 10. Will probably actually “pull the trigger” and buy when it turns 12.
I’m not interested in buying a new car right now. My 1996 Nissan 240SX has 243,000 miles and runs like new. I’ve paid next to nothing for maintenance, beyond regular oil changes and a clutch which I installed myself. If I buy anything anytime soon, it’ll be a house.
I’m waiting for a better deal,
My 1997 Volvo 850 is one of the best cars I’ve owned, even at 160Kmiles I consider it just broken in. It is rust free which is difficult here in New England. Another great car, is the 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis, is has been running problem free ever since I bought it with 35,0000 miles a few years ago, and it gets 24MPG!! Both cars are paid off and even if I was going to purchase another car it certainly wouldn’t be a new one, I just can’t stomach the depreciation.
I’m holding onto my 2002 Volvo S60.
It has 60K miles and is paid off. I tried to trade it in a few months ago and the dealers will not budge an inch with lowering their lease deals. They tell me my Volvo is only worth $5K. $5K ! LOL. I should buy stock in the parent companies of Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Lexus, Infiniti and Land Rover. They must be doing great if they don’t want my business.
Since I became a home based employee last year the wear and tear is at a minimum.
For some reason my wife, kids and father don’t like the Volvo, but it looks great, runs great and has no monthly payments. I’ll drink to that.
I have a 1995 Camry that has 188K miles. It runs as good as the day I bought it. I did not buy it new. It had been leased. I always plan on keeping a car at least 12 years. Maintenance is key. I spend about $1000 a year and that is about average for anyone. It is insane to continually buy new cars and have perpetual debt. I can repaint the car or reupholster if it begins to look worn out. Even a new engine and transmission would be less than 10% of the cost of a new car. As for leasing, that is never a good idea. Unless you are a business, you will never come out ahead leasing a car.
I recently purchased a new BMW 528. Before I decided on the 528, I looked at other cars including Lexus, Acura & Cadillac. The Lexus & Acura were not easy to look at and did not drive well. Neither brand provides a good road feel when driving, they are very bland to drive. Although, they may be more reliable, I enjoy driving the BMW 365 days per year, if I miss a couple of days because the car is at the dealership, it is still better than owning a boring car all year long. Besides, I really do not want to spend an extra 12k for a dressed up Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. I seriously considered the Cadillac CTS. The car drives great and I would not hesitate to buy it. The decision ultimately came down to feeling more comfortable driving the 5 series and my wife’s great experience with her 3 Series. We are considering buying a small SUV in the future and, I am really interested in the new Chevy Equinox, the pictures are very nice and GM’s quality is much better than perception.
I listened to an interview with one of the big three CEOs one time and he was boasting that their cars still run well at 80 K miles. I laughed when I heard that. My Honda Accord is currently 17 years old and has 273,000 miles and shows no sign of giving up. I still commute with it everyday. The body looks a little shabby but we have a lot of snow and salt on the road. In 17 years this car has only broken down twice. Once was my fault.
Ok, here we go – and I’m not making this up; I’ve owned three 1982 Toyota Corollas (excellent), an 89 Mitsubishi Galant(good car), 91 Chevy Blazer (horrible!), 95 GMC Sonoma (horrible), five Jeep Grand Wagoneers aged 86 – 90 (I love this truck! All pieces of crap), a 93 Saturn SL2 that Katrina washed away(great car!), a BMW 3 series (started after sitting in water for a month – no lie!), an Infinity J30 (excellent ride), a 95 Chevy Tahoe (2 door & nothing but a headache), a Lexus SC400 (exceptional car, just perfect) and recently my mom gave me her 92 Nissan Pathfinder (great truck – still trucking with 230k+ miles).
I need an SUV – with 4 wheel drive capabilities. I would love to buy a Chevy Tahoe, but I’ve owned three cars from GM and aside from the Saturn, they were crap (oh yes, and the Mitsubishi, which is partially owned by GM – smoked like a chimney in a Virginia winter). I’m not paying money to be frustrated. I’ll probably end up with a Toyota Sequoia because my experience is they make a better car (the only reason i’ve had so many is I was a used car dealer; some I wrecked, others I sold, some went to family).
As for the unions causing this mess GM is in – didn’t Wagoner just walk away with a 23 million dollar retirement package (it looks like this – $23,000,000,)? I don’t think he’s a union man.
YEAH I’D BUY NEW!. The only problem are the weasels trying to stick it to and jam up the consumers pocket books and bank accounts again. I have a recent model [ less than four year old- low miles] JEEP . Have decided possibly, it is time for a sedan, DODGE -Chrysler: has the best offering’s; The best looking [on the current market] !, if Chrysler- Dodge -Jeep !, weren’t being lambasted continually by the government, the press, the Constant Parade!; of mindless hired Claque’s! [group of sycophants], that are driving my resale value too: nothingness, [lower then worthless] !; I’d be at the Dodge – Jeep – Chrysler – dealer door before I finish this!. Looking to trade; for the new ” CHALLENGER , 300 SEDAN, OR THE LATEST JEEP COMMANDER”!, BUT YOU FLIPPANT MORONS; DROVE MY [Vehicle jeep] VALUE ; ALL TO HELL, SO I’LL JUST WAIT.
And if the new Idiot in charge thinks that by wrecking my cost and value: is a great marketing plan and strategy to help the economy , Impeach him and the pack of lower life oddities [idiots] he’s tramping around with.
So I can get on to deciding which of the sedans I’ll Buy the HEMI is looking really good, All you go greener moth pieces need to get a bicycle and stop worrying about air pollution it has always been the crude with the refined products, nothing was done about this except pass the buck to the auto manufacturer [motor] builders. One hundred years or better into internal combustion Power plants and now you say there is some thing to concern myself with, Horse dung and bull winkles , you are all full of it. Now!; get my resale value; back to where it really belongs, “DOPES”!.
There is no such thing as an American car. So much is outsourced these days. If the big 3 were doing really well right now, do you think they would cut prices and ‘give something back’ to the US consumers? Of course not. They would buy a bigger corporate jet.
Most US corporation these days are looking to cut costs so as to increase profit. Even if that comes at the expense of US workers. Hundred’s of thousands of US jobs have been moved oversea by companies making a healthy profit so that they can increase their profit. Why are people touting loyalty when it is only 1 way?
The fact is, GM especially have completely ignored where the markets were heading. They produced an amazing electric car in the EV1 and had they kept developing it, it might today be the premier electric vehicle and saved GM. But no, they not only scrap it, they went after ever single one made and destroyed them all.
To those who say that GM has changed and have better vehicles today: We are not discussing a restaurant or hotel stay. This is a 20-30k investment. If I had a bad experience with a GM vehicle 20 years ago, then there is no way, even today, then I would spend that sort of money on the company for a full price vehicle unless I had a no questions 6 month return policy.
The cost and time in having to deal with a broken vehicle is huge.
As for me, I have only ever purchased Fords. The Taurus in my opinion is an amazing vehicle. I drove one from new to 150k and it would have driven at least another 50k had it not been for an accident. My current 2000 Taurus was 3 years old and now has 185k and going ok. Our 2002 Winstar on the other hand is at 112k and I doubt it will last the year. So many things are going wrong and it is only a matter of time before I have no choice but to replace it.
I will look at another Ford, but I am also seriously looking at Honda and Toyota. I want Fuel efficiency for my next vehicle as gas will return to 4-5$ a gallon soon. It will one day be a lot higher. Ford just does not have any good priced fuel efficient vehicles.
I bought a 2009 Honda Pilot EX-L. Why? My wife is expecting in the next 6 weeks and we wanted a bigger vehicle to haul the kid and future kids around in. The dealer financing was not bad, plus we put a fair amount of money down on it.
Why this vehicle? My wife & I looked at other cars (Volvo V-70 & Hyundai Santa Fe) and all got pretty much the same MPG. We thought at that point, go for the biggest one that will have the most cargo space.
My decision to get a Honda was based on quality and past experience with my Honda Accord I got in June ‘06. Would I like to purchase an American car? Sure! But the quality and value is just not there. Had enough American cars in the 90’s that did not hold up the way they should have. Plus, the “help” from dealerships was usually less than stellar.
What is the point of giving American car companies all this money for a product that is inferior.
i totally agree with this guy!!!! i couldnt be happier with my awesome 89 cougar, my fun ‘94 f150 pick up, my ‘99 v12 s600…and my 93 harley sportster hugger!!! they all run like a dream as long as i take regular care of them…plus i love the older cars,,,,sturdier and safer bodies that protect you……and engines that i can work on for small stuff. i love them and wouldnt trade them for a new car at all…and i have owed new cars before…by the way the S600 still smells like a new car 10 years later.
I will NEVER buy a new car. Let some one else own or lease it for three or four years and take on the higher depreciation. I usually buy a fully loaded used luxury car or SUV with in three to four model years old with less than 40K miles for 50% to 60% of original sticker (not to mention tax sanvings). My depreciation is roughly 200 a month. Buy any new car over $25K and your depriciation is close to $400 a month on average for the first three years.
Want expamples. Price a 2006 Mercedez ML350 with 40K miles vs. it’s original sitcker. Try a 2007 Ford Edge SEL Plus (2008 Ltd Equivalent) with 40K miles.
It used to be that the Japanese cars held ther value much closer; not so much any more. You can find a 2007 Honda accord EX for the mid teens.
Buying new is crazy.
So Raymond Chong wanted an American hybrid. Then instead of buying a 40mpg American hybrid for $32k, he bought a 20mpg non-hybrid Honda for $34k? And then tried to say the price was your sticking point??? You showed your true priorities. Some other points for Raymond: There is no “stripped down” Fusion hybrid; they are pretty loaded, and will always be so until the volumes go up. It is not a “basic Ford”; that would be a Focus. You bought a basic Honda. Is that better somehow? The availability of the Fusion Hybrid is very limited right now, and demand is high, yet you are surprised there is markup? You could have bought a Kansas City-built Escape Hybrid for similar money to the Pilot. Or you could have bought the 4-cyl non-hybrid Fusion or Malibu for MUCH less money. Either of those would use only 2/3 as much fuel as the Pilot. Forums on the internet are full of lame justifications; yours fit right in with well above-average lameness.
I bought a 2007 Lexus last year. In 1998 my wife bought a 98 Subaru Forester and I bought a 98 Crysler Intrepid. We spent far too much money constantly reparing the Crysler and got rid of it last year after a front wheel fell off. The Subaru only required reqular maintenance and is still runing. We are not inclined to buy north american cars because they do not have the same quality as Japanese models.
I traded in my ‘02 WRX wagon last May to get an ‘08 BMW 328i. Auto sales were very slow and interest were rock bottom so I was able to have my cake and eat it too. I got the dealer to take my old car for private party value and got the new car for just $1,000 over the invoice price.
My fiance and I were very conservative during the CDO fueled housing craziness of the last few years and held cash in anticipation of the bubble bursting. The downturn’s here and now we can reap the benefits, such as getting a new Bimmer at a fire sale price.
My decision to get a German car was purely product driven. It is too bad GM might go under because their product portfolio right now is the best its been in decades. I would strongly consider a GM product next time around if the trend in product quality keeps increasing
I did purchase a certified used Toyota corolla 2008 last month, with very low miles. Why did I choose this? Because 2 reasons, first the deal was so good I could not resist, second finance was very low interest. We all know when things get better both prices and interest rates will go up.
Plus since I live on Southern California you need to have a reliable car up 100% of the time, why? It’s almost impossible to get around here if you do not have a car, you will lose both time and money, and that is something I do value, so buying a new car will keep me going, either way you put it money will have to be spent either on the used car or on a new trouble free car.
As for buying American here is my story: Many years ago (2003) when I was looking into a nice used car I was considering a Ford but what drove me away was the fact that prices were the same as the other brand cars (aka) Honda, Toyota etc.
Only an opinion! If I buy American I would like to expect to pay less since it’s here in the US not more expensive or same price as a foreign car.
Just a though…nothing else.
I drive a 1998 Chevrolet S10 with 215,000 miles. No way I would buy another GM, but I will drive this one into the ground. Some parts are just cheaply made, while in other cases repairs that should have run less than $200 for parts have exceeded $600. If I have the dealer make the repair it would be even worse. The equivalent part for a Toyota usually costs much less, even with a weak dollar. Go figure. Fortunately it hasn’t stranded me too many imes, but I had to laugh when GM ran an ad claiming their Onstar system would let you know when your vehicle required service or had a problem. My truck died completely and did not even illuminate the MIL.
Value is the other problem. It is not hard to justify $30K+ for a new vehicle when you earn a fat paycheck, but for those of us who live at the “average” income level or thereabout, I just don’t see it. Used vehicles make more sense than ever. I personally can’t afford to support CEOs who “earn” in one day what it takes me all year to bring in, along with the excesses of many of the unions. Then there is the simple matter of the Big 3 don’t have any compelling product, at least not for a real world price.
Just one more thing.
All these people that say, “I only buy American,”
Oh really? Well, do you own a pair of shoes?
Oh you do own shoes?
Well I guess they must all have been hand made by your local cobbler.
Because if not, if you bought them at Wal-Mart, Target, Nordstrom or any of the other retailers that specialize in selling low-cost Asian-made goods, you are a huge hypocrite and an idiot!
Again; another issue of consumers not doing their homework:
Will someone please explain to Leslie May of Lafayette, La. that the MKZ and Milan are both made by the same company that produced the Explorer that has given her “nothing but problems?”
Come on folks!
I’m not going to bash on anyone for buying American in order to “support our country” or any of those reasons, but please don’t fool yourself into thinking that there is something anti-American about the rest of us (who have a firm grip on economics and objective analysis) purchasing something because it is a better overall value.
If it makes you happy, buy whatever you want, just please do a little do-diligence first.
P.S
I served in the Army for over 10 years (twice overseas). I’m proud of my service and (usually) proud of my nation. That said, I’d rather burn a stack of $100 bills than hand it over to a GM dealer!
My wife drives a 2004 Honda Accord EX that we bought used in 2007. This is a great car. It rides well and is very luxurious with rich wood and leather in all the right places. We saved thousands by buying used.
I commute all year by motorcycle, although I’d like to get a car before next Winter starts. I’m 48 and am getting tired of dealing with rain and cold weather.
I’ll probably buy a used Toyota Tacoma so we can haul stuff.
I had two American cars in my lifetime and they were awful. I’ll probably only buy Japanese cars until the American car companies lean to compete.
I don’t plan to buy another car until the wheels fall off mine. Then I will be looking only for a car that does not use one drop of gasoline. I would prefer an American non-gasoline car, but none are available I will have to of course resort to foreign options.
I was born and raised in Detroit MI. I, along with four generations of my family, have worked for the Auto industry. Of course, I switched to Finance, which isn’t much better. I also moved to the West Coast years ago, where imports are everywhere. My wife owned a Toyota before we were married. I never thought I would be behind the wheel of import until I met her. After owning the vehicle with her, I can saw I never will again.
Personally, I’ve been working on automobiles for 15 years. I couldn’t believe how poorly built the Toyota was. Typical repairs took many more hours to complete. For example, it took me 10 hours to get all of the hoses replaced on the car. A week later, it took me two hours to do it on my American car. Luckily for us, we sold that car a month ago.
Rather then buy a new car… we choose the environmentally friendly option. We picked up a used car. It was my grandfathers 1990 Chevrolet Lumina, which only had 78,000 miles on the ODO. We had to drive it cross country from Detroit to Phoenix… but we were shocked to get 31 MPG during the trip. It was easy and cheap to do a tune up on, and the mileage picked up after that. We know kept our carbon footprint down, considering a used car takes no new hydrocarbons to produce.
Sure, it’s an old car, but it looks new. Would we consider a new car? Perhaps. But we also have a 2007 Cadillac CTS, just in case. And we also have a 1990 Mustang I’m restoring. Either way, I have a choice between fun, luxury, and economy. All of which are American, and all of which support the economy in the states.
I’ve been holding off on buying a new vehicle. I’ve bought many brand new cars over the years, but have decided to hold onto my 2004 Ford Focus Zts, which has been a great vehicle. Even if i do buy another vehicle, I plan to hold onto the 2004 and will probably only look for a certified used vehicle that’s 1 year old vs. brand new. Vehicles are just too expensive an you can save a lot of money buying one at least 1 year old.
I am a loyal Ford buyer/owner! I would like see longer warranty /higher mileage warranty periods for the price of a new car, i feel they should do this to give people more piece of mind when paying such high sticker prices these days. Although i’ve never had problems with my Fords, buying new , i’d like to know the warranty has me covered, if needed.
I will continue to buy Ford, whether brand new or 1 years olds!
As far as bankruptcy for the big 3, if it comes to that in order to survive, then that’s what they need to do. I’m thinking that the union workers would rather lose a few dollars per hour, than lose their jobs altogether (if bankruptcy voided out the union contracts and they renegociate new contracts). This could bring down the cost of a new vehicle several thousand dollars.
We have 3 jeeps, a 97 Wrangler, 97 Grand Cherokee and a 98 Cherokee. All have over 100,000 miles, my 98 has over 300,000. I have no plans on buying a new one, I keep up on the maintenance, have the factory service manuals and do most of the work myself. Maybe if the feds cut the 35% corporate tax then the prices on new cars would come down accordingly. Also quite honestly, other than the 4 door wrangler none of the jeep line interests me anymore, Both my kids also have wranglers so we are a 5 jeep family.
To Mike M., from Wisconsin: You may have the problem with the Buick that I had with a 1994 LeSabre. The 3800 6 cylinder engine has an obscure part called a cam sensor that cracks with age. That will make the engine occasionally stall completely and out of the blue at even highway speeds, only to start up and run fine again until the next incident. Twice Pep Boys couldn’t fix the problem and it cost me $400. When I took it to Buick with an article on the cam sensor that I found in a blog, the problem was finally fixed at a cost of about $200.
By the way, we now own a 2006 Chevy, a 2004 Hyundai and 2007 Hyundai and all are going strong. After years of driving only Hondas, I find domestic cars to be much more competitive today in terms of quality and performance for the dollar.
About a year ago we were discussing the purchase of a GM hybrid. Because of the economic uncertainty, we are waiting. We currently own a Nissan Altima and a Toyota Tacoma. To be honest I regret buying them. These are good vehicles, but I feel I sold out on the hard working people in Detroit. I will only buy American from now on. I’m waiting to see what happens to GM. I want a Malibu, but I’m afraid to make such a large purchase with the risk of GM going bankrupt and losing any warranty support. I will never buy a car from a foreign company regardless of where it is made. I know there are people that will hammer back asking about American cars that are sold overseas. I agree, they are, but there is a very large deficit between what we sell overseas and foreign cars bought here in the U.S., and as an American it is my duty to support my economy first. If it equals out, I may reconsider in the future!
The car companies can promise everything and I will still not purchase a new car. I will keep the one I have a 2006 Mitsubishi Galant. With this recession nothing is guaranteed and I for one do not beleive in the Big 3. I had planned to purchase a new Mitsubishi Galant but since February of 2008 I saw what was happening and decided to wait. I am glad I did.
Sorry, Detroit, but we’re not about to start making transfer payments to auto workers and retirees whose greedy unions created that enormous legacy of debt that helped bring you down. We already have one stomach ache paying off those disgraceful corporate bonuses via our taxes.
Auto unions: how about some give-backs? We’ll consider buying American once you decide to do your part and recognize that the most important party is in this mess is not you, but the customer.
Oops! Too late! We’re in our 70s and have just bought what will probably be our last car–a Hyundai.
Keeping my Honda
I drive a 1998 Honda Accord. It has 230,000 miles but it runs like new! I am not buying a new car until my current one just completely dies. Why the extra expense? I have not made any car payments for the past 7 years and I love it!
Yes, I am buying a new car. Not because I want to, but because my FORD caught on FIRE last week and burned to the ground – and also burned the car sitting next to it in the parking lot! My grandmother gave me the doomed Ford Crown Vic, so now she is helping me buy a new car. I am looking at Honda Fit/Civic, etc…We also own a Subaru (best car ever!)I’m tired of hearing AMERICAN vs. FOREIGN. American workers are building “foreign” cars and “Foreign” workers are building “American” cars!!! Egads, people. I’ve owned 3 “American” cars and I am DONE. 1 of them was great, 1 was terrible and 1 committed murder/suicide in the parking lot at work. Check the Recalls, y’all. Lesson learned.
The entire vehicle industry should have some sort of governing oversight. Whether that is a state / federal operation or industry driven operation, it does not matter. The sales people, in general – not all, have one motive: sell high. We had to educate the dealer on the Visa and MasterCard rules – the dealers can’t set limits for how much you can charge. Page 9 of the Visa merchant manual. I showed it to them, they still refused (we wanted the cash back – we had the money to buy). They still refused and got angry at us! ?? Why should they be allowed to get away with this and so many other horror stories I hear from people every day? So, while I know we want to purchase another vehicle, we’ll wait for the used market to level off in price and deal with individuals.
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It doesn’t matter what the visa manual says. Dealers have to pay fees on credit card purchases over a certain dollar amount. It it’s not worth it to them, they won’t do it. Where I work the limit is $2500. Just because you want your frequent flyer miles, doesn’t mean the dealer has to pay for it. In addition, I’ve known several people with prius’s that ended up being a turd on wheels. your father-in-law’s prius running good is a testament to him, because generally speaking a car will run as good as the person taking care of it.
I bought a 2007 4 Door Jeep Wrangler. It has been the best vehicle I have ever had. The quality is excellent and the ride and handling are great. I think I am now a converted Jeep enthusist. On the auto companies, I think the general pulic needs to understand that the sins of the housing industy put a choke hold on car sales. All the autos are suffering bc of this crisis. Of course they have thier problems but they have been addressing them over the last 6 years and doing a good job of it. They really were the unintended casualty of the credit crisis. I was surprised that the public was so angry against the American autos than they were about the banks. The dollar need for the US auto Industry is a small fraction of what the banks need not to mention the autos actually manufacture something.
The second woman in your story should be careful when she says “I was taught to always by from the big 3…american”. Most of those cars are made in Mexico. Our Honda Accord (which is a wonderful car…has 150,000 miles on it with no mechanical problems) was made right here in the USA! DO YOUR RESEARCH before blabbing about the so called american car companies! Put our unemployed citizens to work instead of Mexicans!
In May of ‘08′ we bought a used Honda Odyssey (05+). It was a choice between that and a Suburban (07-new). It cam down to gas milage and payment. I really wished GM. Ford & Chrysler put forth more of an effert to make a minivan as current and stylish, an performance driven as the Odyssey. But, when i looked & saw how sleek and modern the new Suburban is, it too was in top cinsideration. BUT, every GM dealer couldn’t move much on the price. Even with my GM Supplier discount, it would’nt put the Suburban under my $27K – $31K Cap. So we threw the Gas Guzzler out the window, and found a used Odyssey with 35K miles. Saved $400/mo in payment. I’m buying used until GM, Ford & Chrysler come of these overpriced cars. Then i’ll start buying American again.
I have two vehicles, a 2003 Toyota Corolla and I recently purchased a 2009 Toyota Tacoma in March. The Corolla gets 43mpg and the Tacoma get 20mpg. They are both high quality and a terrific value for the money. It took me two months of negotiating to get the Tacoma for the price I wanted. Price negotiation is something new for Toyota dealers, but even they are starting to open up. There is no doubt in my mind that America could build the best cars and trucks in the world if they chose to, but so far they have not chosen to do so. They simply do not build as good a car or truck as Toyota or Honda. They refuse to listen to the consumer. The American cars and trucks I have owned were pretty much shot at 120,000 miles. I think the American auto makers can not compete because of greed. Give us high value at a low cost and we will buy. Right now they offer neither.
I bought my 1996 Cadillac DeVille in 2003 for just $6,250, 14% of what the car sold for new. It’s six years later, and I’ve put another 6 grand or so into keeping it on the road. Now here’s the good part. Take that $12,000+ that I’ve invested, subtract the $3,500 or so I could get for the car now, and you come up with an ownership cost of just $125/month. And I’m driving a Caddy! Leather seats, all the toys, etc. Nobody wants ‘em. If I had to be cool and drive a Lex, Merc or Beemer, it would have been double the cost. There seems to be much more demand for the smaller Caddies, but since I don’t fit in them, never checked it out. Some poor sucker was saying he saved $800/mo by not having a second car. I feel sorry for him, but am grateful that there are people with egos out there who buy new cars, thereby enabling me to ride almost for free.
Well, I just bought a 2007 Chevy Aveo, for the gasmileage and also it seemed to be the most comfortable one for my 6 foot one inch frame.
I considered new, however in these uncertain times, buying a low miles used vehicle made more sense.
As to the bailout: I do not subscribe to the bailout. I believe they should file for bankrupcy and then we would see a leaner and more profitable auto industry.
In my opinion, they missed the boat in the 1970’s. They had the chance to build smaller and higher quality cars as there european brethren did, but decided to continue down the path of excess and cater to it.
Now that the ones that perused this excess are fading rapidly in to the background, the more typical american buyer has turned to foreign cars to satisfy theire need for quality vehicles with good mileage.
On a side note, I am disappointed with the Aveo, as it appears to be of poor quality and just had it in for a front wheel bearing replacement at 21000 miles and received a letter from GM to have the timing belt checked at 30000 and replaced at 60000 or the warranty would be void! Should have bought a Honda or VW.
I graduated from college last May, and I’ve been driving a ‘93 Ford Explorer since I turned 16. It was a hand-me-down from my mother after she fell in love with the newer (at the time) PT Cruiser, and I’ve loved it. It’s definitely had it’s problems (spedometer malfunctioned, acceleration stuck once, rear door handle broke off, etc), but it’s been a great car for a new driver.
Unfortunately, my baby is falling farther apart. The transmission kicked it in Feb this year (we fixed it for $1200, far less than I thought it would cost), and with the car fast approaching 190,000 miles, it’s time to find something new. Of course being a young man with no real ties and responsibilities like a family, I’m going to the Ford Mustang. I’ve wanted one for a long time now, and I figure now is the best time in my life to go for it.
My father and I went out and searched for used and new ones, and even looked at more sensible cars (like the Ford Fusion, for example). We got the prices and the costs per month for insurance and for the car payment. Luckily, I can pay $10,000 upfront, but my car payment is still looking to be $300-$500 per month.
Being a college grad, I’m looking for any permanent work I can find nowadays, but all I can get is a temporary job. It pays decently, but my main worry is that the job could end at practically any time. What do I do when I get the car, have to pay that much money, and am no longer working?
It’s a scary thought, for me and anyone worried about losing their job, and that thought is pushing me towards just riding out my current car for as long as I can. Hopefully, things change here soon and I can find a permanent job, or at least one I’m confident in that will for sure last more than 1 month. Until then, my dream is being put on hold.
I have been looking to buy 2 cars/SUV’s to replace my 2004 Honda Accord and 2004 Toyota Solara. I have been surprised at how much the dealers are NOT moving on price right now. I have been to Nissan, Honda, Toyota, etc and they all think they are giving me a “great deal” at 7% off MSRP while offering me wholesale/auction value vs trade-in value for my 2 (very low mileage) cars. I’d be willing to buy/lease 2 new cars at any time if the car dealers would wake-up to reality of the current market conditions. I never paid more than 90% of MSRP on any car in the past, even in a good economy, and have always got trade-in value before. I am happy to hang on to 2 good cars for now and have stopped actively looking out of frustration with the same dealer BS and lack of willingness to deal.
Bought a 2008 Acura RDX in March of 09. Negotiated hard and got it for way below invoice. Sold a 2000 Toyota Sienna XLE van (175k miles) for $2K. Gave college bound daughter my 2001 Acura RL (110k miles. She’ll get another 50-60k out of it. Wife has 2008 Prius. Gets 50 mpg. we keep cars at least 150k miles and only buy once every 8-10 years. For this reason quality is important hence the Toyotas and Acuras (Honda).
I have a 2007 Pontiac Vibe with 40K miles on it. It has never been in for repairs, just routine maintenance. I just replaced the four tires and the front brakes are still only about 60% worn. I bought the Vibe because it is sold by GM, but made by Toyota (it’s cousin is the Toyota Matrix). This is hands down, the best car I have ever owned. I used to think that a few repairs here and there were normal and that front disc brakes never lasted more than 30K miles, until I owned this car. The unfortunate part is that I don’t see myself purchasing a true American car, until they can match the reliability of the foreign makes. Why should I go through the hassle of more repairs and higher maintenance costs just to own American? There is no reason why we can’t match the reliability of Toyota and Honda, we just need to devote financial resources to making our cars more reliable, instead of servicing debt.
I look forward to the day when American cars are just as reliable or even more reliable than foreign cars. I would gladly change, but am not willing to compromise on my requirements just to buy American!
I bought a new Toyota Sienna last March. With 2 baby carseats and aging grandparents we needed a bigger vehicle. I tesdrove the Sienna, Dodge Caravan, Chrysler T&C and Volkswagen Routan because of their incentives.
The Volkswagen Routan 4 Liter with leather was my favorite testdrive. Volkswagen Routan is based on the Caravan but better: tuning the suspension, adding seat padding and quality materials.
I used Carmax.com to compare NEW Toyota, Dodge and Chrysler prices. For example, Carmax.com lets you filter for leather seats and lists all the new minivans from various Carmax locations. With leather selected, the Toyota Sienna came out cheaper than the Chrysler. Since Carmax does not have a Volkswagen dealership, it was harder to estimate the price of the Routan but in the end the basic Sienna leather package was the best deal.
The last American car I owned was from the 70s and the Big 3 have to earn my business by offering the best product at the best price. Chrysler products have become too complicated. For example they have 3 minivan lines: Caravan, T&C and Routan and 2 engines 4L and 3L. Toyota and Honda each have 1 package each that they tirelessly improve. Dodge/Chrysler lowered the prices in April and would have beaten Toyota but by then it was too late for Chrysler.
I didn’t want to buy a car, I’m being forced. I almost have my Saturn Vue paid off. Turns out the transmission is worthless; the manufacturer may soon be worthless (GM); and the trade-in value, well, getting clos to worthless. I just want a car that will last 100,000 miles that I can pay off quickly. I hate car payments. I am looking at Honda or Toyota. No more American. I can’t depend on them being saved. They should not be after this last vehicle, Made in the USA. How about, taken for a ride in the USA?
I drive a 1998 Ford Ranger with 210,000 trouble free miles on it. Yes, it rides like a log wagon and is pretty beat up but it runs well, gets good mileage, and it’s paid for. A brand new SUV will not do any better than that. Based on my experience I will likely replace it someday with another like it. I don’t consider it any more American than a Nissan made in Smyrna, Tennessee. If this truck had proved a piece of junk I would be looking at something else. Regardless of what comes next it won’t be until this one blows up and dies and I won’t spend more than I can easily pay cash for. Any vehicle you buy will be junk in a few years.
Did anyone notice that the girl that bought the VW said that she didn’t want to buy another German car (after owning an Audi). Makes total sense unless you know that VW makes Audi and they are both German. Brilliant!
I have been looking for a car as my car is a 2005 and is in good condition as I have kept it up. I drive 18 miles to work one way so I am afraid this car may start having problems. I am getting my credit score raised and trying to get it to 700 because I am not going to pay 18% for a car to be financed again. The make does not matter as long as the ratings on the car are good. I want a new car and with the payments around 350.00. It is hard to go in and talk a deal if your score is not at least 700. I should be ready in the next couple of months.
We bought a new 2008 Ford Escape in March 2008. Great car, but we got into an accident when a deer jumped out in front of my car. After 3 months with a bad repair job from Ford in Smithfield they returned it to me. Paid the body shop and dealership in Smithfield, before verifying the unit was in the same condition it went in for. We heard a clicking noise and wanted it repaired correctly. Liberty Mutual advised they would have it looked at again. They opted to send it to a different Ford location and they broke down the engine and decided it was not repairable. So they totaled it! We are looking at possibly paying $4,000 dollars to pay off the remainder of the loan (with no car to speak of). Found out my insurance company, Liberty Mutual, will only pay what the car is worth without taking into consideration the mismanagement of our case, despite our numerous requests to get a 2nd opinion on the car, and the fact that they chose the dealership in Smithfield that was either poorly staffed or lacked the knowledge to do the repair presented to them and the fact that they already paid out for the original repair should give them a red flag that they should be more in tune with their customer, especially a customer that has more than one policy with them Oddly enough in their most current commercial they are running it says that you will get a new car if totaled within the first year. I found out the hard way that is not true, you need to have all sorts of extra stuff and the moon needs to be aligned just the right way, etc… You have to ask all the right questions- for a “what if” situation. What if aliens land their spaceship on my car – am I covered? That may seem farfetched but when you get hit by a deer and it takes over 3 months to determine the outcome of your car and then you have multiple opinions from service centers that all learn from the same handbook- you think the insurance company would want to make it right for their customer and get to the bottom of things. I would also think the dealership would want that same resolution as it is their product. But that’s just what I think.
I will never buy GM or Chrysler until their quality comes up! My parents have a loaded-up Jeep Grand Cherokee that is only 4 years old with 80k miles. It has had a series of unrelated problems that require dealer service. Meanwhile, I have a 1999 Honda Odyssey minivan with 265k miles and it still runs like new! The oil is still barely brown when I change it at 7500 miles. This van is going to last 400k miles without major service. I used to have a diesel Ford Excursion that was a very nice truck. I was glad that I sold it prior to $4.50/gallon diesel. A fillup would have been $175.
We bought a new 2008 Huyandai Tiburon last weekend because the price was too good to pass up (we paid cash). It was about $8,000 of last year’s listed price. We bought it because it gets excellent gas mileage and we won’t have to worry about the heavy costs of maintenance as we did with our old Suburban gas hog (which we sold).
We just purchased a Prius outright after saving for 8 years. It reminded me why we have been driving 10 and 12 year old vehicles: the process and, now, finding a vehicle you can count on to not fail.
The entire vehicle industry should have some sort of governing oversight. Whether that is a state / federal operation or industry driven operation, it does not matter. The sales people, in general – not all, have one motive: sell high. We had to educate the dealer on the Visa and MasterCard rules – the dealers can’t set limits for how much you can charge. Page 9 of the Visa merchant manual. I showed it to them, they still refused (we wanted the cash back – we had the money to buy). They still refused and got angry at us! ?? Why should they be allowed to get away with this and so many other horror stories I hear from people every day? So, while I know we want to purchase another vehicle, we’ll wait for the used market to level off in price and deal with individuals.
Regarding a vehicle you can trust, my wife’s dad has owned a Prius since the year after they came out. Unbelievably reliable. And, while I think we still need an SUV for family needs, I’m starting to believe a second Prius would be just fine.
I’ve read through several comments, and can identify with many of them. It is sad, but the reality is that our American auto manufacturers missed the boat and became too self-absorbed.
Maybe I’ve missed it in the news somewhere, but I’m shocked no one has suggested the big three be forced to combine resources and make one, larger, but leaner, American car company (Not the AMC of the past).
In November, my wife and I leased a 2009 Honda CRV to replace our 2004 Jeep Liberty. To try and compare these two vechicles is no contest. We paid the same for the CRV as the Jeep, but got leather, heated seats/mirrors, six CD changer, room for our feet, a cargo tray in the rear. Not to mention that the Jeep was back to the dealership within 2 months of being in our driveway for warranty work. This month, we purchased a 2008 Honda Odyssey to replace our 2008 Pontiac Montana.
It annoys me reading on here about how many people say “I’m only buying American”. Just about EVERY car company is now American. Honda builds the Odyssey, Ridgeline and Pilot in Alambama, the CRV in Ohio, the Accord and Civic in Indiana. Last time I checked, all those places were in America, employing Americans…..
Don’t be brainwashed by the Big 3 into thinking its unpatriot to not buy one of their cars. Your fellow Americans in Alabama, Ohio and Indiana will thank you….
We are buying a certified used American family sedan, MKZ or Milan. We have a 2002 Ford Explorer. Initially I liked the space for the whole family. We bought it used from a rental car company in 2003 and have had nothing but problems with it. Rear-end issues especially. At 122,000 miles the A/C is out, the rear-end hum is now a roar and the electrical system freaks out sometimes. All I’m waiting on is my income tax refund for a down payment. Even with all the incentives on new, I don’t want to get in too far over my head with payments. But I will buy American (Lincoln or Mercury) to at least do my part to support the economy. I do want to take advantage of the lower prices on more luxury cars right now and get something nicer than the Explorer since it will have to last me at least 10 years.
I won’t be replacing the 1999 Honda Civic EX Coupe that I bought used 6 years ago. It runs perfectly, but has some dings and scrapes and a large “key” mark — mostly the result of my condominim parking lot. I would love to upgrade to a four-door car with newer features (like seat warmers, for example 
), but with the housing market in my area, I can’t sell my condo — which means whatever car I get would also be stuck in that parking lot and would probably get just as beaten up — except with a new car, I’d feel compelled to fix it.
So until I can sell my condo or rent it out and purchase a new home for myself, I will be driving my 10-year old ultra-reliable, somewhat beat-up Honda. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I have no plans to buy a new vehicle anytime soon. I bought my 2000 Ford Ranger brand new that year. It’s been the best vehicle ever, period. There is no reason for me to waste my money on a new vehicle when I have a vehicle that is paid for and runs well. I currently have 189,956 miles on it. It has been just great. Now I am one of guys who is really picky on car/truck maintenace. I have changed the oil every 2500 miles, put new plugs in twice, flushed the transmission, coolant system, replaced the belt. That is pretty much it. It’s all about taking care of it. If you saw my truck today, you would think I had just purchased. I also obessed with keeping the outside clean. Not to bad if I say so myself. I may get a Fusion in the near, near future for a 2nd vehicle, but who knows. But whatever I do, I will never get rid of my Ford Ranger. No car payments for me is my main goal right now.
I buy American period. I live here and I support my home country. I am buying a FORD just like I did last time!
I drive a 1987 Toyato Trecel that I bought for $500.00 just before the gas went up last year, it has over 70,000 miles on it and runs like new. I am keeping it at least till 2011, when I am hopeing to get a new Smart.
It is a great plan to hang onto a car as long as possible if you like the car, but another “they get you coming and going” problem is that parts for older cars — Even American cars! — become hard or impossible to find. There used to be plenty of junkyards to solve this problem. Now they are few and far between, and even they don’t keep older cars around for that long.
After reading the letters from the first couple of contributors (the Zinnas and Julie Kenar) I’m not surprised that your average American still doesn’t understand that leasing a vehicle or purchasing a vehicle is not a question of one being “better” than the other, but a question of what is better for the purchaser.
Rule # 1 (I would think) is to never lease a vehicle that is not considered a “luxury” or “top-shelf” item. Typically (at least until the economic crisis) top-tier cars/trucks could be had for a fraction of their monthly purchase price by leasing. This was one of the big benefits.
For those who desire a car that might carry a hefty monthly payment, don’t commute to work, enjoy the amenities of a new vehicle, or simply like driving a new car every couple of years, leasing has proved to be a very beneficial way to attain a vehicle they would otherwise not be able to purchase (much like renting an up-scale apartment in the city).
I never cease to be amazed at the overwhelming majority of the population that still doesn’t understand leases, or that doesn’t do their homework and then find themselves on the wrong end of a penalty and arriving at the (ill-acquired) conclusion that leasing is a rip-off.
Americans need to do a better job of understanding (and respecting) money and how it works. Of course, if the last statement was widely accepted or understood, we wouldn’t find ourselves (as a nation) in the situation we are in currently.
I purcashed a 2009 Ford Fusion. I checked sevral cars before I decided on my Fusion. I think for the price it was a good deal. What I like about the car most is the navigation system and Sync. I get around 29 mpg. That is not taking long trips, this is around town and about 20 miles round trip to my sister’s house. This car is a 6 cylinder, it has plenty of power. I traded my 2000 Pontiac GTP. Which was a great car with lots of power. I was ready to get a 4 door vehicle. The 2 door doors are extremely heavy, and getting in and out ot the back seat was a pain. Also I did get an employee discount through my company.Go Ford!!!! Thanks.
I am driving my ‘99 Mercury Tracer with 120,000 miles on it. No a/c but I drive less than 20 miles a day highway so I don’t need it. No car note and 30 MPG makes the lack of A/C worth it and in this economy I will drive it until it is beyond repair.
It is not wise to purchase a new vehicle since most auto companies are not sound. There is a lot of problems with america building cars and they have intentionally build cars to last 5 or less years. Our cars are sold merely on “looks”, while other countires trys to do both and steal away america car buyers. Don’t purchase a vehicle now, wait until the prices reaches 8 to 11K and then only then, buy what you can afford.
I am stuck and wondering what to do. I always bought used and have been stranded with young children on the highway in Philly. So… I decided to start leasing Saturns in 2000, but used public transportation for work. My next lease is up Jan. 2010 and I just received a letter from Saturn that they are now essentially defunct. I now live in Kansas City where there is essentially no public transportation and it is expected to have a car to get to work. I do not need a minivan, so I don’t want to buy out the lease, I wanted to get something smaller. I don’t have perfect credit, so I doubt that anyone will sell/lease me a new car. I am unsure what to do now.
When you have cars that are only three years old and their resale values have been halved, we are upside down on our car loans and can’t get a fair trade in value or a loan to cover the upside down costs. So NO we will not be looking for a new car anytime soon. Our existing cars are going to get 100k miles on them before we start looking again. And we wonder why car sales are down:-)
Why I bought my Subaru and kept my Isuzu:
My husband and I decided about a year ago to go down to one vehicle for economic reasons and to help the environment. Since he was traveling out of state a lot and his car would just sit in a parking lot, it made a lot of sense at the time. We figured we’d save on insurance, gas and maintenance costs.
We were wrong. We piled on the miles on our poor 2004 Isuzu Rodeo and almost ran it into the ground. We used more gas because if I couldn’t get a ride to work with my carpool, my husband would have to drive the 26 miles to get me to work and then pick me up at the end of the day. Since he’s self-employed, this cut into the time he was able to do billable work.
Last month, we purchased a 2009 Subaru Forester. It gets great gas mileage for an SUV (25 mpg on average) and we can both get to work daily. We take lots of road trips, so cargo space is important to us, which is why we picked an SUV. We discovered that the increase in insurance was minimal and by my husband working one full day more per month, we can cover that and most of the car payment. It’s a win-win situation for us.
We love our new Forester and while it’s not the hybrid that my husband would have wished for, its PZEV low emissions goes a long way toward helping the environment. And with the lower prices on vehicles now and dealer promotions, we got more car than we would have last year for more money.
My thoughts on the Big 3:
Our family doesn’t lease or sell their cars: we just keep them until they die or pass them on to family members or friends. So it’s important to us to have cars that last a long time, and unfortunately, this has not been the case with the American vehicles we have owned. Prior to the Rodeo, our last car, a Toyota Tacoma, has more than 300,000 miles on it and my daughter’s friend is still driving it! I don’t know of any American car that can compare to that. Perhaps this is a good time for the Big 3 to reconsider their products. It’s not enough to buy American because it’s patriotic: it also has to make good financial sense.
With our economy, and most businesses have not taken into consideration that consumer is not buying high price items anymore. In fact, we have understood what car dealers and car salemen have not been telling us. First, it is their product which cost around 5 to 6K to build. Then, they play down on the consumer by charging delivery charges, plus their add-ons and want us to pay 30 40 thousands. I think that is why consumers are keeping their money. Businesses want more for less and we as consumers are not buying into this market where we as consumer needs to be paying equally. I would rather sale my products then not sale them at all. Most car dealers are now sinking because there is not enough money being spent in their business to keep them going. And, when you do go to them for service, they try to break your pocket book by charging high prices just to service the same vehicle you purchase from them. Yes, its time GM, Ford, etc., all be restructure where consumer can really get what they equally needs rather, then be charged high prices for work that is done simply. It is time that the auto industry know that they needs the consumer rather than the consumer needs them.
I just bought a used 2005 Infiniti a couple months ago. With all the information on the internet available, there is really no excuse for anyone with a computer not to get an excellent deal on their car. I went to http://www.kardawg.com to start because it’s free information, they’re not selling anything. CNN also has some insightful stories to help you save money.
I’m not looking into another car, I’ve already got 3 reliable vehicles; a 2008 VW Eos (lease, wife), 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited (payments, mine), and a 1995 Dodge Dakota (own, used for hauling my dirt bikes, etc). We were looking for a new car last year, and got one – the VW Eos. We did look at the Pontiac G6 Convertible, Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder, and used Audi A4 Cabriolet but ended up with the Eos after finding quality was on par with its Audi sibling and it still cost less than leasing a used Audi. We didn’t even consider the G6 after looking at it and driving it for a few minutes. It was HORRIBLE and represents everything that is wrong with Detroit auto makers and why they are in the condition they are in. Fit, finish, quality, engine, transmission, features, handling, storage space, EVERYTHING were no where NEAR comparable to the Eos. The Eos Lux we ended up with cost more than $7,000 more than a fully loaded G6 (Eos $37,500 G6 w/incentives right around $30,000) but it was well worth it! I would rather spend the extra money and end up with a quality car than get ripped off by GM. Sorry Detroit, you haven’t made anything decent in a long time. You’ve lost me for good. I’m going with German cars from here on out! The VW REALLY impressed me.
I love the story of the woman (Kristina) who bought a VW Eos because she “didn’t want a German car because they’re so expensive to fix.” Well, hunny, I hate to break it to you but you just bought a German car. In fact, VW ranks much lower than what she was driving (Audi) in JD Power’s 2008 Initial Quality Study.
The biggest laugh I got out of this article was the one lady talking about being frustrated because leasing her car was not allowing her to build equity in her car. You can’t build much equity in a car unless it is a very rare collectible that will retain or increase its value over time. Most cars depreciate in value over time thus any “equity” you think you are building is offset by the depreciation in value.
Currently leasing a 2007 Volvo S40 – I have just over a year left on the lease and I like it. I wanted a foreign car because most American cars have plain design and feel ‘plastic’ or cheap. I was looking at Audi’s till I saw an S40 driving down the road – I looked into it and fell in love. I feel good because its still ‘American’ yet is designed in europe – so I felt I got the best of both worlds. I love the Volvo – but I am still afraid for the Big 3. I think they need to step up design and material usage before things can really turn around.
I own a 1992 Honda Civic with 243,000+ miles on it. I swear we have only had to do 3 MAJOR fixes on it. We get gas mileage comprible to cars on the market today. I also own a 1994 Honda Civic Hatchback. It’s a manual and it’s working just as well. I don’t want to buy a new car, not when the two cars I own are working great, but there comes a time when you draw the line between practicality and safety. For me safety is key and a top priority when it comes to my family. Honda’s and Toyota’s are well known for there safety and reliability. They also offer more options in a vehicle for lower prices then American manufacturers. I am doing my research and checking prices but for me right now I need a car to fit two carseats- SAFELY, a dog and some luggage when we travel. I want a car that will get me as far as the ones I have now. I expect my next vehicle to be the one my daughter learns to drive on.
I’m tired of the buy American jive out there. If you want me to buy American, make a product that YOU can stand behind and are proud of. Not a car with flashy wheels and leather interior that won’t get you anywhere. Make a car that will be competitive in a foreign market right along with Honda and Toyota. When that happens, I’ll be the first in line to buy it.
Just bought a new CTS for my wife and this car rocks! I decided that with the Obama tax rebates and a minor incentive from GM it was too good a deal to pass up. Also – this country has been good to us and if we can help my neighbors by buying a new American car now, instead of next year, we will gladly do it.
I just ordered my wife a 2009 VW Routan minivan which we’re taking delivery of in May. She currently drives a 2007 Saab 9-7X SUV which has been a nice car, however her lease runs up this summer.
We got the Saab mainly because of a good lease program. With GM and Chrysler getting out of leasing, this basically takes them off of our shopping lists. We only lease vehicles as we put low to average miles on them.
Every new vehicle I’ve ever had has been a lease, and these companies who are cutting the practice off are potentially alienating 20% of the market. We will not change our purchase habits because they discontinue leasing. Instead, they lose our business.
Additionally, GM and Ford have seen fit to discontinue their minivan lines, instead trying to push consumers toward SUVs or Crossovers which are less efficient and less useful. In my opinion, these are not suitable replacements for a minivan, no matter how hard they try to justify it. GM and Ford have gone as far as saying in public statements that minivans have some sort of “stigma” to try and justify their lack of offering them. What they just end up doing is insulting potential customers.
I currently own two domestic vehicles, a 2008 Saturn Aura and the Saab 9-7X. I have had many miles of trouble-free motoring with both, however in my case it’s the lack of leasing and product offerings (minivan) which are driving me away from Ford, GM and Chrysler. I’m aware that the VW Routan is a Chrysler-built product, however VW is the only one offering a lease on it. So they get my business!
My Saturn lease ends in February. I have my eye on another leased vehicle, currently I’m leaning toward a Honda Accord, Mazda6 or Ford Fusion.
I drive a 2005 Escape with 105k miles. I plan on keeping it as long as it continues to run. My next new car will be an American made Honda. Check the stickers, Honda uses more American labor then the Big 3 use.
I drive a 1996 Saab 900-S convertible with only 80,000 miles on it. It’s still so much fun to drive. Sometimes I’d like a roomier car but our second vehicle is a big old 2000 Tundra with just over 100,000 miles. We live in a small town, have an extremely short commute, and carpool for that. It’s common here to see 20-year old cars that look brand new–there’s just not the wear and tear of the city. We haven’t had car payments in so many years that we just cannot go there now. We’ll probably give a car purchase serious thought in another few years.
Buy a new car? No way. I bought a new jeep cherokee in 1988. It now has 332,000 miles on it, runs great, looks great in & out, and gets 17mpg. It does everything I need it to do, and I haven’t had a car payment or stepped inside a dealership for 20+ years. Do the routine maintenance on schedule, and don’t get caught up in the BS of having a new car and trying to keep up with the Joneses. Isn’t there ANYTHING you could do with an extra $500/month for the next 10-20 years??
We had a 1995 Chevrolet Lumina that we just got rid of. Over 180,000 miles and no problem. We just bought a new 2009 Chevrolet Malibu. Beautiful car, silky engine, awesome interior, and excellent materials choices and fits/finishes. Couldn’t be happier!
I’ve driven most domestic and foreign brands and have owned 8 Hondas, 1 Toyota, 1 Mazda, 1 VW, 1 Ford pickup and 4 Saturns. I just traded my 05 Accord for a 07 Saturn VUE with full warranty. Used car prices are low right now and the quality on GM products is actually better than imports, not worse, and I won’t pay the import premium price until they are substancially better than domestic. I should know, I sell both for a living and am doing just fine thank you…
I drive a Chevy Avalanche and I love it. I have wanted one ever since they came out. However, I feel no loyalty to the “Big Three”. I really think the unions have ruined the car market for American cars. I understand that they need to make a living and all that. That is also why I blame the car companies for giving into the unions and paying them so much. I feel the union workers get paid way too much for what they do. There is no way they deserve more than cops, nurses, firemen etc. Just my opinion.
My wife and I own 2 cars, a 1998 Honda Accord with 200,000 miles on it and a 1999 Totoya Camry with 140,000 miles. We recently had a baby and plan on purchasing a larger vehicle that meets our needs, we have been looking at a used Honda Pilot because its roomy, maintains its value, its a realiable vehicle and low maintenance costs. We probably will wait on making any major purchase with the state of the economy the way it is. It’s also nice not having a car payment. So for the time being I plan on keeping both cars. I purchased the both vehicles used in for $5,500 respectivly the Accord in 2004 with 122K miles and the Camry in 2005 with 91K miles but fully loaded. The cost to own both vehicles taking into consideration all of the maintenance I have put into it is $15 per month per car. I don’t think that I can purchase a car for $15 a month. I have had no major problems with the vehicles and I have kept up with all of the maintenance. I am prepared with the realty that a major repair may be coming down the pipe line but I am prepared to shell out $1500 to repair the vehicle. Most people pay around $300-400 a month on a car I figure that I will break even in 4-5 months. I say keep your used cars until they die, it is and always will be a depreciating asset. Take the difference and invest it in a retirement account, save for repairs, save for another car or pay off your home faster. People purchasing new cars with 7 and 8 year terms and leasing is what got us into this mess.
My thoughts on the bail out are that they should file for bankruptcy and re-organize. There is no way that Ford, GM and Chrsyler can compete with the imports if they continue to manufacture vehicles that costs $73 per hour to manufacture vs Honda/Toyota which make better vehicle for $43 an hour.
I bought a new 2008 Ford Escape in March 2008. Great car, but I got into an accident when a deer jump out in front of my car. After 3 months with a bad repair job from Ford in Smithfield they returned it to me. Heard a clicking noise and wanted it repaired correctly. Brought it in to a different Ford location and they broke down the engine and decided it was not repairable. So they totaled it! I am looking at possibly paying $4,000 dollars to pay off the loan. Found out my insurance company Liberty Mutual only pay what the car is worth. Mind you in the commercial they a playing it says that you will get a new car if totaled within the first year. I found out the hard way that is not true. Buyer be aware of Insurance as well.
We bought a 2009 Toyota Tacoma. We live in a rural area with a little bit of land and we needed a truck. Although I have owned a Chevrolet truck in the past and had good luck with it, I could not bring myself to buy a GM because of the uncertainty surrounding this US automaker. Soon after buying the Tacoma, my 1997 Honda Accord had transmission problems. We’ve decided to fix it rather than buy another new vehicle.
We own a 2001 Ford Explorer 4X4 with 135,000 miles. The only repairs we ever made have been replacing a thermostat and radiator hose.
We also own a 1993 Chevy 4X2 1/2 ton work truck and a 1994 Chevy S-10 4X4 truck. These have not given any problems and cost peanuts to insure.
How crazy would we be in today’s economy to buy a new vehicle?
No new car in my future,
The big three deservce what they get. I can’t imagaine paying $30,000 for all that plastic and their financing departments should be another government controlled area.
I had purchased a 2007 Jeep Liberty and it was a piece of junk. It was so cheaply made so I sold it. I am driving my 2001 Kia Sportage and it is a lot nicer SUV than the jeep. These auto corportions should think about lowering the price of the cars and maybe people would start buying. The price on a new vehicle is almost as much as a home anymore! No wonder they are all close to bankruptcy!
No, not buying a new car. What I have may be 12 years old but it’s perfectly fine.
If people are buying a car on credit it’s a bad thing, no matter the amount of the incentive to do so, especially if they’re financing the purchase for 60-72 months.
This has been one of our biggest problems in the past, the exagerated standard of living, where people purchased everything on credit. We need to work and save, and purchase things like cars after we’ve saved the money, not before.
We cannot go back to the glory days of easy credit, that’s impossible. People need to learn to make do with what they have and buy only when they can afford to do so, not before.
Easy credit and the “I’m entitled” attitude put new cars in everyone’s driveway, often more than one, but now the securities built from this debt is now worthless.
People spent too much money and now the consequences of that overspending are coming home to roost.
Regardless of the impact on the broader economy people must continue to save, and pay off existing debt. Savings is the only thing that can provide the capital for economic growth.
I can’t afford to buy a new car right now because I’m laid off, but even before that happened we decided we’re not trading up until there is a reasonably priced plug-in hybrid.
Have a 1991 Plymouth Voyager, bought it new. Has LESS than 100,000 miles, paint falling off, but starts every time. Just replaced the timing belt 2 weeks ago. No other mechanical problems (except tires, batteries )since purchased back in “91″!!! Sell it??? NO FREEKIN’ WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
I happily drove a ‘95 Honda Accord for 14 years, until I was recently told by the dealership that it would require a $1900 repair to pass inspection this year. I had already been looking at the Honda Fit since it was brought to the U.S. 3 years ago. I felt confident about purchasing the Fit because it was a Honda and very affordable at $16500 new. It has proven to be fun to drive & I get about 38 mpg(7 mpg more than advertised)!
So the girl in the last page didn’t want another German car because of how expensive they are to fix – but she traded her Audi in on a Volkswagen? Maybe she should have done just a little more research into where her new car comes from.
I own a 97 Explorer XLT that I bought new. It has 172000 and has been a very reliable vehicle. I just bought a 2009 F-150 for 2 reasons: 1) My Explorer runs great but for how much longer before I have to sink some money into it to keep it that way? 2) There are screaming deals out there that I couldn’t pass up ($5500 in incentives).
I ended up buying a F-150 XLT, 4wd, with a MSRP of $34,770, for only $25,690! It has an amazing ride (compared to the Explorer) with tons of room and lots of options, plus the MPG is better and meets my utility needs. I also looked at the Toyota Tundra but didn’t like the styling, ride, or ability to customize the options as much as the Fords. And it was several $1,000’s more than the F-150. GM’s just weren’t on my radar as they cost more, and just didn’t have the same aesthetic appeal. Plus my brother owns one and complains about it a lot. I’ve always had good luck with my Ford.
The only drawback with buying new was that nobody was giving me anything for a trade-in so I’ll end up selling it on my own. I have someone interested in buying it for $2000 so if they do and you throw that in to the deal above then I got my F-150 for only $23,690. Not bad in my book.
I am on the verge of purchasing a car. Not sure if it will be new or used. I have three cars and they are models in 1993, 1998 and 2000. I’ve enjoyed not having a car payment since 2003 hence the reason for not purchasing. My mortgage will be paid off in four years & both daughters should be done college in 2 years. I am in a better position than many regarding the purchase of a car even though there is a possibility that my job could be in danger within the next two years. I want to buy new but it all depends on the financing. As far as domestic or import, I have been impressed by some of the latest domestic cars so I am keeping my options open. I used to buy American (Ford, Chevy, Buick) but my last three cars are imports. I am still doing my homework but I have no preference between foreign or domestic cars.
Still driving my ‘90 Toyota Pickup with 170k miles. Maintenance costs are nil. The only out of norm maintenance I’ve ever done was replace the radiator and carburator. The dealers would have to give me a 1 to 1 trade for me to consider giving up this reliable vehicle.
Well said Mr. Meyers. Steve E. from Houston must be living in the past as do most. People need to make an informed decision when it comes time to replace a vehicle. Do your homework, compare the data, test drive the cars you’re interested in. You might be surprised in what the domestics offer. Also…dealers are not owned by the auto companies. They are private businesses. If you have a bad experience with a dealer blame them for poor customer service…not the auto manufacturers. The dealers are in it to make a buck anyway they can. This goes for Toyota, Honda and Nissan as well as the D3.
I Want to buy a new car but i am afraid to spend that much money right now. I am driving a 99 chevy malibu. Its an ok but the Air Conditioner does not work. And i dont want to spend the money to fix it. I only drive 5 miles a day so i can live without ac.
Also after seeing 70 people get fired from the factory i work at. I cut my spending way down.
I’m a traveling sales guy and I drive 40 – 60K miles a year. My car has to be dependable as customer appointments are precious and I can’t afford to miss one because of car problems. My company used to provide company cars (Ford or GM) and without fail I had problems. The head gasket failed in my last Ford at 45K miles and the transmission in my last Buick gave up at 50K mikes. These cars got the best care (as the company paid all maintenance and repair costs) but I had failures anyway (so did my co-workers). Eventually the company got out of the car ownership business and now gives us a car allowance instead. Not wanting to go broke buying, maintaining and operating a car I bought an Infiniti G20. The car rolled 350K miles on a trip to Canada last week and has never had a major repair. I’m never late changing the oil and except for changing out wear items (belts, hoses, tires, brakes and struts) the car has been trouble free. I did change the alternator at 285K and the car is on its fourth guaranteed for life muffler and its third battery. The car passed state inspection this morning with no issues and it still drives like new.
I would love to buy an American car (a Ford or Chevy) as although the G20 is running great it really is due for replacement. I drove a couple of Chevys (Malibu and Impala) and a couple of Fords (Taurus and Fusion). Then I drove a Honda Accord and a Toyota Camry. The Honda and Toyota drove and stopped well, were smooth and provide reasonable fuel economy. The Fords and Chevys are about the same on fuel but they rattled, the engines were buzzy and the seats felt thin and cheap. What gives?? All these cars cost about the same and they are all built by American workers in American factories. I hate sending my money to companies headquartered overseas but we (GM and Ford) just aren’t making it. I’d buy a new G20 in a minute but they don’t make them anymore so I’ll probably buy a Honda.
I think Ford will ultimately survive (their cars drove significantly better than the GM models), GM is I’m sorry to say probably (and for good reason) toast – it really is all about the product guys. Sadly there was no mention of Chrysler here, I did look at a couple but they were so awful I don’t want to even get started. Good luck FIAT!
I just bought a first car for my son. We went into the purchase with no biases…foreign or domestic.
I wanted a car that would get him through his final 2 years of high school, then college and off on his own a year or 2 before he had to buy his own. So, I was willing to buy a new car but it also needed safety (air bags, ABS and 5 star crash rating). I wanted a long warranty and, ideally, a $15k asking price.
We looked at the Pontiac Vibe, Mazda 3, Kia Spectra, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sentra, Ford Focus & Fusion and Chevy Cobalt.
Dodge/Chrysler didn’t even have a good basic car so we didn’t look at those. Some quick checking of prices revelaed the Honda option would be over $20k.
We test drove and got pricing for every car. The Ford Focus was very small and still $17k. The Fusion, my son’s favorite, was very good but was over $20k. The Chevy Cobalt did not feel very “tight”…felt like a wind up toy…very unimpressive car. The Mazda was similar. The Corolla was $18k but drove very well.
In the end, the top 3 choices factoring the needs, drive quality and price were the Hyundai Elantra (with that 10 year warranty), Kia Spectra and Nissan Sentra.
Of those 3, my son thought the Hyundai drove the best and I agreed. I got it for just over $15k with every option we wanted and a long warranty.
The domestic brands went like this…Ford appears to build a good product but it is very expensive. It was THE most expensive brand. The Chevy drove like crap and Dodge/Chrysler had no good basic transportation options.
I’ve owned GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Mazda automobiles. Toyota and Mazda beat the American-made cars hands-down. An ‘84 Buick I drove suffered total engine failure at 100,000 miles. The sole Ford (a 1996?) I ever owned was a nightmare – it spent 20 days in the shop for warranty repairs and I hated that car so much I sold it after 18 months. One of the Chrysler cars I owned began burning oil badly after less than 100,000 miles and the ‘98 Plymouth minivan I now own has 245,000 miles on it and has had the transmission replaced twice already … I’m keeping my fingers crossed on that one.
I currently commute over 100 miles each day in my Toyota. I’ve had it for almost 8 years and it has about 220,000 miles on it. It has never failed to run. It has never broken down on the highway. The only repairs it has had were a new alternator and water pump after about 195,000 miles. When this one eventually fails, I’ll replace it with another Toyota. To some extent, cost will not be an issue in that new card decision. Toyota has proven, to me anyway, that a little more cost up-front is more than repaid by having a trouble-free car.
As for the minivan, I expect the transmission to fail again at any time. The transmissions Chrysler put in these minivans seem to fail about every 80,000 miles so the math is working against me. That minivan will be replaced by a Toyota … no question.
The American car manufacturers have lost me as a customer FOREVER and it has has nothing to do with the current crisis they’re in. They simply don’t build cars that have the durability and reliability of Toyota.
We have a 1995 honda civic with 200K+ miles. We got it used about 13 years ago. It still runs well (150 miles everyday) and doesn’t cause much problem. My hubby changes the engine oil and does all the maintenance. We don’t have any plan to replace it till it stops running unless the government offer a clunker buy-back program for people even in our income bracket (that is, over 250K). In that case, we’ll buy a new car, paying with cash. We haven’t decided yet which brand we will choose to buy.
I love Chevrolet Trucks and always have. I never buy imports. It’s sad that Americans just don’t see the big picture here. We need to support American companies. The quality is there. We need patriotism right now.
My wife and I both drive cars that were made in 1995. She drives a Ford Taurus Wagon, and I drive a Geo Metro (2-door). We bought the each for $1000 (the Taurus a year & 1/2 ago, and the Geo about 6 months ago), and we haven’t looked back. In the last year, we’ve had to put about $500 of work into each, but put that together with the price, and we’ve spent about $3000 on our two cars over the last 18 months. You can barely get a lease for that.
The economy slump has hit us just like it’s hit others, but we feel very fortunate to not owe money on our cars right now, as we probably couldn’t afford it if we did.
I used to buy brand new American (Pontiac once, Ford once). The Ford was OK, but the Pontiac was the worst car I ever owned. Over the 6 years and 130K miles I owned it, I put more into repairs than the car cost originally. Then I bought a Honda Civic. I changed the oil every 5K miles and replaced the timing belt at about 90K and that car was at 170K miles when it was totaled (well on it’s way to 250K). Then I bought a Toyota. 115K on it and the most major repair was replacing the automatic radio antenna.
The only exciting thing coming out of Detroit (other than Kid Rock) is the new ‘Cuda.
At this point the question GM and Chrysler need to answer for the car-buying public is “Why American?”
I am a Master Auto technician, with over 25 years experience and certification in alternative fuels, etc., etc.
I can honestly tell you that there is no such thing as a perfect car that never needs repair. I fix them all, Toyotas, Hondas, Hyundai, GM, Ford, Mercedez, BMW, dodge, etc. They are all very technical mechanical devices, with a BUNCH of oppourtunity for a problem. We ask alot of our cars/trucks, be it safety, economy, abuse thru neglect, reliability, comfort…The more we demand/expect, the more likely we will have to pay for our demands.
I don’t think most people are capable of finding a window crank nowadays. Kind of sad that we all sit and point at the manufacturers, demanding even more and wanting a lower price and higher wages from them as well?
Honda and Toyota don’t pay union wages, so they offer less to their employees and get better quality from the same pool of people?
Sounds like some have been programmed in this country to hate their Domestic brands. Since maybe it was true in the late seventies…it isn’t any longer.
Will never buy a Chevy EVER again, and probably not a GM Product. GM missed the boat on 5 NEW car sales since that diesel fiasco and their lack of caring about customers. We had an ‘81 Chevy 5.7L diesel – head bolts stretched on one side at 47000miles – they only repaired that side. Buick, Olds and Cadillac were doing both sides knowing that it would happen again – warranty was 50K. Second side went at 67K. in addition, THREE fuel pumps went in that time also, and so we had it converted to a Gasoline engine – but it was a ‘76 block and did not meet emission requirements. Got many miles of aggravation out of that Caprice Classic Wagon. Had to go “on the cheap” (college and wedding expenses hittine) so we bought an Explorer and it was a rattle trap almost from day one. Wife has a 12 year old Nissan Maxima that has fewer rattles (100k+ miles) but we will probably replace it this year, since prices are at the lowest they will be for years to come. I replaced the 9 year old Explorer already – but this time with a “foreign car” made in Canada by Acura (MDX). Talk about QUALITY!! Wow! Must be the “foreign car manufacturers” hire only supermen and the “Domestic manufacturers” get the high paid dregs of unionized humanity. Everybody says Ford is OK – remember the Explorer rollovers and the Pinto fires?? We will buy a car in the next few months but have no plans to visit any “domestic” car dealers.
Why has no one commented on the cost of new cars. If I were to purchase a new american car a basic model would cost $30,000 plus. This is almost what I can make in a year. If I was going to buy a new car it would be a Hyandi, at least I would only have to pay $15,000 for brand new, nice model.
Sheesh, no wonder the big three are going under who can afford that kind of payment for a car.
I recently bought GM. 2007 Cadillac Escalade EXT to be exact. Thus far, it has been a dream. Beautiful, full of options, plenty of power and performance. AWD has come in handy in the rain and ice. I bought used as I can’t afford/wasn’t willing to spend 70K plus on one. I got one w/36K miles for 35K out the door. Quality pre-owned. Although I have warranty on this thing until May 2011, I am concerned with what will happen if GM goes belly up.
I bought this gas guzzling luxury vehicle for several reasons. Oe, I wanted a luxury truck. Two, I have a Suzuki GX250 motorcycle that I use as my primary vehicle, when the weather allows that is. My motorcylce gets 70-80 mpg. Three, I planned for it way ahead of time…it took 2 months to actually find and buy the truck. And I had been eye balling them since early 08.
The 22in chrome wheels really set this thing off…not to mention the 403Hp offer loads of fun.
I have a 1985 Nissan truck which I bought new when my oldest son was born. Some 25 years later, it still runs,driven daily. I bought a used low milage 2006 Dodge Magnum wagon,extended warrenty. It runs great. I agree with others on buying a new car. I just don’t see the value. My father often told me”a car is the worst investment you can make”. He owned 3 cars,and he lived to be 78.His last was a 1998 Lincoln Continental.
recently traded my 7.5 yr old chevrolet trk for a used 2009 toyota camry. this will be my wife’s daily driver. also drove the malibu ltz and the accord. inside and out, the malibu is sharp. on the inside it is the nicest of the 3. plus, lots of options for the $$. malibu had little giddy-up in the 4 cyl. the new 6 spd gets great mpg, but shifts at low rpms. accord has most giddy-up, but was ugly on the inside. camry was best of both worlds. very attractive in and out and just enough power.
we used our home equity line to purchase the car. w/ a loan to value of 50% on the house, it made sense. will pay off car in 18-24 mos at 3.75% rate.
we were hesitant to buy a car in this market; however, with a baby on the way, it was a necessity. w/ the toyota, we feel confident that we will have a solid car for the time we own it. plus by purchasing a car w/ 14k on it, we were able to buy for nearly 8k off the new sticker and still have all the benefits of a “new” car.
We almost baught a new car last week when our 1995 Honda Civic had a radiator leak. A new car would have cost us around $350/month (financed). My wife is the only earning member in the family these days. She works for Sears Holdings in Hoffman Estates, IL. Her company has been laying off people for the lat 2 months. Given the uncertainity in her job we decided to BAND-AID our Honda Civic and run it for some more time. We found a mechanic on Craigslist who did the job for $300 Vs $900 quoted by Firestone.
In response to: Posted By Jeremy, Charlotte, NC: March 31, 2009 11:54 am
You have got to be kidding in the respect of cadillac cts has best resell and the buick has best quality.
Better check again on the Cady’s value, it’s dropping daily. On the Buick winning best quality. What do you expect. JD Powers is a joke with their quality results. They accept donations from the manufacturers, including cars and on top of that what really counts is once a car gets miles on it – most American cars have problems galore after 70K miles.
Read the REAL TESTIMONYS from people that write in not just this web site but any automotive web site.
I work for GM and am currently in the middle of this perfect storm. I’d like to replace both my vehicles soon but have to wait it out until things turn around. I’m not toting the company line here…but the vast majority of the public outside the Detroit bubble are uninformed about the quality of current GM vehicles. Poor marketing on GM’s part? Maybe. But the data, facts and awards won speak volumes. Do some research into GM before you buy something else…you will be very surprised.
I own, bought new, a 1990, first year US VW Passat. It has 198,000 miles on it. It gets 25 mpg city/freeway driving. On our last road trip, 2500 miles of mostly freeway driving it averaged 33 mpg.
I also own a 1991 Olds Ciera. We got it when we stopped my mother-in-law from driving at 84. It currently has about 76,000 miles on it. Last year on a 2500 mile trip to TX it averaged 30 mpg fully loaded. It was actually cheaper to drive it along with our camper to TX for a month + use than rent a car at our destination for about 6 days.
I also bought my Air Force Officer daughter’s 1998 Ford Ranger when she got stationed in Europe for three years. Driving it home from TX it averaged 25 mpg on the freeway. It replaced a 1983 GMC S-15 that died at 23 years.
PS: I drove a small class C motorhome for 30 years and averaged between 9+ and 10+ mpg. My current, slightly lager, class C averages 9+ mpg with a twice as large engine
We typically drive 3 to 5 miles below the posted 65 or 70 mph speed limits on freeways, and stay in the right hand lanes.
For my everyday vehicles license, insurance and annual maintenance is less than a comprable sized new vehicle.
For maintenance I use use our local service stations and get great service there.
Why should I buy new?
The prices for new cars have not come down enough… Everybody is saying it is a great time to buy a car, but I have to correct them that it is a great time to finance a car. The car prices have not budged enough for me to consider buying one. Yes, folks, I buy my cars outright, so price is all I care about. It is the same with house prices, they have not fallen enough for families to afford them. I mean really afford them, none of this “moeny is cheap through credit nonsense”. The Fed and our Government have a vested interest in keeping the bubbles and prices inflated. Al they are doing is making it harder and harder to people in the middle class to keep up.
I have a mint condition 2006 BMW 5 series I bought used and love, I have a 7 passenger 2005 GMC employee pricing special I bought new and a 1975 Mercedes 2 seater convertible I bought used that I also love. You need the 5 series for work related activities and weddings, the GMC truck for vacations, kids and snow and the two seater convertible for a summer date night or just running errands on that perfect summer day.
Reality is for most of us a plain old new Ford Taurus is the perfect blend of reliablity, good mileage, passenger and cargo space at a low cost to fix and insure and we should only buy a new one every decade or so. But we like shinny new toys and fun to drive or cool cars and I am exhibit A.
For now I have the perfect cars but if I needed a new one, now is the time to buy while the sales are all on. People run to Macy’s when a sale is on so if the incentives are high enough people will run and buy a car and forget about the recession at least until the new car smell wears off.
American cars need better reliability to attract customers. One way to ensure this to consumers is the standard extended warranty and service warranty program. For people to buy a car and consider to buy another one in 3-5 years, if not lease, people think resale value. If this is not satisfied, the saturated automobile consumer market will stay stale until the supply diminishes substantially beyond the demand. Obviously, lowering price beyond the MSRP and below Invoice pricing did not help much to attract customers. This is because people are not willing to compromise quality over cost.
Too much negative publicity so far.
I have purchased USA made vehicles
all of my life. All three FORD, GM and
Chrysler built vehicles.
We need to rewrite our Import requirements such as an elivated tax and restrictions if Autos are built without Amercian employees.
My 2000 Tahoe with 185,000 miles is paid for. So the high cost of fuel in 2008 did’nt hurt me as bad. If I bought a new Tahoe and fuel went up again I would be devastated. Also I do not want the government owning my warranty. I would love to have a 2009 Tahoe but not now.
We have a 1998 Toyota Celica and a 2001 Toyota 4Runner. The Celica has 140+k miles and the 4Runner has 106k. Neither has ever had a problem, or been back to the dealer for anything accept regular maintenance ( oil changes and new break pads). The Celica is still averaging 25-26 MPG in the city. The 4Runner is averaging 18, but it’s getting limited drive time. That’s the kind of dependability I look for. You have to admit though – folks tend to be biased on what worked out for them on the first time. Who can blame them? I want to get in the car and never second guess if it will start or do what it needs to do. We’ll drive these two cars until the wheels fall off, or until either one gives us an expensive issue that justifies hunting for something of equal or greater value. If / when that day arises, we’ll be looking for a solid, dependable, precision built hybrid sedan with a proven track record of good reviews. The days of fun, cruising around town for fun in a Mustang GT, getting 14 miles to the gallon, and paying $1.25 / gallon are long gone. I will not be surprised to see gasoline back over $4/gallon in a year.
I cannot buy a new car right now because there is an annual property tax where I live in SC on vehicles. I cannot afford to pay that each year when I only pay $50 a year on a used car. It makes no sense.
I attempted to buy a Ford Fusion Hybrid to replace my old clunker. Buy green, buy American. Sounded like a great plan. I ended up with a new Honda because a top-of-the-line, fully loaded 8-seater Pilot was only $2,000 more than a stripped down Ford that could barely seat 5. Seems all parties involved made it financially very unattractive for me to buy green or American – Ford for pricing the Hybrid high, the dealer for adding a mark up of thousands of dollars on top of an already high price, and the Federal Government for disallowing the $3400 Hybrid Tax Credit for people in my income bracket. It was an eye opening exercise, to say the least.
I have owned 7 Fords over the past 2 decades and have had a good experience with all of them. I have bought all of them used (usually ~2 years old and ~25,000 miles) and driven all of them over 150,000 miles. The quality has become so good that I stopped buying the extended service plans available from the dealers and haven’t got burned yet. I have an Explorer with 100,000 miles and a Five Hundred with 75,000 so I will be holding off on a purchase for a couple of more years and when it is time to buy I will continue to buy Ford.
I own 8 cars. I will only buy new US made cars, why would I support the standard of living of other countries. If anybody tells you that their import is reliable they are probably lying and will not own up to it. I have US cars with over 150000 trouble free miles. Treat them well and they will keep running, they need good oil, regular grease and washing throughout the winter. GM, Ford and Chrysler all have good reliable cars today. Do not let the small % of problems affect you. Plus they are cheaper to maintain. If they need more than a Honda- who cares- my kids and grand-kids will need a jobs and I will do everything I can to ensure a future for them here at their home!
This isn’t a will I keep my car or buy a new one. If your car’s broke, your going to need a new one.
Here is my concern. Just seen on CNN, this morning GM and Chrysler just came out with one of the many other tactics that other auto manufacturers are using to pull in more sales, they are offering payments for up to 9 months, 500.00/month max. Ford is offering a year @700.00 a month. Newscaster Poppy said that they are pretty similar. W H A T ! ! !
Stop lying! Tell them what you really think.
People are going to buy a Ford vehicle more NOW than ever.
Again this is to just reiterate why the government should just let them fail. Once they do, then we go in and get it for a lot less, bail them out one last time. Personally I see 2-3 more bail outs. The people running these two companies seriously have no idea what they are doing.
I own a Canadian built 2001 Buick Century with about 110k on it. Good car with only one problem and that was having the intake manifold and gasket replaced. Runs very strongh since then. I drove it about 600 miles on Sunday and it held up well. My fiance has a 2000 Dodge Neon pushing 200k which runs pretty good though getting a little shaky. It burns about a quart oil every 2-3 weeks but doesn’t leak any.
My wife has a 2005 Lincoln Aviator. I have a 1998 Silverado Z71 with 96K and a 1997 Jeep Wranger with 84K. Not sure what my wife will do but I plan on keeping my two for another 10 years.
I have recently been looking to get a new car. But with gas prices so low and the economy “ify” it has made my gas guzzler my most economical choice at this time.
I am waiting for gas to either skyrocket or the trade-in incentive to pass congress.
I probably would have bought a new car sooner if the government had put more incentive in the stimulus bill.
Lastly, I am desperately awaiting the release of the Chevy Volt. I drive 90 miles roundtrip for work and with that car I’d only have to buy gas for 10 miles of it!
I own 6 older cars of which 3 are older Ford Mustangs in the 1989-1993 era which run great with some minor flaws but for the most part there is so many options to modify the Ford 302 it is wonder why Ford got away from a tried and true engine most customers adored !!
As for the other 3 they are all Hondas late models that run just like they day I bought them. The great thing about Honda’s is the expected maintenance costs which are predictable. Great gas mileage and very dependable as well as fun to drive. My last car is a 1990 Mazda Miata that runs great as well.
GM cars in the past in the 70’s were fun to drive and dependable and even decent looking. GM lost the edge as can clearly be seen in the 80’s till now. Poor planning and decisions have brought the king to its knees…. They should be let go instead of wasting more money. Capitalism works if you let it do its job. Shoot American cars are produced just as much as foreign cars in this country anyway so I dont see the big deal.
GM has made all the wrong moves for years and doesnt deserve to survive to eat my tax bucks…For all the billions they have been given they should make a car for the masses for free.
I have a 2003 Honda Element with 145,000 Miles and didn’t have it serviced till it had 100,000 miles on it I think I can get at least 300 to 400,000 miles out of it.Best car I ever owned.
Ive got a 2000 Dodge Neon with 136,000 miles and its in perfect condition. Paid 3G for it 4 years ago when I started college and Im gonna keep it as long as it runs the way it does. Basic maintainance is all it needs. Im in grad school now, and I can’t stress enough, how stoked I am, to not have a expensive car payments and insurance. Rock on !!
I have a 2000 F150 keeping it with my 1968 F250 80,000 miles I’am a Ford Man but next car will be a china car the one that get a hole lot of mph and cost less then $10′000
Have 2 cars. My wife’s is an 04 Aveo, great little car for around town.
Mine is a 1999 Cougar with a 2.5 l V6.. It has over 130 000 miles. Over 30 mpg on the highway. Runs great, no rust and a lot of salt is dropped on our roads in winter, everything still works fine. Have only ever done the brakes and tires, and 1 alternator.
The Cougar has convinced me that my next car will be a Ford…
Our family has 3 Fords (2 with over 150K on the odometer) which run every day. I just keep up regular maintenance and have not had any unusual problems. We’re looking at U.S assembled Ford and GM cars to be ready when the time comes. In a way, we are trying to make up for the Obama cabinet where we read that only one person out of his 17 appointees drives an U.S built car. (Note: One of the Fords above replaced a Buick with over 200K on the clock.)
I am going to keep my 1996 Jeep Cherokee (not the Grand Cherokee which is horrible)as long as I can. I have 189,000 miles and the car is running good. The US car builders should study this car, cause this make and model might be the only US car worth the price. Its a shame that Jeep stopped making the model, I guess it was too much of a good business decision! Idiots….
We have a 1996 Ford Ranger and a 2003 Prius. Since we drive teh Prius most of the time and the truck only has 120,000 miles on it, we’ll just keep those for a while until jobs settle down. We would only ever consider buying a Ford (Edge, F-150, Flex or Mustang, most likely) or a Toyota.
I have Honda odyssey with shot piston rings. when it comes to quality, I think US and Japanese are almost the same (at least lately) as my friends have issues with their camry also.
I was looking Cadi CTS but I don’t like pushrod engines (anything less than 4 valves per cyl is a no no for me).
I had bad experience with Honda and Mitsubishi and want to buy US but let us see….
I am curious as to how Mark from Oregon has managed to put a hundred million miles on one car and 59 million miles on another. Meanwhile, I am still driving my old 1995 Mitsubishi with 160,000 miles and a ruined suspension. But I can’t even get student loans right now — how am I supposed to get a car loan?
I have a 2000 Dodge Neon with 80k miles. Gas milage is decent. Maintenance cost is about $500 per year, since 2005 there has always been something to fix, but the repair costs haven’t been exorbinant. The Neon is not much to look at but it gets me from A to B. As much as I’d love a new car, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t drive it all that much and I don’t want the debt, especially with the job market being as terrible as it is. Even if the incentives were sweeter I don’t see myself taking on the debt.
I take offence to the assumption that if a car is not new, than it must be a clunker! I have an “02″ suv that runs like new. I have an “06″ corola that gets 40mpg. Both are paid for and well maintained. Why should I volentarily invest my ever shrinking funds into someone elses greed. I have exceded 250,000 miles on my last three vehicles. I have a long way to go on the ones I have now. By the way, they were purchised BEFORE the high gas prices even started. Can’t see an economic advantage here.
We have been waiting on buying a car until we can pay outright. With 1 child in college and another poised to go next year, we don’t want any more debt. We are watching the “cash for clunkers” bill with much interest. Our car is 8+ years old, with 85k miles. Not a clunker, but we worry every day.
I have four drivers and two cars. I need at least a third car but have been holding off due to job uncertainty and the economy in general. One vehicle has 122k miles (a Toyota) and one has 50k miles (a Toyota). Next vehicle will not be an American name, not because of current issues just because they weren’t there for me when I started buying cars. Their vehicles have gotten much better in recent years, however, I don’t think I could talk my wife into buying American even with the really good deals.
We have a 1994 Chevy Silverado 4×4 and will be keeping it as long as it runs. It has 65K on the odometer. We also own a 1997 Taurus that I bought from my elderly aunt 18 months ago and will be keeping it as long as it runs, we sold a 1989 Cougar when we bought the Taurus.
Two years ago my wife was begging me to buy a new Mercedes or BMW because they look “So Cool”. I told her that something bad was going to happen in the economy and within five years the auto industry and their products would be completely messed up. I also told her that if my prediction didn’t come true she would be cruising in European Style. She often reminds me that I was right and she thanks me for talking her down from the “Cool” she wanted so badly. She does call the Taurus, “The Toad” but she is growing to love the princely sums we have saved.
I bought a used 1997 buick from my father in law and thought I was getting a good deal. Since then my buick has developed this mysterious ailment where it will just conk out. I took it to the dealer who replaced one sensor and another component “based on experience”. This didn’t fix the problem as it just recently hapenned again. I am currently hanging on to my buick clunker but will probably buy a new Toyota or Subaru in the future since I not only question the quality of cars that the “little 3″ is producing but their ability to service and maintain.
I have a 2005 Camry with 101k most of it city miles. Never had a problem! It is also paid off so I am enjoying life with it
There’s a revolutionary technology change coming to the cars we drive. This is the biggest part of the reason why Detroit is having so many problems.
Cars are transitioning from low tech pieces of heavy 20th century machinery to high tech, personal electronic devices.
The drivetrains of the near future will be all electric, not mechanical. Those drivetrains will all be controlled by computers to maximize efficiency based on the type of driving required for the vehicle.
The “fly-by-wire” technology pioneered by the world’s air forces and airlines will finally make its way into road vehicles. Your turn of the steering wheel will provide input to the car’s computer; the computer will decide the best way to manipulate the car’s wheels to make the turn you requested. There will be no direct mechanical linkage between your control inputs and the car.
It sounds scary, but if you’ve ever flown on an Airbus or newer model Boeing airliner, you’ve used a “fly-by-wire” control system. All modern jet fighters have used “fly-by-wire” technology for decades and the Toyota Prius already uses some limited “drive-by-wire” technology. Computers can make split second decisions, especially in emergencies, that humans can’t make because we are too slow.
Engines will be a means to generate electricity for the vehicle’s drivetrain. Of course, this means the engine is no longer the most critical component in a car. It becomes merely a means to generate electricity and can be anything that generates sufficient electricity, not necessarily an internal combustion engine.
Detroit is having a hard time dealing with the change in their business model. The companies and the unions are wedded to 20th century production methods and technologies. They have done everything possible to prevent the advance of cars into the electric age.
With most of the manufacturers introducing the first generation of electric drivetrain vehicles in the next few years, I see no reason to spend $20,000+ on a new car utilizing old, mechanical technology. Once the electric drivetrain goes into production, the used market for mechanical drivetrain cars will evaporate overnight.
How many people will buy a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) TV these days? Not many. Most will buy a flat screen LCD TV because the technology is vastly superior to the CRT. That’s what will happen to mecanical drivetrain cars in the next couple of years. The electric drivetrain is vastly superior, more flexible, more efficient, more powerful, more reliable, safer, and less complex. Additionally, over time, the electric drivetrain will be cheaper than mechanical ones.
I had two GM cars for 5 years. A lot of problems such as oil leaks from transmission & fuel injecions … I get rid of both & go with Japanese cars. They make good car & I paid a little more than U.S. made. At least, it is worry free. GM wants to come back and should offer 100,000 miles or 7 yrs. bumper to bumper warranties.
I continue to drive my eight-year old Accura 3.5 RL with 69,000 miles on it and will continue to drive it until BOTH my daughters are out of college! Who can afford $ 50,000 per year for college (times two) AND new cars? Not I!
no new car purchases on horizon. However if so wont be from Big 3. My sister has a 2006 Chevy Impala that uses 2 quarts of oil between 3000 mile oil changes. She has changed oil every 3000 miles and takes immaculate care of vehicle (towels on the seats). She has talked to the dealership where she bought, HARE CHEVROLET in Noblesville Indiana but they refuse to correct the problem and has said “thats normal”. Also talked to GM regional manager (out of chicago i think) who said they were going to send her a survey but never did.
The car manufactures are pricing themselves out of business….you cannot buy a car for less than $25,000 with interest, titles,insurance etc., it may be much more. The average American family must resort to a lower cost car and the Big Three do not produce such a product….
If the American companies would make a vow to treat people like the foreign car companies do and I could afford to do it then I would buy American. I got the extra $60.00 stimulus in my paycheck but now my paycheck is in the RED again because my Optima Health Insurance went up $50 a month for me and my son, CNA Long Term Care Coverage went up $20.00 a month, Dominion Virginia Power Company went up $14.00 a month and Cox Cable company in Virginia Beach almost always goes up $2.00 a month. It would be better if the government will give out percentages of your pay or taxes in stimulus so the Vulture Companies do not know how much we are getting. Any company that raises there rates after a mention of a stimulus should be investigated!!!
I’ve owned Acura/Honda, Ford and Chevy vehicles. I have been pleased by all. Of the 4 cars I’ve had between these brands, the Ford was the most enjoyable and suited to my needs. It worked, I never worried about it. I’m thinking of buying a Ford shortly. I’m leaning toward the Edge! It’s quite a good fit for my needs.
On another note – has anyone heard of the TATA Air Car? I’m cheering for this car, because it seems like a world changing product. It may well be the ideal solution to many problems. You fill it up with presurized air, drive it 200-400km, out of the pipe comes cleaner air than what you filled it with. Amazing, and very promissing. I hope they figure this out. They should allow this type of drive in Formula 1 – those guys would get it to work in 6-12 months.
I own a 97 SL2 Saturn with 190,000 miles, best car that I purchased in the last 40 years. I plan to hold on to it, but I do intend on purchasing
another Saturn for my Wife.
Stay away from GM….all the GM cars I have ever owned had electrical bugs and issues…..they ‘may be better now’, but I’m not taking a chance….I stick with the better built foreign models……
I was going to buy a new car until I heard one of garage worker trying to buy my old toyota from me… Then I decided to keep it.
I drive a 2001 Ford F-150 Supercrew, 172,000 miles and still running strong. I keep it maintained by changing fluids at recommended intervals but have never had a major expense. Before that, drove an 1993 Ford Explorer and sold it at 175,000 miles to a friend. His son drove it another 100,000 miles before getting rid of it. Ford vehicles have proven very dependable, I feel the need to buy American, but am concerned with their weak financial position. When I buy again, I will look at another Ford as part of my decision
I’m holding on to my two tales of GM cars right now. My 2004 Corvette Z06 is the most reliable and high performance car I’ve ever owned. World class! Our 2002 Grand Am, however, reminds me of why GM is in trouble. Poor quality and low technology. I have found, for ~$300/year, doing my own work, I can maintain the GrandAm cheaply. It now has 114k miles. We’re considering either a Ford Fusion Hybrid or Toyota Prius next. I also like the bew breed of Muscle cars but feel they are lacking AWD’s performance 0-60.
I am looking at buying a new 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T as soon as Dodge returns real incentives to the Challenger line!
We have a 1990 Nissan pickup, a 2000 Lincoln LS, and 2004 Toyata Sienna. Keeping them due to the uncertainties in the economy. Will probably buy my son a cheap used car when he turns 16 instead of handing down one of the others and buying me a new one. I bought the Lincoln partly out of principle trying to support US jobs, but probably won’t do it again. For the last few years I have had to spend $3000-$4000 a year repairing the Lincoln. Haven’t spent that much over the entire life of the Nissan. Spend far less on repairing Toyota – mostly just routine stuff – though it has more miles on it than the Lincoln.
I drive a 1995 Chevy Lumina and am nearing 100,000 miles. The car is great. It has its share of tree sap and door dings, but it has served me well. GM products are not junk. Sure, it would be nice to have a new car, but I’m keeping this one as long as I can. I had to basically throw away my 2002 Subaru after having head gasket problems at 50,000 miles. We had taken it back a half dozen times over the course of a summer and finally gave up. Buy American. Better than you think.
I have been driving a 2003 Honda Accord since I bought it in 2003.
It is a great car and plan to drive it
for a long time. It is paid for and have never given me a problem. I do not trust American cars. At least, not yet.
I will never buy a car or do buisiness with a company that the government has thier hooks into. I loved buy dodge ram but traded it in for a ford as soon as dodge took thier handout.I hope all americans will follow my lead and boycott any buisiness that those vampires in washington have illigally merged with or taken over.
Read my post below. The same comments was sent directly to Pontiac’s customer service/comment email months ago and they never had the courage or the interest to even respond. Shame on GM for treating loyal customers this way.
Two comments….
I do need and will eventually buy a new car, but am afraid to take out a auto loan right now because our state governor of Michigan and her budget director are asking for 50 million in concessions from state workers… again!! How can people who are lucky enough to have a job right now afford to buy a new car when our employers are lowering our wages? They tell us to go buy then cut our pay.. right!! Are they stupid?
Secondly…
I have always owned GM automobiles and love them. I will buy a Ford/Chrysler before I would buy a foreign car and I don’t mean that as a insult to Ford automakers. They make good AMERICAN products as well. I have just always owned GM. I’m a US American Citizen born and raised in this country and I’ll be dammed if any of my money is going to a foreign automaker or a foreign country especially when we are doing so poorly here and I live here!! I want my money staying right here at home to help MY people… my children, my grandchildren, my parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and neighbors!! I don’t believe or give a darn about all that American auto’s are crap stuff. It’s a lie. Gm owns or owned 50% of the market share before the crash. That’s pretty darn good sales!!
We own a BMW, an Acura and a Cadillac SRX. If forced to pick, we would keep the Caddy. Great vehicle.
Bought a new car (Nissan Altima Hybrid), mostly because we needed another 4 door in the family, but also because the 2002 Mercedes we had was starting to need some maintenance. I liked the Mercedes but after owning quite a few German cars, I’ve learned that parts get expensive when out-of-warranty work is required. With my long commute to work (86 miles one-way), the Mercedes would have been out of warranty in no time at all. Too bad as it was a nice car and, if I still had my old commute (5 miles one-way), I would have kept the car until the wheels fell off.
Bought the Altima Hybrid for the tax credit, good deal I could negotiate, nice handling and reliability. The fact that it’s built in the US (Tennessee, I believe) was a plus also. I plan to drive this car until the wheels fall off.
We have an 8 year old Honda Accord which we bought brand new and a 14 yr old Lexus GS300 which we bought 4 years ago. The Honda has had NO problems in 8 years, all we have done is routine maint. An Accord may not be inexpensive, but its an unreal value, if you keep your cars 10 years or more. We have many friends who bought American, and boy do they complain about car trouble. Honestly, it seems that if you buy American you will most likely regret it (granted, with a few recent exceptions). We do need to spend some money periodically (less then $1k per year on the average) for ongoing maint. on the 14 year old Lexus with 94k miles; I figure that 1k is less than two payments on a new car. Both cars cost about $1100 to insure for the year, and I am guessing that the cost of insurance for two new cars would be about twice as much. The Lexus runs very well; the engine is flawless even at 14 years.
I would love to buy a fancy new car (new Lexus IS350 and a new Honda Pilot Hybrid SUV), but not having any job security, and thinking about depreciation, is enough to make me just keeping going as long as the cars runs safely and maint. does not cost much more…
Just bought a certified pre-owned 2007 BMW X3. It sits in the garage next to my certified pre-owned 2006 BMW 330i. Both vehicles are under warranty up to 100,000 miles, and no service charges up to 50,000 miles. I’ll never buy an American automobile as they are worthless in 3-4 years.
I drive a 2006 Scion xA. Used to own a Mercedes and BMW in the past. German cars are too expensive to maintain and depreciate quickly too.
The Scion has zero problems. The only money I spend on it is for gas and oil changes. Bought it when it had 57K, now I am at 65K.
Will not plan on buying a car soon but when I decide (another 3-4 years) it deffinitely be a Japanese brand
We have a 2004 Ford Focus station wagon that has about 90,000. We had planned to trade it in at 100,000, but we have had no maintenance problems so we will keep it for another two years or so. We are putting on about 18,000 a year. We definitely will look for another Ford car, maybe a diesel if they will have one in 2011. I think we will have a lot more options in high mileage cars in two years.
I can afford to buy any car i want and would never buy an american car. If someone gave me one I would sell it asap.
My father told all of his four kids that when they get rid of the unions than we can buy a car from US companies. If you are an employee and your are working on a bad product and you know it than you deserve to loose your job
I drive a 95 toyota land cruiser that has 225K miles and runs great. It was paid in cash. Why would I buy another car? To stroke my ego?
I am looking at picking up 3 new cars this year, one replacing my 04 maxima, one for my parents and one for my fiancee. For my money there is no American Luxury car that compares to Mercedes or BMW in terms of style or reliability, So I wouldn’t even consider buying American.
Why would I buy a GM model for $24,000 when I could by a Honda Accord (fully loaded) for less ? Also 3 years from now the GM model will be worth less than $10,000 but instead I could have a list of neighbors waiting to buy my 3 year old Accord for a fair price. How do I know this, I live it. Try and trade in my 2006 (32K miles) pontiac Gran Prix on a 2009 G8. The GM dealer will only give me $8,000 for the 3 year old Grand Prix and the best deal they could muster on the G8 with no options is $24,000 (choose either 0% OR a rebate). Big deal. One of the Big3 needs to go and the survivors need to wise up. Sell GOOD products and GOOD prices and consumers will buy them. The American public has finally wised up and we won’t be buying gimics any more. GMs bait and switch sales are VERY distasteful.
When gas prices skyrocketed, we had to go down to one car to save money.
My wife’s contract is up this year and the union is warning everyone to expect pay cuts.
The money we’re saving on lower gas prices, has been eaten up by increased food prices.
Until wages go up, or the cost of food and energy goes down, there’s no way we’ll be able to afford another vehicle until this one is paid off.
I’m keeping my old Dodge truck till it dies, it has 155K miles on it. It it was made in Mexico and is built well. All four of my grandparents were UAW, but they did not hire any of my generation, their cars are really bad, so all of my future cars will be non-union.
I have two cars and really need to replace both but I am in no mood to pay the crazy prices ( What deals ) I wanted the new 2009 ford f150 they will mark that down to about $43k – are you kidding me. I have a lexus and a Ford and both are killing me with repairs but I just am not handing over $45k for a good car. With a nice down payment you are still looking at $750 payments. PLUS if you have problems now with your new car NO one will listen. Hopefully in a couple of years this mess will work itself out and someone will sell a nice car for an afordable cost.
I am a gear head from way back. Grew up GM. I talked to some R&D guys at Buick GS nationals event years ago—they had some great concepts–all being crushed to make cars that inspire no one. If they are ok they are way too much money. I want a RWD/AWD 6cyl 300HP coupe/sedan and I want to spend $20K and I want it to run without problems. There isn’t a body panel on any GM that does anything for me–Dodge and Ford have a shot they listen to their customers.
We have a 2001 PT cruiser (54Kmi) a 1992 Nissan pickup (52Kmi) and a 1960 Olds F85 (81Kmi). We will keep all 3 till the wheels fall off.
And guess which one gives the best mileage (1962 Olds/24.2mpg) plus with its old style ignition it will survive an EMP nuke discharge!!
I have a Chevrolet Silverado 1500, bought new in 1997, with 247k miles and it’s still running smoothly. A/C went out many years ago but other than that, and a couple of transmission rebuilds, my GM has been solid as a rock.
If I were in the market for a new vehicle I would definitely plan a trip to our local GM dealers. Shame on those who buy foreign without even considering domestic.
Just replaced a 2005 Honda Pilot with a new 2008 Toyota 4Runner due to the incentives from Toyota (1st time ever for 4Runners!) Have only owned one American made car 20+ years ago. Will never own an American made car. My money is best spent on reliable and safe cars. We own 3 cars currently: Honda, Toyota, and Acura. When we buy again we would consider BMW or Subaru in addition to what we already own.
I still drive my 1981 Datsun 210 that sold new for $5500. It still runs fine and costs almost nothing on maintenance, registration and insurance. I have no reason to buy a new car and waste thousands of dollars.
Yes…Just bought, 3 weeks ago, a new Chevy Traverse LTZ…love it…my best new vehicle ever. Traded in a loaded 05 Toyota Highlander owned since new and it was a superb vehicle. Needed a larger SUV and the Traverse fit the bill perfectly and still gets good mileage. Chevrolet has come a long way with the Traverse….plus the zero rate for 5 years was a huge plus. After owning an 02 Pontiac Grand Prix…I thought I’d never own another GM product…I’m glad I changed my mind. Great SUV/Crossover.
I’m currently driving a 2001 Saturn with 154,000 miles on it. I just spent over $2000 dollars to keep it running. My wife and I have been looking at upgrading for some time, but the idea of not having car payments is a strong motivator. Long story short, is we’ll wait until we have a larger down payment and then go buy a used car.
I could easily purchase a new vechicle, but why in this economic enviroment. Every economist out there says that unemployment will continue to rise for the next year. The interesting part is that they do not say that unemployment will come down after that.
I have a 1999 Accord with only 178,000 miles. It will last another 3 years.
The only way I would buy another new car is dependent totally on the 5K stimulous trade in bill being approved where I have the freedom to purchase ANY car make.
My wifes 15 yr old Honda with 200K on it runs as good as it did the day we got it but we’d get another vehicle to take advantage of the Gov. stimulus.
I back Obama 100% on someone having the guts to do what’s right with GM. If this was done years ago maybe GM would of made a profit in recent years. Now the UAW will be put in their place which is overdue also.
I used to only drive a Saab. The good old days. Early ’90s. Turbo Saab, convertible. But since ‘99 I’ve only driven a Ford Focus. Inexpensive, good performance. OK not a chick magnet, but who cares? Clipped a mirror a couple of years ago and only cost me $25 to repair. I like that!
Sticking w/ my Ford Focus for a while and not buying a new one though. I have 30K miles on a ‘96 model and plan to get 100K out of it before changing. Another 7 years to go I figure.
I’m keeping my 10-year-old, trouble-free, low-maintenance, 30-MPG-Hwy, Canadian-made Buick Regal GS. GM will be my first stop when time to replace in about another 10 years.
We just bought a new Chrysler Mini Van, Town and Country. We saved almost $10,000 off the MSRP and then got 36 months interest free. Our other car had 80,000 miles and would have needed about $2,000 in work. We love our mini-van and feel like we stepped into the 21st century with all the features.. I think now is a good time to buy if you feel you can afford the payments.
I usually buy used and always Japanese. I’ve had Toyotas, Hondas and now my wife and I each drive Nissans. All have been great cars. My Nissan was purchased new and I thougth about getting another new (used) one soon, but with the economy and the fact that the car is approaching 100K miles, I will now drive it into the ground.
Buying a new car is definitely not the wise financial choice. If you want to be in a new car every 2 – 4 years and you can keep the miles reasonable leasing is the way to go. Otherwise a good used late model vehicle is the wise purchase.
My wife’s Nissan was purchased used (like new) and is great. We bought the one I drive brnad new just because we wanted to. I’m not sure we’ll do that again.
I know that is not what the car companies like to hear, but between government regulations,union labor, insurance and taxes the cost of a new vehicle is getting difficult to justify.
Sill driving 2000 Ford Ranger. I thnk the prices of cars are excessive. Thought of purchasing a hybrid but at nearly twice the price and no faith in manufacturing longevity, getting a new hybrid doesn’t seem to make much sense. In addition, car makers are still not advising of the average cost to replace a bad fuel cell in a hybrid. I’ve heard horror stories of $2k per cell and that there are upto 16 cells per car. Do the math on that repair job and replacing a $50 fuel injector seems like a bargain. I think some work still needs to be done to make the technology affordable. …and the idea of “only $100,000″ for an all electric motor vehicle would require the manufacturer pulling his head out of his @#$ to see that the logic in this is missing. Finally, use of pure electric sounds like your saving on fuel but you have to plug this sucker in somewhere and that’s not free and, on my electric bill, I still have a fuel surcharge despite our having a coal plant. So, how’s changing the direction of consumption of oil supposed to reduce our consumption of it?
Have had both American and Foriegn cars in my 35 years of driving. American cars have had their problems but that was decades ago. Their reputation is unwarranted by todays standards. A myth perpetuated by people who benefit from foriegn goods. My current car, 2008 Ford Edge, is the best vehicle I ever owned!
When will Americans wake up and realized supporting your own economy is always in your best interest!
I was a Chevy guy until I bought a 2001 Chevy Impala. It was back for warranty repairs 13 times in 24 months. I opened a case with Chevy and they never even bothered to reply to me. At 50,000 miles the transmission went and now I drive a Subaru. 45,000 miles and NEVER been back for warranty. I’ll keep it and buy another when I need a new one.
I have a 97 Blazer with 215,000 miles and my wife has an 02 Chrysler mini van with 138,000 miles. I’am an accountant with a fourtune 500 company and my wife is a teacher who will be losing her job. We are financially lean with minimal debt. Yet, we still cannot afford a new car once we factor in the monthly payments. Both vehicles are in need of repairs. We, however, prefer to keep adding fluids instead of fixing the problems. We will probably keep them for the next several years.
I purchased a GM product in 1990 and had nothing but problems. 14 years later I puchased a Chevy Tahoe, a real low end GM car right? If I listed the number of problems with it you readers would get board. I have a 2000 Subaru with 150K miles that I am considering trading in and it has been fantastic. Maybe in another 14 years GM. Ah, I don’t think so.
I am driving a 1995 Volvo with 195K. The car runs well and I will probably keep it until it dies. My main concerns when selecting a new car are reliability, cost of ownership, and safety. When it does come time to replace the Volvo, I will probably look at a Honda or Toyota (or maybe Acura or Lexus). If design were my main concern, I may consider a Ford but probably not a Chrysler.
Anything from GM is COMPLETELY out of the question as I am still steamed about a disastrous experience I had with a Buick in 1984.
If you can afford to purchase a new car in these economic times by all means feel free to by whatever you like, it’s a freedom of choice whether it’s domestic or foregin.
As for me I’ll apply the old phrase ‘fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me’. I’ve owned a 89 Dodge Caravan, nothing but problems had to get rid of it with about 105k miles. Currently we own two vehicles, 1995 F150 (143k miles) it has given quite a bit of problems despite doing the required maintenance on the vehicle. The other vehicle is a 1997 Maxima 234k miles and still going strong, again I’ll do all the required maintenance but the performance and reliability from the foregin car speaks for itself.
At the moment, my wife and I car pool with the car and began leaving the truck for weekend run-around.
I don’t have any grudges with domestic vehicles according to Jeremy comment (North Carolina) we need to get our heads out of the sand and look at American. Yes I will look at american when I do decide to purchase, however, it will be based on performance and relaibility.
I gave up on US cars long ago. Every car, too many costly repairs, problems do not get rectified year in and year out. Tired of replacing transmissions. Low gas milage and poor quality. They say they care, words are cheap. By the way Nissan is on the same list. Toyota or Honday here with me for good.
We’re keeping our mini-van.. It’s a little older, however, rather than get a shiny new vehicle that will cost thousands, we’ll fix up the older vehicle which will cost hundreds.. and last for years to come.
Quite Frankly, I think that GM will go bankrupt and don’t want to risk the warranty issues.
I bought a new Pontiac G6 in 2006 and I love the car, but I will never buy another car from any of the automakers that took bailout money. I’m sick of Unions taking taxpayer money to support their fat benefits. The toll unions have played in the unemployment figure goes unreported because the unions mean votes for dems..votes and nothing more. My next car will probably be a Toyota built in a right to work state.
I have a 2003 Jeep and it hasn’t given me too many headaches. I have always been treated well at Jeep dealerships for service. No complaints. Still, I’m keeping it a little longer and I don’t plan on giving my hard earned money to any bailout company. My next car will not be domestic. Maybe in 5 years they fixed themselves and I can think of buying domestic again.
We have four cars at our house – husband drives a ‘97 toyota 4-runner with 157,000 miles; sons drive a 1996 toyota corolla with 90,000 miles and a 1997 saturn with 150,000 miles, myself a 2005 lexus es300. NO plans to purchase any vehicles unless something completely dies. We have always been loyal to Toyota; only reason we have the saturn as we inherited it so who turns down a free car! We’ve always kept cars for at least 10 years, and last two purchases were certified pre-owned.
Just purchased a 2009 Hyundai Sonata last week … my 1999 Audi A4 with 150K miles required too much in repairs/maintenance, and was becoming a money pit. I was hoping to get another year out of the Audi, but a replacement was necessary. Was looking for something reliable, low maintenance, and affordable. The Hyundai Sonata met all of those needs (I got a lot of car for short money). I usually buy used vehicles, but the rebates were too good to pass up (the dollar value of the rebates beat out 0% financing). The fact that I could return the vehicle if I am laid off was not a factor in the decision.
In December I bought a used chevy 2008 pickup to replace my 1991 ford pickup I purchased new (I have no brand loyalty). After 17.5 years I figured it was time for a newer vehicle. My wife (2003 impala purchased used) and I drive our vehicles at least 150,000 miles and don’t ever by new any more. We haven’t had any outrageous maintenance bills on any of our vehicles (knock on wood)through the years. We’ve owned foriegn and domestic. I just do the routine maintenance and have had good luck with all vehicles.
I have a 2003 Olds Alero with 82K miles. It runs well, and while I would like to get a different car (mostly for a change) I will be keeping this one til it dies.
Interestingly, the reasons aren’t financial, but I JUST HATE shopping for cars. The dealers in the Orlando area are awful. It’s the most distasteful experience imaginable…I’d rather endure a root canal.
My wife has a new PontiacG6 and I have a 04 Grand Prix with 90k miles. No issues with my car and I will be keeping it because it is so rock solid. My next vehicle will be an Acadia or Yukon. 90% of a car is dependent on the owner and maintenance. I work insurance & have nothing to do with the big 3 either. If you want to buy foreign, go for it, but dont question why the trade deficit is so high or question why the world burns our flag while they take our money. Be American and buy American.
I am absolutely keeping my current vehicles for as long as possible, which I was going to do anyway even before the financial meltdown. Buying a new vehicle every few years is a HUGE waste of money! My ‘newest’ vehicle is a 2000 Chevy 1500 truck with 66k on it. My pride and joy is my 1997 Mercury Cougar that just clicked over 230k and still runs like the first day I bought it. Routine maintenance is the key to keeping vehicles running almost problem free. Even if my Cougar’s engine seized up tomorrow (knock on wood), I STILL wouldn’t buy another one. It might cost me a couple grand to put a new engine in, but that would still be cheaper than any new car. I love paying low insurance rates (no collision needed) plus it only costs me $3 a year in vehicle tax to register it in the state of Colorado. You can’t beat that!
We will have a new driver this summer and so are looking at cars right now. He will get my car probably, with its 109,000 miles on it. I’m looking for a crossover/small SUV and have considered a Lincoln, Buick, Volvo, Saturn, Ford, Nissan, Mazda, BMW, and, Mercedes, and Audi. I’m seriously considering the Audi Q5, even though there are no incentives or special financing. The quality of the vehicle is the biggest factor. The incentives are great to consider, but what it comes down to for me is this: will the manufacturer be around in seven years when it’s time to replace this new car, and is the car I’m buying worth buying even without the rebates and financing? It’s kind of like using coupons, but on a much bigger scale, obviously. Would I buy the product without the coupon, or am I buying something just because there’s a deal?
Got my 2005 Ford Mustang that I paid full price for in 2005. They would not negotiate, saying it was too hot to discount.
Well, I just paid it off last month. It has 61k miles on it. Took me 41 months to pay it off…I figure I will look for a new car when 1)Ford offers a reliable all electric plug-in that doesn’t look like a box; 2)After I drive it for 41 months PAYMENT FREE.
I am currently in the market and have looked online at cars for two months. Guess what! I am very impressed with the Jeep Patriot. It is simple and beautiful and a green car! I test drove it a few days ago and loved it. My sister just got a Toyota Camry and the side door already is not closing properly She paid a fortune for her car and I’m going get the new Patriot for under $18,000. Wake up and do your research. The Patriot had wonderful reviews and the reliability was above average. For the price and the beauty of the car that is fine with me. Remember: If Detroit isn’t selling cars the whole country is hurting. Don’t make Japan laugh at us anymore!!
We have a ‘92 Mercury Grand Marquis. Was my dad’s until he passed away and he maintained it well. Now it has 230k miles on it and it runs great with no major repairs. Driving it (and maintaining it) until it dies!
I am holding on to my current car for now as I was just laid off and cannot consider buying a new car at this time. I have a Subaru with 150k miles and it runs great with low maintenance costs so there is no reason to replace it. When I am ready to buy a new car I would never consider an American car because of all the problems I and all my friends of had with reliability in the past. Maybe this has changed but the US Auto companies have blown their reputation when it comes to reliability for many years to come with almost all the people I know.
Newest auto is a 2000 Dodge Dakoa, Next is out 96 Buick Roadmaster wagon seats 7. Which gets double the MPG that the Suburban did seated 7. I have a 1993 Caprice and drive 42 miles one way to work and it gets 21 to 23 MPG with a V-8. Would love a newer auto but why take on a 400 to 500 payment.
I am 51 and have never purchased a new car in my life. It is amazing how much money you save just staying away from new car dealers. My daily driver is a 19 year old Mazda Miata I bought 16 years ago. It has never missed a beat with regular maintenance. Biggest repair has been a clutch replacement. I plan to drive it until the wheels fall off, then I will put the wheels back on. I have owned foreign and domestic cars, but the Mazda has them all beat for reliability and sheer staying power. My wife drives a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis also bought used. It has performed well and have no plans to replace it. We have no plans to buy a new car EVER, unless prices come way down.
Who killed the electric car? GM did!!!, and their dealerships are not dealing. They are right where they should be.
I’m hanging on to my 10-year-old (but low milage) car until the last possible moment, or until a viable plug-in hybrid or better is available. I will never buy an all-gas car again. The electric car and its supporting infrastructure, I think, will be the “killer app” for our times the way the Internet and the PC were in the 90s.
I am driving a 2000 Chevy Impala with over 160,000 miles on it. I bought it new, have done nothing but routine maintenance, and have had no problems with it. I would like to get a new Impala this fall if GM comes out with the rear wheel drive version.
My wife has been driving a 2008 Pontiac G6 hardtop convertible for a year and absolutely loves it.
Bought a full size four door Ford F150 new in 2006. Best vehicle I’ve ever bought. It’s rock solid. Like it better than my ‘04 Toyota Highlander, and a Mercedes 300 before that. Would I buy a Ford product again? You bet!
Not buying a new car. Holding on to old one with $150K+ plus, still runs like a top, don’t see the need for a new one.
If Ford markets the 67mpg fiesta diesel at a resonable price, I’ll consider buying. Otherwise, I’ll stick with my 2000 chrysler concorde that gets 25mpg combined. I won’t buy another new car unless it’s fuel efficient (over 50mpg).
Attention: America wake up before its to late. When our country is threaten by our foes our sons and daughters go to war to protect you,our country, and our way of life.
Forget your petty greed for now and lets buy American products and that includes our American cars, for this is one of our basic manufacturing foundations that keep thousands of American men,woman,sons and daughters working and not the foreign folks who care less about you. Lets rally around this United States and each other and lets support The “Buy American” GM,Ford and Chrysler to get out of our unemployment/economical problems. I will be buying three American made vehicles next week and I know I’ll be doing my part to keep someones family member working.
Have a decade-old, high-mileage
Japanese mini-truck (made in the U.S.)
that runs just fine, and gets 27mpg.
Also have a recent motorcycle (from
Europe), and if I trade-in anything,
it would be that, only to get another,
more-powerful bike (also from Europe).
But how do you define “American car”?
What’s more “American”, a Honda Civic
made in Ohio, or a Chevy pick-up
made in Mexico, or a Ford sedan made
in Canada? I tell you one thing:
when I do get another car or truck,
it won’t be from GM or Chrylser.
They’re both loser corporations with
inferior products that simply do not
last as long as their Japanese counterparts do.
driving 98 corolla keeping this until it breaks down.I have no problem buying US car in order to stimulize our economy but they better give a good deals and rectify the way they manufacture cars like toyota and honda.
I bought a 2009 Honda Accord in late November of last year. It’s built in the states by a company not looking for a bailout or considering banktruptcy. My other vehicle is an ‘03 Suburban. Quality, fit and finish are what I would have expected on both vehicles. I will drive the Chevy into the ground. I expect 200,000 miles from either vehicle. I’m halfway there on the burb with NO major problems. Routine wear and tear items like brakes and tires plus regular maintenance is all that has been performed. Quality concerns for Domestic autos is more speculation than real situations. If there is a major problem, it is usually addressed by warranty which covers more today than in the past. I’d agree with another observer that design and lack of concept to production is what is hurting domestic sales right now. The reaction time to prodcution vehicles must be reduced and some research done into why people are buying Hondas and Toyotas. Build a car that I want to drive and I will buy it. If GM or Ford want to know why I bought a Honda instead of one of there current offerings, I’d be happy to tell them. As a car nut, I’ll be watching as this all unfolds.
Just bought 2008 Acura RDX. Got a great deal on 08 vehicle. Sold 2000 Toyota Sienna XLE Van 175k miles for $2K. Gave daughter my 2001 Acura RL 110k miles to take to college. She’ll get another 65-70k miles out of it. Wife has 2008 Toyota Prius gets 50mpg.If American cars performed like this I’d buy American.
The lease on my Saturn Aura expires in about 6 weeks. It has been an awesome, trouble free car! I will wait until the last possible day to buy a new car, but it will be AMERICAN.
I am thinking of another Aura, a Malibu or maybe the Vue Hybrid. I’ve been saving my money for a while and will pay cash for my new car or truck and then plan to keep it for 5+ years. I’m looking forward to being car payment free!
I have a 2000 Audi A6. So far, so good. No new car here; thanks but no thanks. I will not buy American as long as the unions here continue to destroy the American auto industry.
I was looking for a new car but have not seen any great deals that were any better in real terms than before the crisis. 0% and cash back offers are always coming and going and I did not see anything super enticing.
For me the real issue is domestic content and in that respect Honda and Toyota are the leaders. In fact, it seems like more of the product line from GM, Ford and Chrysler are made off shore that are the traditional foreign companies. It appears that there has been a role reversal in who are the US automakers and who are the foreign automakers.
I don’t need a new car because my old cars are holding up well. I might get a new Malibu anyway. I wouldn’t buy anything but GM or Ford. Maybe spent $400 keeping my cars running good throughout 2008 and that included a starter motor for one and batteries for 2 others. Have a couple minor things to do each year between 5 vehicles. No big deal when my last car payment was in 1999. My GM card earnings will take all the sting out of depreciation on a new car from GM. I want to support American Automotive Technology jobs (R&D)when I do buy, not just assembly jobs alone. So forget the transplants for me. The quality difference is like splitting hair these days. It comes down to the GM card and the best stimulus for the U.S. Can’t go wrong with the Malibu. The gov will back the warranty.
Just bought a Honda Civic. I am originally from Michigan and have always owned an American car but I don’t want my warranty backed by the government. I will probably get great service on that warranty since it is free as compared to fighting them to cover it on warranty otherwise. However, until the American companies are making it on their own, it is too risky to buy their vehicles. If they went through bankruptcy and emerged in a way that I felt that they could make it, I would consider buying. Being in this state of not knowing what is going to happen to them is actually worse in my opinion. I would rather buy from a company that has been fixed through bankruptcy then just meandering along and losing money. It is a great time to buy a car. I can’t imagine they will be this cheap when the economy turns around and the inflation takes off with all that new money getting some velocity.
I’m going to keep my car as long as it will run, it has a little over 100M miles and is still strong. (ford) My wife’s car is piece of junk but I have to keep it because the resale is pathetic. It is a GM product and is a 2004 with only 59M miles. In the future I will only purchase a ford or a foriegn built auto, most likely a hyunai or subaru
The U.S. auto makers quit on me a long time ago. From burnt valves @ 13,000 miles (out of warranty @ 12,000)to cars that cost more, but did not perform as well as foreign auto makers. My last experience in 2002 with G.M. will be exactly that. I still do not understand thier thoughts on the Hummer!!!!
I own three vehicles and I plan on holding on to what I have. When I get around to buying anew car in about 5 to 8 years it won’t be a chrysler or GM ever again. These CEOs have ripped the American people off by thinking we would buy what ever they buld which had pretty much been boring and junk at an outrages price for what you get. My next purchase will either be a Honda or a Toyota and it will be a hybrid.
I am a GM employee and own all GM vehicles.Buick just won J.D Powers award for quality in carsfor 2009.I own a 2003 Buick 120,000 miles and it has only been back to the dealer 1 time for a tailight and it was free of charge.I’ll keep on with Buick and buy another but don’t expect to any time soon!
I jus bought a brand new BMW and I am very satisfied…… I am a former owner of a GM car and maintenance is too expensive…
I have 2000 Pontiac Bonneville with 91K miles. As long as it continue to run well I have no intention of buying new.
I plan on driving mine for a good while longer until it lays down for good. It’s a 1988 Ford. I’m having to do alittle more than average maintenance due to the age of the vehicle but it’s much less expensive than a car payment. If and when I do purchase a “new” vehicle it will more tha likely be a Domestic again.
I bought my second Toyota Solara Convertible two weeks ago. I was going to by a Prius, but is was too small. I have had American and foreign cars. The American cars fell apart so fast I swore I would never buy another one. They cost so much to fix. When you go to the dealership, they are rude and unaccomodating. Toyota treats you like royalty. Their cars drive great. We bought my son a Toyota truck when he graduated college. He loves it. My other son’s 2002 Ford Escape has fallen apart at the seams. It has been fixed over and over. They could charge 50% off and I would not buy another one! Inferior workmanship, poor customer service, rip off service bills and poor gas mileage are a recipe for disaster. They made their bed, now they must lie in it!
I have a 10 year old Subaru and have no plans to replace it until it dies hopefully 10 or more years in the future.
i driving 98 corrola very dependable and very economical in gas,i will this car until it breaks down, i don’t have any problem buying us car in order to help stimulize our economy, but they better have a good deals and rectify the way they manufacture cars like toyota and honda not only they are economically cheap but also last longer.
I bought a new GM car. People need to buy American and buy from big three. GM is finally making a better car when compared to foreign ones. The service & quality is great, too. Wake up people and stop buying Japanese cars! Unless you want a car with no style and boring and want to help foreign comanies. It tokk too long for Gm, etc. to correct their flaws but rediscover the big three now!
There is absolutely no way I will buy a new car in this economic climate. There are too many uncertainities and frankly I wouldn’t buy from an American company that me (the tax payer) had to bail out due to unsatisfactory company structure. As far as buying American, not until these companies figure out that Americans wants long term reliability not cheap parts that constintally break and need to be repaired. This used to be logical when people didn’t have as many options from foreign companies. Wake up Detroit! Change your business model.
I am a firm beliver an automobile is the worst depreciating asset one can buy. With everyone losing exponential growth in their stock protfolio why take another hit and buy a new car. I will drive my 2001 Lexus until the motor blows which unlike American made will be around 250k miles.
own a 1999 Mercedes with 120K on it. Runs like new. No payment. Will drive it until wheels fall off – probably in about 20 years or when we run out of gasoline and go completely electric. GM, Toyota, Honda and the rest can stick it. I love the “no-payment” option!
I am driving a 2001 Ford Focus ZX3 that is nearly paid off. I have recently test driven a Kia Soul, but have decided to wait and hang onto my Focus. It runs well and maintenance costs are low for now. I’m going to wait and see how things shake out.
I bought two used cars last year, a 2005 Chevy Cavalier for my daughter and a salvage title 2004 Ford Focus for myself. I could have bought new cars but I paid barely $10,000 for both cars and just do not see the value in a brand new car. I am the person that gives your trade in some value. But then, I can do my own minor repairs. Finally, I do not consider either of these cars “clunkers”. The 1988 Dodge Aries the Focus replaced but not the ones I bought.
I’m going to drive my car until it costs me more to keep it on the road than a new car payment would be. I’d love to be patriotic and buy a new car, but I’ll find other ways to support the country, like supporting local small businesses.
2001 Hyundai Accent and 2005 Jeep Wrangler, no new car purchases on the horizon. Nurse and Accountant household, kids all left in 1999 last one graduated college, both still working, fingers crossed, nurse better than accountant right now. States, County and City all raising taxes 25% plus looks like no pay raises scheduled for FY 2010. Like in Black Jack and Poker we will keep the cards we are holding. = – )
I’m the third owner of a 1995 Acura Legend LS Coupe and it’s going strong. I see few Pontiac Bonnevilles or Chevy Impalas of the same vintage on the road, still lots of Legends from 91 – 95.
I recently bought a 2006 Hyundai Elantra. I had put off purchase for the past year, but finally repairs started costing too much in money and inconvenience. Great Deal too. $9000 Net Net with trade in of 1997 / 134,000 mile honda)
I will, however, NEVER buy an American car. I figure I paid for a car through my taxes and got nothing in return, and am doing my best to encourage others to do the same.
Right now I cant afford a new vehicle but when the time comes it will NOT be a Ford, GM or Chrylser, they have lost my business for life!
The unions need to GO!
I’m still driving my 1999 Daewoo Leganza CDX. As you may be aware, Daewoo USA filed for bankrupcy in 2000. There has never been any problems with obtaing needed service or parts..so I do not understand the concern if GM/Crysler go banckrupt, too
I just bought a new car but it was a Honda. Service at GMC and Lincoln were horrible compared to Honda. Plus the 0% financing comes with strings of no discounts that they advertise. I love the USA but foreign cars have got them beat.
Nope… I have never purchased a new car ; and have no plans to. I purchased my first car @ 18 ; now 21 years later… I am not going to change my ways. Simply lose too much “off the lot” ; and increased insurance premiums, loan interest and so on… no thanks. I purchase my cars @ 1/4 to 1/10 the “off the lot” new price. I can use that money elsewhere.
At the end of December, I purchased a VW Eos. The dealer gave me a great deal, due to the fact that business has been slow through 4Q08. I don’t drive much, as I live in a city and walk to work, and my car sits in a garage 90% of the time, but i wanted something fun (Eos is a convertible) for my pleasure weekend driving. I previously had a 2002 Audi A4 with very low mileage, but it was off warranty and i did not want to spend any money fixing a car i didn’t drive. I got a good deal for the trade in, an extremely low interest rate for my new car, and i have a 5 year warranty on the new car (since i bought it certified used, and it was only 1 yr old, 8k miles). I couldn’t be happier.
The last new car I bought was a 1995 Toyota Tercel off the lot. I still have that car and its running great and looks new. I have no desire to get a new car, ever. I would never buy American except Ford. I hate car payments, so why would I want a new car? Never understood why people need new cars every 3 years. That is just a waste of money and time.
Peter, I think you are mistaken when you say that the Ford Motor Company is near bankruptcy, it is not. In fact, if you follow the international business new, you would see that the parent company to Mercedes is requesting additional aid from the German Government.
I own tow older vehicles (96/99)that will last as I maintain them. There is no incentive at this point to purchase anything newer or more efficient.
I am driving my 2002 Chevy truck and have no intention of buying a new car. I bought my vehicle new and paid for it in three years. Payment free now. Athough my vehicle has 100,000 miles it has only needed a brake job outside of the standard oil changes. To my, why do I need to replace a free (paid for) vehicle that costs virtually zero in maintiance?
Oh…someone said a new car was the worst investiment you can make. Cars are not investments, essentially they are a sunk cost. Cars depreciate and loose value no matter how you look at it.
My wife and I just replaced our 10-year-old Chevy minivan after 97,000 miles. The purchase had been planned since last year.
We went to a Chevy dealer to look for those red-hot promotions CNNMoney wrote about. On the ground, those promotions are very confusing and vary greatly from dealer to dealer. The new car would still be several thousand dollars more expensive than we really wanted to spend in this economy.
On a whim, we talked to a private car dealer about used cars. In a few days, he found a very good 2007 Lincoln Navigator at a great price – at least $5,000 lower than any new SUV or crossover we looked at. We bought it immediately and feel like we made a wise purchase because we got a lot more vehicle for the money and won’t take an immediate hit on depreciation.
We also financed through my credit union, which was easier than the car company finance arms or a commercial bank.
No regrets
WE have two vehicles. I bought my truck new ten years ago, and we bought my wife’s car new in 05. Both are paid for.
I’d love a new truck, but I can’t justify the expense during these times, as well the fact that with the newer care we have, the truck doesn’t get driven much anymore.
The care is approaching 4 years old and I see no need to replace it.
I’ve religiously maintained my truck though, and I have no questions about it’s reliability. I can count on it to last at least three to four years without major trouble.
Buying new or something newer every 2 to 5 years is just wasteful. Take care of your vehicles, and they last longer and take car of you in turn.
Yes, I will replace my clunker. My 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan has cost me too much in repairs and will be traded on a new Hyundai. I have had two Ford dealers 9 years apart tell me that if I wanted perfection in my factory ordered new car, I should have bought a Mercedes. The 1989 was the last one. My 1991 Oldsmobile had every problem I found listed on a web site. My 2000 Chevy Malibu suffered several problems including the famous gasket eating antifreeze. It was my last GM. After a wonderful experience with a 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan, I bought a 2004. It has experienced numerous problems. GM and Chyrsler should have merged, Chyrsler already has all the old GM problems. Bad switches, bad window lifts, bad water pump, bad power steering pump, bad key switch, etc. Given my experiences, the Detroit three quit on me a long time ago, now I will end up quitting on them. I wish the Detroit three much luck, but have low expectations.
I am currently driving a 1997 Lexus ES300. Maintenance costs are around $400-$1000 per year (brakes/tires, etc) It has never given me ANY problems. Before the Lexus, which I bought used in 2006, I bought a new Nissan 350Z in 2002 and a new Nissan Pathfinder in 2000 (I was extrmely happy with both cars). I have never purchased a new American car. I did purchase a used 1991 Ford Taurus and it was the worst car I ever owned. Transmission went out and it was plagued with electrical problems. I am waiting on new drivetrain technology to purchase new again (preferably an electric car). I am very interested in the Chevy Volt or the Tesla 4 door sedan coming out in 2010/2011. There is no incentive that would make me buy another new gasoline burning car. I will buy an electric car when the right one for me comes out for the lower cost of operation, higher reliability, and low/no pollution. Until then, my Lexus is probably good for another 100,000 miles!
No we have not bought a new car. My car is now 4 yrs old. I purchased a Nissan and I selected it for its size, fuel economy, and price.
Having a job or the fear you would lose your job are preventing people from making new purchases.
Even if a car maker offers to take the car back if I would lose my job would not be in the cards. Simply because I would still be paying a huge license fee and if I gave back the new car I would be without any car.
Jobs must be secure before I would buy a new car.
IF I was to purchase a new car the bankruptcy issue would NOT bother me because the US Gov has backed the warrenty.
I would only “buy American” if they could match the size, fuel economy, and price of other cars.
American automakers have been stubborn and greedy in not matching the imports in fuel economy and price. When they align themselves with fuel economy and price then and only then will I look at them.
I own a 2001 F150 Supercrew. It’s paid for and runs fine. Not looking to get anything new for another two years. Cheaper to keep my truck running. As far a gas cost … it would have to hit $10.00 a gallon before it becomes viable to spend the money to buy a new car. Besides the promotions are there every year and they will be there when I buy in 2011.
I love all the coments about not buying american due to poor resell and quality. Have you actually looked latley, the cadillac cts has best resell and the buick has best quality. Toyota had to be dropped from the recomended buy list do to quality issues. Get your head out of the sand and actually do some shopping now, Ford and GM both are producing better quality products than a lot of the imports.
Just because they are built here the profits from the company still go back to Japan, dont complain about our economy if you dont invest in it!
I will keep my 2001 SUV for a few more years and then purchase a Honda, Toyota or Nissan. The American auto workers do not produce a quality vechicle and both blue and white color auto workers have been paid too much money and benifits that are far superior to the rest of the US workers. I cannot feel sorry for the US auto companies. Good by GM…….
I drive trucks. I need the room, carry capacity and power. Since 1985-2000 I owned two Toyotas. I traded to a new Silverado in 2000 because Chevy had the full size truck I needed and liked. I recently bought a new 2008 Silverado. I am happy and don’t plan to go back. Toyota Tundra and Dodge are nice but they cost too much. I’ve had no problem with the Chevy and hope I can get another in 4 or 5 years. I don’t want to be told what to drive, especially if it is little car.
I have a 2003 truck, and a 1996 car (clunker). Both made by GM. The truck seems to need repair every time I drive it, so I drive it as little as possible. The clunker makes terrible noises, the air conditioning does not work, but the maintenance costs are virtually none. I do what is required to keep it safe, and that is all. I would love to send it to the scrap heap and get a new car, but I just don’t have the confidence. I definitely would not buy from Chrysler or GM because of their current situation. It does not matter to me if they go into bankruptcy or not, I have already lost confidence in those two companies.
I was forced to extend my leased Ford Escape for an additional 2 months. I walked into every dealer in a 20 ml driving distance and they acted like I wasn’t even there. Crazy prices like they were sitting on gold. Audi, Infinity, VW and Chevy were good but the rest deserve to go out of business. I finally drove 50 miles to a NJ Ford dealer that gave me a great price on a New Edge. I wanted to by an American car to support them but Westchester Ford dealers are the worst in the world. The deals are out there but you must demand one and play the game!
We have two “good vehicles” both 10 year old Fords (Explorer and Ranger pickup) and my daily ride, a 1994 Ford ranger with 178,000 miles on it. We maintain them well, and will drive them until they die..no major problems ever with any of them. My wife had a Honda that was almost 20 years old that she drove to work until she hit a rather large deer. We get our money out of the vehicles we purchase, and have no plans to do anything now to replace any of them.
It would appear to be unwise at best and maybe foolish on the other extreme to buy a new anything right now. Belt tightening is something Americans have needed to do for a couple of decades now. Time to practice a “penny saved is a penny earned” axiom, it seems to me.
I’m currently in the market and have been shopping around. The current state of the domestic auto companies has kept me from being overly interested in purchasing from them. I currently have a newer Mitsubishi that expires from lease next year, but the current offers are enticing me to potentially purchase early.
Bought a NEW GMC Acadia in December. Absolutely FIRST RATE vehicle. As good or BETTER than ANY rice burner out there. Dealer support was been top notch. And I got a pretty good deal to boot. If you can swing it NOW is the time to BUY. Especially domestic.
Hi, I have a 2003 GM product and was considering buying a new one. With everyone talking about all the deals out there I began looking around. I checked out many car lots and vehicle prices. What I have found (here in Canada) is that the vehicle prices have not dropped at all, if anything have gone up. This has caused me to reconsider and I have decided to keep my 2003 Tahoe.
Ross
I bought a new Hyundai minivan. My 1996 Honda minivan had just shy of 200,000 miles and needed about $3500 in repairs (transmission and timing belt). Our deciding factor on new versus used and import verses domestic were based on warrantee coverage and reliability. GM and Ford do not have a warrantee that matches Hyundai. Dodge matches/beats the warrantee, but I do not expect them to survive and their reliability does not equal Ford, GM, or Hyundai.
I expect to buy later this year. Currently drive a 1995 Oldsmobile 88, which averages 29 mpg – mostly highway driving. I bought it new. Still runs great and repainted it a couple of years ago. Very little maintenance costs required – perhaps average $500 a year in actual repairs. I would keep it, but the parts needed to restore the interior just aren’t available in the market any longer. (planned obsolescence)
I just bought a new Texas Edition Chevy Silverado. I am in Arlington Texas and went to Vandergriff Chevy to find a new truck. The first one I looked at I fell in love, it was a silver 2009 silverado 1500 crew cab texas edition. I saw the sticker and almost passed out $35,000. It has the cloth interior and the 5.7 litre with the flex fuel option. Overall a great looking truck, chrome door handles, mirrors, wheels, gauge covers etc… Sticker was $34,998 which I thought was weird but said 3k rebate which made it 31,998 right. I had a trade in which I owed 5,300 on and they gave me $6,500 cause I told them I owed at least 6k so I made $1,200 right there. TT&L was $1,850 roughly. Extended warrenty was $14 extra a month roughly $1,800 over all or something close to that. Which would have brought the Total OVERALL price to $35,648. After all said and done I signed the line at final price of 31,253 with a $1,200 check coming to me because the have to send me the rest of the amount after they pay the trade-in off. That pays for a year of insurance which is 649$ a year full coverage through Standard Insurance. Yes that leaves me with $551.00 in my pocket after all said and done and I could’nt be happier, I LOVE THIS TRUCK. Wasn’t much they said they could do off the bottom line after the 3k rebate which I was fooled by that. They also tried to start me at 9.99% interest through GMAC finace and laughed. They lowered it to 6.25$ after all said and done after I was laughing and almost walked out. I just refinaced and got 5.35% through a credit union. Good Luck to all and PLEASE support AMERICAN made
I have a 2000 Toyota Echo, and am waiting to buy a new car. However, our waiting has nothing to do with the economy. My wife and I are waiting for electric cars to hit the mass market, which sounds like will happen in 2010-11. I am hoping to hold on that long, since we all know it is just a matter of time before gas jumps back up.
I just bought a new Mercedes, but was considering GM, Chrysler and Ford. However, in light of their precarious situations and possible bankruptcy looming, I preferred to have my car serviced by a company that is still in business, rather than relying on the government to honor warranties and service contracts. I expect the status of domestic auto makers will drive others to non-domestic brands for that same reason when making purchasing decisions.
I sit back and watch the Auto Co. say they are in big trouble but when you look at the deals on the lots, it makes you wonder who are they lying too. A new car is the worst investment out there and the so called deals are not deals. I will drive my vehicle until it falls apart, its payed off.
We could afford a new car but we’re keeping a 2000 Honda Accord because they are completely reliable for at least 200,000 miles. My Honda dealer recommends the service and maintenance I need, which isn’t much, and it is an extremely comfortable and safe car. When we do buy, it will be another Honda Accord.
We also have a 2003 Toyota Tundra — same answer, same experience.
Vehicles are still too expensive even with 0 percent and rebates. Trade in values have also dropped so that being upside down in my current vehicle is a problem. If I am lucky its a wash with promotions and upside down. This brings me back to the price of a new vehicle. I have decided to keep my current vehicle on the road as long as possible. I own a 2005 GMC Z71.
Will hold on to my old cars 2004 & 2006 Models. Prices on new cars are too high and my salary didn’t go up as much as the price of vehicles. That is what everyone forgets to factor in the average blue collar hasn’t gotten a raise in income to match the rise in prices of everything else. And I will never buy a foreign car.
We looked at cars, but they will be foreign cars build in USA by Americans. We will never buy another GM Saturn. Eliminate the unions and maybe a manufacture can survive.
I’m keeping my current 2004 car. The current incentives are great and tempting but the way the economy is doing I fear I might lose my job and don’t have enough funds to make the car payment.
I bought a brand new 2009 Chevy Malibu at the beginning of February. My 97 Honda Civic had been dependable for years, but had some problems that I didn’t want to keep sinking money into. I decided to start car shopping – test drove the Accord, Camry, and Malibu. I NEVER thought I’d buy a Chevy or domestic-made car ever again. Public sentiment has said that Toyota or Honda are making 1) more fuel-efficient, 2) safer, and 3) more reliable cars – especially in the mid-size range. I was seriously against buying domestic until I kept reading the Malibu was a GREAT car. Finally test drove it, loved it, and after tons of worry about the economy and my job security said “let’s make a deal.” I bought a brand-new car after deciding I wasn’t going to be part of the non-stimulative economic problem – and got an incredible deal. I’m happy to be a domestic car owner too.
I currently own a 14 year old car, and a 9 year old SUV. I will drive them as long as possible. I have no issue with buying an American car, in fact I want to. They just do not make one that I want. That is the biggest issue!
I never could afford a new car even though I do make a bit more than average. My money is better spent elsewhere (by choice if not necessity). Why would I start buying new now?
We just finished a 36 month lease on one of our two cars and returned the car to the dealership. They refused to finance our purchase of the car for less than 14 1/2% interest. We said no and have decided to become a one-car family, and it is turning out just fine. We are saving about $800 a month this way and now have no interest in buying a second car. Now, that’s change I can live with.
My wife and I are driving two older vehicles, a 1997 Ford Expedition with 107,000 miles and a 1999 Chrysler Town & Country with 100,000 miles. We plan on driving both of these as long as possible – at least four more years if possible.
We are not the kind of people who buy brand-new. We always buy slightly used and keep our vehicles a long time.
I will pick a Toyota or Honda for their reliability & better resales value. I don’t buy American car because no resales value & poor quality.
I have a 1999 Tahoe. It meets my needs for a tow vehicle plus I use it for other recreational purposes. I don’t commute, so it only has 54000 miles and runs great. I don’t plan on buying anything soon since I love not having a car payment.
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Just turned in a 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan (110K)under the CARS program. Loved that minivan, even as it began to show its age. It was paid off years ago; normal maintenance, but exhaust and transmission failing fast. Not going to make it another New England winter. My new ride is a Jetta Sportwagon TDI–I have gone from 18 mpg in the minivan to a first-tank avg mpg of 38 in the VW. I understand my mileage will improve as the break-in period progresses. Do not overlook new diesel engines–impressive efficiency. This vehicle qualified for a state sales tax waiver intended for hybrid cars; the full allowance of $4500 under the CARS program, and a $1300 tax write off from the IRS!! The transition issues in changing from 20+ years of minivan driving to a smaller car has been far less than anticipated. I love this car. I would not take a GM car if it was a gift. Been there, suffered through the GM experience before. GM does not make a vehicle I want to buy; they should be ashamed of the mpg on their cars! Even paying full MSRP on the Jetta Sportwagon, I have myself a bargain I fully expect to drive for 200+K miles (and have a lot fun driving it!). Go VW!