On May 30, 2:49*pm, harry wrote:
Heh Heh. *Finally catches up with where Europe and Japan were fifty
years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/bu...to.html?_r=1&s....

.

The American car makers started screwing themselves, as well as
customers, during the early 70's through the 80's and beyond. The
effect of that will probably linger, to some extent, until a current
generation dies off. They built pretty descent equipment up until
71, then they stared a process of alienating customers. List of
reasons for us:

1) '73 Vega GT (new). Motor Trend car of the year. During the 12
months we owned it is spent about three months in the shop, including
one 6 week stay, on stands, waiting for rear axle parts. We finally
got the local GM zone office to arrange a good price swap for a...

2) '74 Olds Cutlass (new). Rust started appearing around the opera
windows in about six months. GM repaired. In less than a year rust
appeared around fender wells, then cowling, then around inside truck
frame. When we got rid if in after three years the trunk latch was
held in place with sheet metal screws in bondo.

3) Neighbor's Chevrolet Chevette. Some dealers actually admitted it
was intended to be a 50,0000 mile disposable "economy" car.

4) Our first Volvo was a '74purchased in '77 with about 35,000 miles.
We ran the odometer up to about 160,000 and turned it over to our
daughter for college car. Later sold it with more than 200K miles and
the lady who bought it drove it for quite some time. One other Volvo
provided similar service - then their price rose out of our reach (and
they had a period of quality lapses).

5) '86 Blazer - Kind of a fun vehicle and we did get about 130,000
miles on it, at great expense: four water pumps, two radiators, one
steering sector, one expensive head repair. The truck overheated
pulling a pretty small pop up trailer at anything above sea level.

5) Two Honda's. One ours, one daughter's. Both bought used and
combined mileage when sold pushing 300,000 miles (that we put on
them).

6) '94 Chrysler New Yorker bought in '95. This was a good faith
attempt to get back into the domestic car market and be patriotic
again. The car was a low mileage executive car that we knew as owned
by the dealership owner and it was loaded. Leather, premium sound
system, the works. The car was a dream to drive. However, two-tone
paint beneath door trim started to fall off within a year (not peel,
fall off). Window seals leaked and eventually fell off. The
dealership had no luck in getting them adjusted properly. Trunk lid
would open unexpectedly while driving down the road. Electrical
problems. Then, one day I noticed a puff of smoke when I started it
and took it to my mechanic. At 62,000 miles he told me the V6 had one
bad cylinder and another with marginal compression. He strongly
advised unloading it.

7) '02 Chevy 3500HD,8.1L (new). Crapped-out a drive shaft at about
3,000 miles. New rear end shortly thereafter. At about 30,000 miles
it started using oil erratically (anywhere from 1,500 mpq to 200
mpq). Chevy did a band-aid fix and sent us on the way with no other
fix available. It soon resumed oil consumption problem.

8) Current '99 Camry (New) with 166,000 miles. Other than a window
motor and occasional "check engine" light and normal maintenance
(brakes, shocks, etc) it has been perfect.

Granted, we have owned two other pickups, besides the 8.1 L, that have
been OK. Our current '06 Chevy 3500HD Duramax has been a pretty good
vehicle. We are considering replacing the Camry with a new or new
car, and I was starting to soften up again. Friends have a new Impala
and it seems like a nice care of good quality. Ownership would be
easier because the nearest Toyota and Nissan dealers are 40-60 miles
away. We have two GM dealers within 15-30 minutes. BUT -- my wife's
opinion is "hell no". Other than the pickups, every domestic car we
have owned since early 1970's has been a POS - we can drive the extra
miles if we have to to avoid another screwing.

And THIS is the generation problem I mentioned above. In spite of
knowing the newer domestics are probably a lot better. My memory is
almost as good has her's

RonB