woodchucker wrote:
On 12/24/2013 10:29 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 12/24/2013 7:56 AM, Keith Nuttle wrote:


I consider a car with 70k just broke in and ready for the next 100k of
trouble free driving.


At 70k my Buick was not broken in, just broke. Transmission, heated
seat, climate control, brake lines, dash lights, steering wheel controls
and more. Had I known you loved cars like that I'd have given it to
you. I did give it away as I felt it unethical to sell it.

At two years and 40k miles the seat heater burned out. To have it
fixed, dealer wanted $672 to replace the entire seat bottom, not just
the element. Since it was under the 3 years but over the miles, I asked
GM for some help. They would give me $500 off if I bought a new car.
Last GM car for me.
When I was youn I built a Camaro race car, I raced it at a road racing track. not an oval.

I also bought a used BMW 2002..
I never went back to American after that. When I opened the engine, there
was a major difference in machine work. Americans were like clunkers and
the BMW was all machined.. Same with the Honda.

I went to Honda's next for quite a while until I had a problem with
undersize brakes and they kept telling me that no one had that problem..
During a Honda club meeting everyone was complaining about it.
That was my last Honda, as there way of dealing with the problem was to
say it wasn't happening. My wheel would shake violently from undersize rotors heating up.

I have been in Toyota's camp for a while now.. they are not perfect
either.. But it's been a solid vehichle .... the last 4 have been very good.

I used to compete against many of the engineers for GM and Chrysler at
the nationals.. They explained how Toyotas and Hondas fell apart in the
first couple of months.. I asked them if they had ever been in one.. They
would never step foot in one. I told them they would never understand,
and as engineers they should rent one to understand, give it a month...
Very closed minds, and that's why our car makers lost the Car battle..

In order to know the competition sometimes you need to embrace them... in
their case they just assumed they were better.

The reason the American manufacturers lost out to the Japanese was the
labor unions