The Best New Cars

The quality of American cars may have improved (American dealers have been using that line for many years) but the reasons I switched to foreign cars had as much to do with shabby sales and and service practices as it did with design and build faults. I was a "buy American" holdout longer than most, but got tired of shabby treatment by all business area of American dealers. I have been satisfied with all aspects of my foreign car purchases.

I like my little Seat Ibiza Ecomotive 1.4TDI.

Haven't done may Miles, but average has been 60mpg with 5 people on board and normal driving.

hope to pass the 70mpg when driving alone.

I agree on vehicles like the Chevy Malibu and Ford Fusion, however the "great" American cars these days derive from foreign roots.

The Malibu's "Epsilon" platform was developed by GM's Opal group in Germany. Ford took Mazda's CD3 platform and engines for use in it's Fusion. The Ford Focus also grew from Mazda roots.

What's going to happen once American manufacturer's, in an effort to free up cash, begin shedding the foreign manufactures they currently pull their best technology from?

I'm lead to believe that the bad luck with poor quality plaguing the US auto industry derives from bad management, revolving door leadership, and no accountability in the supply chain (linking back to bad management.) Public corporations are driven off profit margins with every leader trying to be a hero. This provokes short term decisions for quick cash then worry about the consequences later.

I believe for US manufacturers to truly turn out their best vehicles, they need to turn private. That or adopt "The Toyota Way."

News 4 you. American car companies have been building cars on par or better with foriegn makers for many years. This biggest problem for the big 3 is the B.S. spewed forth by buyers of foriegn cars who claim they were better than there last american car, only to reveal with prodding that the new car costs nearly double. I think they are embarrassed to admit that they took a job away from their neighbor. Fact is that when you compare dollar for dollar there is no better car than what america builds. Also be wise enough to consider long term costs. My girlfriend bought a Nissan pathfinder new 10 years ago. It's already had a differential, tranny and transfer case. None of that was reasonably priced. Now it needs a gas tank. Care to guess how much? $2800 cdn. Doesn't seem like such a good deal now does it. And it was not cheap when she bought it. They got her on both ends

Sorry, but your argument has no legs!

Firstly, no argument can be made with isolated cases, either way. There are very reliable American cars and some lemons with Japanese nameplates. That does NOT mean that Detroit is putting out superior automobiles.

As is the case with everything, only empirical evidence can provide a true answer. Statistically, Japanese cars (built in the USA, by American workers) are more reliable, and have a longer life. What country they are built in is irrelevant. Ultimately, it can be narrowed down to only a few factors. The first one being engineering. Is each individual part engineered to perform it's task for a long enough period of time? Is the overall design such that the parts work in harmony with one another to avoid early failure? The second factor is build quality. This gets into the area of management more. When employees are not held personally liable for quality of work, there is no incentive to perform. While many of us take great pride in the products of the 'big three', unfortunately, their factory workers view it only as a job. They clock in and clock out and will put in as much effort and quality as the union will allow them to get away with. These are my opinions.

However, the empirical evidence I referred to earlier is out there. Go find it! I know many of you like to bash Consumer Reports, but guess what....they are an American company as well!

All this being said, my last 3 new cars were American. Buick Rendezvous, Chrysler Pacifica, and another Buick Rendezvous. Luckily, they were all leases. I will say that I felt fortunate to be returning them at 40K miles, as they were already feeling as loose as a go kart. The Chrysler did seem to hold up better, but was burnig oil to the tune of 2 gallons per month! AT 20K MILES! Yes, it's actually German. But, since then I bought a very used Acura MDX with 108,000 miles to save some money for a year or so. I can tell you without a doubt, that this vehicle is way tighter than either Buick was at just a fraction of the mileage. It's not just how long the engine goes. Some GMs can last for 200K, but they start to squeak and rattle, and misalign, and cough, and rust, and you name it. That's engineering and build quality.

Oh, and Yes, I DO know about the tranny problem with 01 Acura MDXs. Mine has a dealer installed jet kit which was done at less than 12K. Even if it goes, it's 3K for a dealer installed tranny. I would easily spend more than that replacing seals, gaskets, weather stripping, rust, cheap interior bits, peeling leather and the like on most GMs, Fords, or Chryslers. I'll take the risk and drive my MDX in total comfort for another 80K at least.

Again, to finalize my point. You may see alot of Fords and Chevys on the road after 10 years. But try driving comparable ones back to back with a Toyota or Honda of the same age. Look up the statistical data on repair and maintenance costs for used cars, or the likelihood of a problem occurring AFTER 50K miles. Look at resale values. I don't understand why we Americans are so consummed with defending Detroit. In a free market economy, competition breeds quality. If we blindly buy American autos for no better reason than that they are American, we are not helping them, we are hurting them. We are giving them reason not to improve. We are subsidizing their failure, and that is anything but American. Personally, I will always buy the car that serves my purposes best, and gives me the most peace of mind, regardless of what nameplate it carries. If more of us did this, I think the 'big three' wouldn't be in the mess they're in right now.

Excitement that the Big 3 generate from the introduction of 'new" car designs still lets them off the hook for the poor overall quality of the product they are producing. At the end of their tunnel is the parts chain that must be fed. The lack of accountability is what has held Detroit back for years. They always believed that they were beyond their buyers. The need for their replacement parts has always been their biggest cash cow. The fact that the buyers always need to get rid of their car at the 100,000 mile mark has assured the Big 3 of more sales. (Or so they thought.) The fact that the imports "caught up" to the Americans should come as no surprise to anyone. They build a better product with fewer long term problems is evident by them leapfrogging past the Big 3 and the Europeans. My Honda is over 220,000km and is in better overall shape than my previous Buick LeSabre at the same mileage. My Volvo went to over 863,000km and then only required a tranny. (Too bad the Americans bought them, they used to build a great car also)

The way back for the Americans is to accept the fact that the rest of the world is doing better than catching up to them. They are beating them in quality, design, engineering, supply chain management and they don't dump on their employees when they "shut down the line". The foreign management encourage their employees to participate in the production, to the extent that they reward improvement efficiencies more so than the Americans, who were always interested in profits, never the quality of the product coming off the line. At least twice a week I drive past a very large field chocked full of Chrysler product waiting to be fixed. An old mantra management should have embraced, would never allow their product to leave their dealers' lot without it being 100%. Not where they will issue a recall after the problems that they knew were there all along, started to appear.

My experience with the Buick taught me a very valuable lesson. Buy foreign. To buy American now is money poorly spent. This B.S. of dual fuel technology is pie in the sky. 65 miles to a charge is ludicrous, as they have the technology to do better, only it is not in their best interest to do so. The money the American Congress will be propping up the auto sector with will not solve anything. The factories will still be closed. The majority of assembly jobs will be lost here in Canada, with little regard for the worker and the money that both sides of the border gave in the past is money spent very poorly, as there is precious little to show for the 10's of millions already given to them in government subsidies. The rust belt will loose more jobs to the foreign manufacturers, as the supply side of all the Big 3 depends on their cheap labour and parts originates in the Orient. The Americans sent most, if not all, of the manufacturing overseas and now they want pity. The amount of empty manufacturing space on the Eastern seaboard is staggering. Millions of square feet of unused high quality, factory space. All collecting dust and little if any taxes.

And they want us to buy their product. Never again. They are living in Disneyland. Reality is they are not prepared to make the sacrifices needed to get the auto sector back on its feet. Management has to be changed from top to bottom and a new direction has to be charted for any form of success to be achieved.

If not, good luck trying to get service from bankrupt processes and management that cares nothing for their "loyal" customers. Leave their backs against the wall. That's the position that suits them best.

There is an obvious racial motivation to your comments which has no place in engineering. Facts and figures must prevail. The fact is that there is no difference in the quality of cars based on country of origin (lemon factors aside ,and they all got some). The level of quality is based on the price. Some vehicles stand out in specific areas but none stand out in all areas. I know many mechanics and body men who work on all kinds of cars and I have discussed at length this subject with them. Unanamously they say foriegn cars are NOT better, just different. The biggest difference is in the cost of the parts which is far higher for foriegn cars (O.E.)

My work van is a 96 Ford 250 with 360,000km. Is is very heavily loaded and I live in the country and pull a trailer(with no brakes) half of the time.I just replaced the starter for the first time and the rad for the first time. Even with the heavy hauling the brakes have lasted 5 years and will still put you through the windshield. I have replaced no other parts except tires and fan belt. Everything else including the exhaust system is original. It drives beautifully, burns no oil, and if you calculate the weight in your mileage, gets better mileage that your honda.

This is a VERY high quality vehicle. It has far surpassed what I would expect in any vehicle. (and there is no foriegn competition for it)

As far as manufacturing going overseas that is mostly the fault of people buying foriegn goods. The same people who demand high wages and benefits are the cheapskates that insist on saving pennies by buying foriegn goods from countries where children make 75 cents an hour.

If your favorite store is Walmart then you are part of the problem not part of the solution

An explanation of where or what causes you to think there is a racial motivation behind any comment I have made would be appreciated. I can't see what you are referring to?

Maybe you mechanics are in love with North American production, but mine are not. There preferences are for the imports, when it is required to do repair work. They feel the thought process involved with how the Asian (and I mean Japanese, Korean, etc. with no slight intended) product is, allows for quicker repairs than comparable work on the North American product.

Maybe in your travels in Southern Ontario, you may happen to pass by the Downsview Air Force Base (Off the Allen Expressway in Toronto) and just to your West you can see upwards of 3000 Chrysler's, all waiting to be "repaired," because, the North American production-mentality at the Big 3 never allowed the line to stop and fix the problem BEFORE the product was completed. Their (the Big 3's management's) thinking was to fix it later. If ever. OK I'll give you the fact that Ford builds a great truck. So does GM and so did Chrysler. What about the rest of the production? Are we to suffer in silence while they get our public $$$'s and still give us crap at the dealers lot. Assuming you are aware of what is going on in thae car sector there is a reason the buyers are NOT buying local. It is too costly. When a guy turning lug nuts in a US GM factory is grossing over $70 an hour, there is something wrong. Drastically wrong! When the CAW president said that the Canadian workers were not going to give any more wage concessions, what do you think will happen to the manufacturing in Southern Ontario? It will go south. To the US or Mexico. Who benefits then?

Maybe you try to buy a television that is not made in the Orient. Or a t-shirt. Or shoes. Try buying any Canadian knitting or woven goods anymore. Your shirts, ties, underwear, suits are made overseas. I make a concious effort to buy Canadian first even though this country has developed into a nation of warehouses, with our natural resources being shipped out raw and returned as finished goods. And whether you or I like it or not, most of the "local" manufacturing is foreign owned.

A famous man once said - "A change is coming". Unfortunately, Walmart will set the price.

Don't worry about Ripsaws comments. They are obviously invalid. The topic here is new (modern) cars. He references his '96 Ford van with no facts on modern autos.

Ford throughout the 90's made some of their best product ever. Many taxi company's still use 90's Crown Vics, and run them frequently over 1M miles. Since Ford's margins were slipping they took drastic measures in the 00's thus bringing us to where we are now. Crapola! Outsourcing the outsourcing and satellite management.

To be fair every manufacturer is fallen victim to these ill practices, but some less than others. If you want reliability, there are plenty of vehicles I'd recommend staying clear of.

Toyota in my opinion, is #1 because of their business model. Their principals such as lean manufacturing and continuous improvement allow them to provide high quality competitively priced. Ford had adopted the Toyota principals for a while and even worked with Toyota engineers briefly. Their impatience and lack of discipline brought failure.

I've got an '05 F350 and it's the worst vehicle I've ever owned. Navistar really dropped the ball on the 6.0 diesels. Then they released the 6.4 diesel for '08...then announced their dropping that engine for '10 because too many problems. What's going wrong here?