Rant

The pleasure of owning a car comes not just from the fact that it makes it to a certain high mileage mark. Most cars today will make it to 150K miles. IMO the joy of owning a better built car is that the car runs smoothly, drives well without squeaks and rattles, the suspension is still in good shape and the steering is still tight.

A couple of months ago I rented a Chrysler 300. It was a current year model with under 10K clicks on the odometer and the car squeaked and rattled when going over railroad tracks, the steering was loose (the car was all over the road on city streets) and it wasn't a comfortable car to drive. I realize that comfort is a very subjective thing, but a car with that few miles should not have squeaks and rattles.

Anyone can find examples of foreign (or domestic) cars that have had rust problems or other issues that affected an entire line of vehicles. Those things happen and are because car makers are trying to find ways to make their cars less expensively. But when a car that's less than a year old has as many issues as that Chrysler had, that's symbolic of shoddy construction and/or cheap parts.

My car is 7 years old, doesn't squeak, doesn't rattle, the suspension and steering are tight and it's a very comfortable car to drive on a long trip. Those are the things I tend to look for in a car.

Gofirstclass said:

The pleasure of owning a car comes not just from the fact that it makes it to a certain high mileage mark. Most cars today will make it to 150K miles. IMO the joy of owning a better built car is that the car runs smoothly, drives well without squeaks and rattles, the suspension is still in good shape and the steering is still tight.

Anyone can find examples of foreign (or domestic) cars that have had rust problems or other issues that affected an entire line of vehicles. Those things happen and are because car makers are trying to find ways to make their cars less expensively. But when a car that's less than a year old has as many issues as that Chrysler had, that's symbolic of shoddy construction and/or cheap parts.

My car is 7 years old, doesn't squeak, doesn't rattle, the suspension and steering are tight and it's a very comfortable car to drive on a long trip. Those are the things I tend to look for in a car.

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Agreed completely on the mileage part. My vehicles I described earlier did not have those problems either and my 7 year old truck with nearly 200K still rides and handles just fine, tight steering and all.

I think analyzing any rental car (foreign or domestic) from a quality standpoint is an unfair comparison. I don't care how many miles they have on them, they are generally dogged out and run like people stole them from day 1.

My point was not that domestic cars don't have their problems but to still paint domestic cars with a wide brush as junk and imports to be nearly flawless is just not true any more. As I said before back in the 70s, 80s, and even in to the early 90s I would agree domestic cars had ALOT of problems. There are some people in this world that had a 1984 Cadillac that fell apart in less than 20K and they will never, ever buy a domestic car again and swear they are all junk. Those folks certainly have the right to feel how they do but domestic cars have made a huge shift forward in quality and reliability.

I have owned and only will own domestic but that is me partially out of patriotic views, probably out of habit and taste. It's my choice and the truth is today even if you bought foreign does it really matter anymore. In the 70' and 80's Americans screwed up allowing world trade to infiltrate big domestic industry. Investors thought more about profit while domestic industry DID NOT think at all. Maybe some investors were so wrapped up in profit margins they gave no thought to what difference it would make. But the truth is I have had nothing but great experiences with my domestic cars and maybe that's because I am in the field and I know what is a good car and what's not but none the less I also appreciate domestic styling and a good American V8. But that's me.
I see it like this, it became fad to have imported whether people admit it or not back in the 80's and basically Japan served us a blinding right hook with bullet proof motors that were gas consumption friendly while we watch OPEC and our oil investing elected political parties rape us at the pumps. Meanwhile morons like Bob (the putz) Lutz had CEO positions with companies such as GM without knowing or much less caring to perform their jobs (especially with the severance packages some dumb ass board members approved for these CEO who averaged at the ages of 60 to 75 were to get fired or are removed would receive multi millions in restoration). I mean really could you give more reason to be lazy at your job?
But the truth is the way the market turned domestic vehicles had no choice but to farm out in order to compete and try to survive due to our own penalizing and heavy taxes we persecuted our own industry with while giving none to foreign but instead offer breaks and incentives to give imports the advantage and America blindly ate it all up. Now domestic or import, the truth is the only difference is where the big profits go and many do not realize that. Hence Japan and China's growth in the financial market despite the fact we are the major world consumers. That's why import sales are still measured on that country's NGP and company's like Ford, GM, and Chrysler are shown on our own NGP. If you asked me this in 2006 I would say the import drivers are still hurting this country without knowing it, but now I cannot say with the way we manipulated our economy if that is true anymore. I do know if we shut down world trade and became a self reliant country again we would no doubt crumble much of the world's economy while replenishing our own and also watch our national debt diminish. But I do not even know if as a nation we produce the capable children anymore to do as our fathers before us did, so I doubt it really matters anymore especially thinking of what would have to be sacrificed. That kind of loyalty is just obsolete now a days, maybe even righteously so.