Anyone Buying a New Car From the Big Three?

[fufred]

I'll take my car over that foreign crap any day

 

[CleveBucks]

I'm still waiting for the japanese cars to use this promotion, as the Civic, Accord, and especially the scion tC (not the ugly SUV ones, the sweet coupe) are far superior in my book (the WRX as well, but the insurance kind of ends that possibility).

Ha! Don't expect any discount on the tC. Dealerships that have any in stock usually only have a weeks' worth of inventory. Even the 05's are still flying off the lot while the 06 is already out in places... the 06 has some nice upgrades over the 05.

You can't go wrong with the tC. Had mine for about 10 months now and I absolutely love it. Looks great, can't beat the standard features for the price. Toyota quality. Nuff said.

In short, get the tC. Toyota (and Scion) doesn't need to artificially raise the sticker price, only to slash it with gimmicky dicounts. You're already getting a great deal.

 

[jwinslow]

Yeah it's an absurd deal really... considering that you're looking at a civic/accord price range and getting a lot more style (I think it rivals the RSX aesthetically at least)...

 

[Sdgobucks]

I'll take my car over that foreign crap any day

I thought ford was doing the employee discount thing, so I went to look at these mustangs, because I really liked them. What I didn't like was that not only was there no employee discount but the dealers were selling them at 4000 over the sticker price. I told them where to stick their "market adjustment" and decided to wait a year or so.

My parents owned two Japanese cars (1 Toyota Camry, 1 Mazda RX-7), and two American made cars (1 saturn, 1 Corsica). The Corsica was by far the best car in terms of reliability, only replaced one of the door lock motors ~$80 in the 88,000 miles we had it. The Corsica wasn't a really "nice" car in terms of luxury, but it just never broke down. The Toyota had a couple problems, sunroof leaked ~$300, exhaust system went out ~$500, and bad motor mounts ~$80. The saturn had a sunroof problem ~$400, and a minor transmission problem (maybe it was a bent case or something) ~$150. The Mazda RX-7 ..... well lets just say hell would freeze to a solid ball of ice before I buy anything Mazda or rotary powered again. The Mazda broke down monthly, and the parts for it cost about 3x that of parts for domestic vehicles. Not to mention that Mazda didn't even want to work on their own car. To anyone looking at buying Mazda's new piece of shit RX-whatever, consider an alternative, anything else. In my experience foreign cars are not worth the extra five or six thousand dollars that they cost.

 

[jwinslow]

mazda's never been known for being very reliable... and I wonder did you drive many of these past 100K? there will be a serious separation with some of the japanese cars, tho the gap has closed some lately. Chrysler vehicles are often fine for teh first 50-75,000 (with a few minor things), but after that they just fall apart sitting there. Nobody thinks about buying a dodge with 175K miles on it, whereas a honda/toyota with that mileage would be worth considering.

it all comes down to personal experience, and it's pretty hard to get an unbiased and fair opinion without using someone else's research (since we don't drive enough cars to have a useful amount of test data).

 

[Sdgobucks]

mazda's never been known for being very reliable... and I wonder did you drive many of these past 100K? there will be a serious separation with some of the japanese cars, tho the gap has closed some lately. Chrysler vehicles are often fine for teh first 50-75,000 (with a few minor things), but after that they just fall apart sitting there. Nobody thinks about buying a dodge with 175K miles on it, whereas a honda/toyota with that mileage would be worth considering.

it all comes down to personal experience, and it's pretty hard to get an unbiased and fair opinion without using someone else's research (since we don't drive enough cars to have a useful amount of test data).

In order to be fair I only counted problems within the first 90,000 miles, because thats when we traded in the Corsica. We had a dodge caravan we drove for 210,000, and the Toyota at 230,000, the dodge may have broken down two more times or so, but I'm sure the money we saved on the parts and labor for it over the Toyota more than made up for it. I don't have anything bad to say about the Toyota, I just don't think we saved any money by buying it over a domestic.

 

[Misanthrope]

Sorry, but I gave up on piece of shit GM cars years ago. I've been driving Acuras for years and have NEVER had ANYTHING go wrong or need repaired. Change the oil, replace the tires (eventually) and put gas in it - the end.

I love the GM commericals, with the employees acting like they're doing us a favor - "you pay, what we pay, not a cent more". Gee, thanks. That's awfully nice since the public has been paying for YOUR discount for years in the price of the cars.

Who do they think pays for their discount? The "company"? The employee discount is paid through the price charged to the rest of us. Fuck 'em...

 

[NorthShoreBuck]

Oil change today, $19.99. I just did not feel like crawling under the truck in 90+ degree weather or dumping the oil.
Half a tank of premium gas $22.00. Normally I use regular, this is a hope at cleaning up the fuel injection system just a tad. I might spring $4.00 for some Gumout.
Car wash $3.

I have one blown speaker that needs replaced.

My 1997 F-150 with 86,000 miles is ready for the 300 mile trip to the beach tomorrow.

Cars are funny things, their owners are funnier. The quality of US versus foreign is pretty close now. As a matter of fact how many "foriegn" cars are actually built in the US and Canada. The price you pay is the price you can negotiate. Drive what you like, in the end it really about how you perceive the car.

The JD Power results are owner reported. I suspect that someone that can afford and buy a more expensive car will have higher expectations but also would be less likely to admit the car they spent so much money on has more problems.

My wife drives a 1996 explorer. It is loaded, leather, sunroof, CD changer, auto lights, and auto air. It starts every time and it runs constantly. She rides in her mom's Mercedes or dad's Lexus and she hates the explorer.

Me I drive the above mentioned truck. I ride in the Lexus and Mercedes and I feel like I am sitting on the ground, in a cramped space that is underpowered. Go figure.

If you need a new car buy one. It seems like a good time. I will continue to buy my one or two year old used cars. Every vehicle I have bought was bought used has been driven over 100K miles. Yes some had to have more work than others. I think in one other thread I mentioned I did good financially on one car. The rest are just depreciating property.

 

[jwinslow]

In order to be fair I only counted problems within the first 90,000 miles, because thats when we traded in the Corsica. We had a dodge caravan we drove for 210,000, and the Toyota at 230,000, the dodge may have broken down two more times or so, but I'm sure the money we saved on the parts and labor for it over the Toyota more than made up for it. I don't have anything bad to say about the Toyota, I just don't think we saved any money by buying it over a domestic.

What year was your caravan? We owned the original caravan (that came out in like 83 or whatever, I can't remember I was just a baby)... and that thing went like 150K with hardly a hiccup. But then our 1996 caravan had so many problems, and our 93 intrepid had even more (I think it went thru 3 transmissions before 100K, and one more since then).

 

[Dryden]

I've been pining for an Audi TT for about 4 years, but I simply cannot justify paying $40,000+ for an automobile. I'm really impressed by the looks of the Saturn Sky though, and cannot wait until these hit the showrooms at the beginning of 2006. Projected at $25,000/manual, $28,000/automatic. I'm rarely impressed by American made automobiles, particularly GM, but the Sky might change my opinion depending on how it drives (and bonus points for scarlet and gray interior from the factory)!

http://www.auto123.com/en/info/news/previews,view,Saturn.spy?artid=34106
http://www.saturn.com/saturn/showroom/future_vehicles/sky.jsp?nav=710&flashOK=yes

 

[Misanthrope]

Wow! That's certainly more than I've come to expect from GM. Of course, time will tell if it rides as good as it looks, or if it's just another torquemonster.

 

[Sdgobucks]

Wow! That's certainly more than I've come to expect from GM. Of course, time will tell if it rides as good as it looks, or if it's just another torquemonster.

From what I have heard its 4 banging and FWD, so if you dont like tourque monsters you have nothing to worry about.

What year was your caravan? We owned the original caravan (that came out in like 83 or whatever, I can't remember I was just a baby)... and that thing went like 150K with hardly a hiccup. But then our 1996 caravan had so many problems, and our 93 intrepid had even more (I think it went thru 3 transmissions before 100K, and one more since then).

Our van was a 1993, like i said, it some some problems every now and then, but not that much more than the Toyota. It was cheaper to fix, and if you work on the cars your self it was much easier to fix than the Toyota.

 

[jwinslow]

I went ahead and bought this, because there wasn't anything within a couple thousand dollars that had similar features, and nothing within 5 thousand that rivaled the look.

BTW, mine has been lowered, has tinted windows (my front window isn't this tinted), and a number of other accessories someone installed... and then sold it back to the dealer. Thankfully the dealer didn't inventory half of the features, so I saved about 3K plus they paid the taxes on it.

Scion tC

For starters, I cannot think of a car under $23K that compares, but thats JMHO.

msrp - 16715 (bluebook is 18,500, so even after absurd taxes you could still sell it used and get your money back, thanks to super high demand)

power moonroof, power windows (including side mirrors), mp3 cd player, sport bucket seats, memory seat location, split folding seats, 17" wheels, halogen lights, side mirror turn indicators, 3 across headrests, chrome exhaust, etc.