I like Toyota trucks. The only draw back is the drivetrain long outlasts the body here in the salt belt. Reliable transportation is worth much more than my old truck would sell for. It is ready to turn 154K after 14 Chicago winters and runs like silk. Gas, oil, and mufflers. That's it.
Add another point to the S-10's scorecard! I will blame this one on Ohio's overuse of road salt though. The power steering line that winds around in front of the radiator blew (rusted through). Dealer only item... Great! I'm going to borrow my dad's tubing bender for this one. I don't even want to know how much they would charge for it! Seems like I'm having a power steering strike in my driveway these days. I guess they felt left out after the power windows quit working.
Hey Steve.....noticed that Consumer Reports lists the Buick Regal on the top of the heap for reliability.....above Camry and Accord. Surprised me as they are notorious for favoring Japanese cars..... Bruce
Doesn't suprise me. They are a very nice mid range car. well balanced between berformane and a ver y smooth ride. the only trouble my folks had with theirs was the crappy delco battery and the hvac display (common -- now fixed)
I can tell you the tolerances used on Honda engines are no different than anybody elses, And they all have thier issues, Do yourself a favor and do a internet search, Type in Toyota sludge and see all the problems that they have had with thier 4 and 6 cyl engines. The latest JD Powers survey of cars in the long term reliability tests had three domestic nameplates in the top 5 slots, This is for cars that have been on the road for four years. The list is in this order and should make this board happyo No: :beer 1) Lexus 2) Buick 3) Acura 4) Cadillac 5) Lincoln Notice Honda and Toyota are not in the top 5, However in corporate, Lexus and Toyota combined. They would be #1. GM as a whole is doing better than the industry average, While nameplates such as Nissan (now owned by Renault) have declined in quality to below the industry average, Yet thier precieved quality still remains good:jd: All nameplates have thier problems, Some cars more than other, Don't even get me started on my VW Jetta ou: ou: ou: One bad model does not make the whole line up junk. Want a good deal on a dependable sedan? Look at the Buick lesabre
Jetta AND Passat. 80k miles and the turbo takes a dump....which I guess it could be worse. I think that Passat has been in the shop more than my convertible!! And the Jettas with their window track/roller problems.
I find this pathetic. Their trucks are the reason that I am not a GM guy anymore. I'd rather gor Ford or foreign. I had a 2001 Silverado I bought with 26,000 on it. Before the warranty was up the trans was rebuilt twice, fuel pump, dash cluster replaced, climate controls went out, both power windows and the power steering had problems. Now, being young and naive, I decided to buy a 2003 Sierra thinking if I had a brand new truck, there'd be no reason why GM wouldn't make it right for me if I had a problem....... ou: I got rid of the Sierra after 12,000 because of GM. The trans would sometime shift funny, but it was nothing that affected towing or anything. The truck had dead spots in the power steering, and the worst part was the heater sounded likethere was a tea kettle under my dash...trivial I know. Took it to the dealer 5 times in 2 months, GM eventually told me that they saw no problem since the vehicle could still be driven. You put up with that whistle through the coldest months of winter in Illinois!! Hello Ford Explorer...was very happy until it got totalled, now I happily drive a supercharged Mazda (still got the Apollo, probably will die with the car :Brow: !!)
ugg.. i hate my Explorer. I've driven mid 80's chevy 2500, 92 chevy full size van, a 99 s-10 6 cyl, a 2004 colorado 5 cyl. a 99 ford van. the ford's feel numb and just a really lousy ride. try putting a 455, th400, ford 9" rear axle in the exploder and try to simply change lanes with it. It's terrifying. the exploder goes thru more oil as my tired buick 350. oh and the explorer has trouble pulling a 300 lb utility trailer even with the steped up gearing. at times i thought i'd have to put it in 4-low to get up some rolling hills. the shifting is lousy in the ford too. the trans likes to sit between 3rd and 4th gear at any speed. And trying to accelerate hard sometimes it takes off like it should. other times it says nope you aint going anywhere, and dosen't pull both from a stop and from a roll. Loved the chevy's. had no problem with any of them and would hawl a load with ease. I rember driving the s-10 from milwaukee with all my college stuff in it. the truck lowered about 2 inches in the rear and 1 inche in the front. and was rock solid at speed.
I don't plan on buying any "new" car made by anyone for a long time. Now if everyone my age had the same opinion, we wouldn't have "sport compacts". Everything by everyone out now elicits a "bleh" from me. None of it's exciting, none of it looks good and none of it has "oomf".
One reason I wouldn't buy new is because once you drive off the dealer lot, the first year the value drops a ton. Might as well pay less and lose less with a pre-owned vehicle.
Why not go with both GM and Toyota---get a mid 80's Nova. Oh yeah :TU: :TU: The Toyota Nova... Awesome car . I love my 04 tacoma but its geting traded in on a 04 Navigator. What a beauitful piece of machinery.... Michael
Wanna know what I honestly don't see? I work in Serivce at Pep Boys and..... the most rare cars to come in to be fixed are: BUICK SUBARU VOLVO I would put my money into any one of thse cars. Most often is Chevy, Honda, Toyota, Nissan.. about equal with everything else. VW Comes in a lot for repairs as well, surprisingly. Have you noticed Chrysler doesn't make a normal car anymore? look at them PT Cruisers, and all the other garbage. I think the only Chrysler today that's kinda-normal is the new Charger.
Matrix Cheaper ? I bought a new Vibe 04 and researched it first. The base price of the Vibe is cheaper than the Matrix, at least it was in 04. And as far as the quality being better on the Matrix, they are the same car in every way when you are talking about engine and drive train and interior . The body panels are different in design though so I don't understand why you think the Matrix is better. Could it be the Toyota emblem in the center of the steering wheel? Eric :3gears:
GM is junk....i agree. drive a toyota myself,regular maint. has got me 244.000 miles...and still rollin, lets see you pull that one off Harley Earl
We traded our 2002 S-Series Blazer in on a new 2005 Vibe on the GM Employee deal. It wasn't hard to do the math on this one, 15 mpg vs. 32 mpg and the same payment every month. I do believe the Vibe has more cubic feet inside than the Matrix. The Vibe is about the best little engineered and designed car in it's class. I guess that's why Toyota is one of the top vehicle manufacturers. Also a good thing I didn't know about the fact you could add the supercharger option on the base model like we bought, it would of had one of those too. Could always add it later. :3gears:
the vibe and matrix come from the same plant, have the same interior and interior space, same drive train, diffrent body cladding, and plastic work on the dash. They both have issues with their manual transmissions. I was looking hard at these and talked to a friend of a friend who owned a matrix and her trans went out at 28k miles and other owners of them say the same thing about the manual trans. I ended up buying nothing. I personally would go with a subaru.
sellouts :error: well I hope you guys are happy :shock: ford is going to be laying off a lot of workers.... great job :error: maybe they will get your job some day and we'll see how you like it :shock: but I know it's the quality all that counts :error: but.....who care if those high dollar auto workers lose their jobs :shock: your job my be next :Smarty:
all i have to say is this. recently i saw some ad for new buicks. they offer a 4 year warranty on them and they act like its something special. on many imports you get anywhere from a 7-10 year warranty. while gm goes off ranting and raving like 4 years is a marketing breakthrough everyone else has left them in the dust by 2-2.5x the coverage. i still say GM is circling the toilet and its their own fault. they have put out so much cheap crap (not ALL, but most) since the 80's and lost the great rep they had all through the 40's, 50's 60's, and into the 70's. sorry to say but my buick is the only GMr ill ever own, unless its another old GM.
I have very simular thoughts on this. I don't care if toyota is expanding their production here. when they win the ball game. they willnot care about producing here and useing people here. period.
