Loyalty to Detroit 3 slipping away

I'm one of them. The Prius is my first Japanese car. My wife, who had a Toyota when we met, and a Honda before that has been converted to domestic cars... I guess the Prius now makes me a hypocrite. Currently my other 3 vehicles are all Chrysler products. I've always bought Domestic cars for the most part. The irony here is it seems more Japanese cars are made in America than American cars. Anyway, I'm fed up with what the domestic name plates has to offer and now consider myself a convert.

 

Well, it's their own darn fault in many ways. Instead of earning loyalty, they assumed it was eternal, and linked to patriotism. They laughed at the first imports, fought fuel standards tooth and nail, and sucked off the teat of government assistance by crying poor. Evolve or die.

 

Ford is supposed to be the best of the big 3 in terms of reliability. Personally, I like Jeeps--have had good luck and service with them. But their gas mileage sucks--always worse than EPA numbers.

 

That may be true, but the "best of the big three" no longer has anything to do with the best cars.

 

Jeeps (the Wrangler, in particular) are an interesting paradox. Here is a vehicle that consistantly ranks at the very bottom in all areas (reliability, performance, gas mileage, comfort) yet is one of Chrysler's best selling models, rarely needing any rebates or incentives. Apparently, the 'trail rated' marketing which gets people to believe they need the 'go anywhere' capability of the ancient body-on-frame Jeep construction (when the vast majority of owners never go off-road) is the allure.

 

What took so long? I bought my last GM product in 1980. Was TOTALLY worn out after 6 years, got lousy mileage, and had 3 transmissions. I woke up in 1986 and bought a Celica. Mostly flawless over the TWENTY (!!!) years I drove it, and got great mileage. My 3-year old 2005 Prius has yet to show it's first imperfection. I am SOOOOOooooo far ahead by realizing 20+ years ago that Detroit was not willing to put out a proper automobile. And I'm from Michigan!

 

I liked my Saturn SC2 coupe. Bought it in 1996. Got really good service. But I did notice a change when GM took them over. I gave them first crack when I was shopping for a car to replace the coupe. But they didn't have anything comparable. I test drove an Ion and didn't like it at all. So I went back to the drawing board as it were and opened up my search. That's how I ended up buying a Prius 5 months later.

I've owned a Ford Pinto hatchback, Nissan 200sx hatchback, Saturn SC2 coupe with the lousiest trunk in the world and my current Prius. I love a car with a hatchback and that really attracted me to the Prius over it's competitors. I considered the Insight but it lacked cargo and was only a two seater.

I also had a second car; a 1960 Cadillac Sedan de Ville four door hardtop complete with wheel skirts. I enjoyed the car, but needed the garage back; couldn't park on the street anymore. I sold it for double what I paid for it.

I had no beef with my Pinto. My Nissan, the parts were costly and it started to add up. I had to buy a rebuilt "brain" when the computer went. But after that it was great. I would have kept it longer only it was "totaled" by a jerk in an SUV in too much of a hurry. The Saturn didn't need that much repair but I had to have the engine clips or mounts replaced three times. The last time they didn't even have the right size anymore. They said it was a "consumable" part. I said it was lousy design. I always knew when I needed new clips as the car would shake something awful.

I couldn't be happier with the quality of my Prius. I can't believe how solid the door closes compared to my old Saturn.

 

Head on down to your local Pontiac dealer and get yourself a good old Aussie car!! Go the G8!!
As a special gift to you, you can buy it for 30% less than the retail price in its home country Australia and freight to the USA is free!!
You can have any engine you want as long as it's a thumping great 6 litre V8 because that is what GM think you want.
That my friends, is the Pontiac G8

 

Technically the majority of Wrangler owners do go offroad at least on occasion. It's pretty safe to say it's the only exception to the rule.

My '98 Wrangler is probably one of the best put together vehicles I've owned. Reliability isn't really a concern with these, although I've seen them rank low in consumer reports. Perhaps customers bring them back for top issues or something? Folks that take them offroad due tend to break d35 axle shafts from time to time. Other than that, it's pretty well know amongst our Jeep community that the old 4.0L inline 6 is good for 250-300k miles. They never die, and the Wrangler has one of the best resale of any American car (particularly in the west). They are rust buckets in the east. Jeeps tend to rust more than any other vehicle I've seen.

The Jeep wave tradition is still in place after over 50 years. I can still wave at a fellow Jeep driver and he'll wave back.

Wranglers have body on frame as mentioned. The other Jeeps for the most part don't. Not even the old Cherokees from the eighties. Luckily they've kept body on frame on the Wrangler. It's really needed for offroad.... particularly in the rocks.... as well as the live axle suspension.

I believe you referring to the owners as a paradox is a very good way of putting it. Jeeping is more of a lifestyle, than a vehicle. We put up with ALL the shortcomings...and that's truly the paradox. I can drive my '98 on the freeway, get 10mpg, be blown ALL over the road by even Smart cars... have the soft top/doors on and have it so loud in there I can literally not have a normal conversation... heck, with the top up a gust of wind can still get in there to blow your baseball cap off.... but I love every minute of it.... and so do most Jeep owners... which is what keeps them coming back for more. This lifestyle has all the automotive journalists scratching their head. On paper, it's an absolutely terrible vehicle... but it doesn't seem to matter.

Please bare with me on my tangent. About a month ago a friend of mine was killed when he rolled his vehicle offroad. He was driving back to camp and for some reason wasn't wearing his seat belt. One of the members of our Jeep club was very close with the family and asked them if they minded if our members drove in the precession. They were thrilled with the idea as they knew that's what their son would have wanted. To make a long story short, we ended up having well over 100 Jeeps drive in the precession (that doesn't include the regular cars driven by his family and friends). Some of them were not street legal so they were on trailers being pulled. It was a sight to see. Over 100 of us, many with passengers, very few with tops and doors on wearing suits and driving from all corners of the valley in over 100 degree weather. At one point we were driving down a long hill in Scottsdale (AZ) and you could see at least 2 miles down the road and all you could see was Jeeps. It was by far the very longest funeral precession I've ever encountered. We had people pull over on the side of the road taking pictures as we went by. I saw 2 other Jeeps not in our group pull over on the opposite side of the road and pay respects as we went by. It was amazing. The Jeep, and I suppose the Corvette, are the 2 very last American icons that still have almost a cult type following.

Here's a pic. Unfortunately you couldn't see how long the precession really was because of the bend in the pic:

 

My family says similar things when they come over from England. My uncle, a current Jaguar owner can't believe how much cheaper they are here than in the UK. It's quite comical... many members of my family visit me sometimes twice per year on holiday and load up with electronics, movies, etc on their way back over the pond. I usually throw in the jab, "so... how's that socialized medicine working out for you?". The reference of course being that our products are so much cheaper because we pay half the tax they do.