Subaru Boxer engine never die!

Joe, as they say “plural of anecdotes isn’t data”. Yes, someone may be lucky and have a really great domestic car just as somebody may be unlucky and get a bad Toyota.

This doesn’t change the fact that statistically Hondas and Toyotas are more reliable. Statistically i.e. if you take 100 domestic cars and 100 Toyotas, more domestic cars will have problems earlier. It doesn’t mean that every Ford is worse than every Toyota Camry; only that your RISK of getting a bad Ford is higher than getting a bad Toyota.

One doesn’t even need CR to see it. Just compare prices for new domestic models with 3 year old domestic models. Then do the same exercise for, for example, a Honda Civic. See which car loses more of its value. The difference is so striking, that a lot of people, even those who religiously believe in buying used changed their mind and bought new when they saw the numbers for some Honda and Toyota models.

It’s amazing how many people don’t understand that anecdotal information is not evidence.

5 years and 3 months old… 80,000 miles… no problems yet. Just regular maintenance for the most part. Still have time left on the warranty, too.

I would consider buying another Hyundai.

I also would look at a Honda or Toyota, though.

I drive a 10 year old Ford with 211K on it – no major problems, except for the timing belt that went at 165K miles, only 100K longer than the recommended replacement.

CR is SUBJECTIVE! My mother had an Accord for years that she loved. She “never had a problem with it.” Then I reminded her about the brake problems she had, front end problems, that piece of trim that started hanging off the rear door the fourth year she owned it and never fixed it, and on and on. It was in pretty good shape in any case when she sold it to a friend for her son to drive. In a year it was in the junk yard. The son didn’t take care of the car and it was just as susceptible to falling apart as any other car. My son has a 99 Grand Am with 90K+ miles, he takes great care of it, and it takes care of him.

And Ford and GM both had plans to move forward with more cars, better fuel mileage, etc., before the credit crisis caused by banks and bad lending practices kicked in. Even Toyota is down 40% in sales. Do you know ANY business that can withstand a 40% drop in sales for any length of time? Don’t forget, GM alone provides health insurance to something like 500,000 (literally) retired people. All of them could be on Medicare, too, and we’d all be paying for it with our taxes.

And this doesn’t even touch on the fact that the Japanese (and now the Chinese) have manipulated their currencies for a generation to make their vehicles artificially cheap here in the US. We are talking literally billions of dollars every year in currency exchange that go to Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc., to fund their research and send profits to their companies. If their currency were forced to be allowed to float and trade equally against the dollar, the Japanese would have stopped importing cars long ago. The head of Honda just came out a month ago and said they could not produce cars in Japan and export them to the US at 85 yen to the dollar. Look it up – this is a fact. But still, they import tons of cars here and ship the cash home to Japan.

Lastly, don’t forget those dollars to GM and Chrysler are loans. There is a plan to pay that money back. And, the total discussed has been around $50 billion – where’s you indignation at the trillions to banks and insurance companies? Who is going to benefit from that? The people getting the bonuses at AIG? Autoworkers make about $50K a year. The $70-75 a hour numbers thrown around in the media include the cost of all the health care to retirees. Since there are 5 retirees for every one worker at Gm, it is distorted. Guess how many at Toyota? Something like 2000 TOTAL. The paycheck those workers get is based on $25 an hour.

But Toyota is really helping us out! Keeping buying them, the auto companies will go out of business, and soon, we’ll be the next Great Britain. Less than 100 years ago they were the strongest nation in the world, the center of finance, etc. Enjoy living in and contributing to the decline of an empire… Your children will thank you, I’m sure.

That behavior is not unique to the Malibu. That’s the way most modern cars are designed. The bumpers will crush into body at very low speeds.

In this day and age, I ultimately want what is the best value for my money and so any new car purchases will be skewed towards this report’s reccomendations.

I must say the domestic companies are making it hard to like them the more they seem to fall behind the other manufacturers.