5 ms·
I buy American cars for several reasons: 1. Most American cars are NOT world cars, I'm a big guy, 6'3 300 lbs, I dont fit well in a world car, so I'm always lo
by Aloha 15y ago
I buy American cars for several reasons:
1. Most American cars are NOT world cars, I'm a big guy, 6'3 300 lbs, I dont fit well in a world car, so I'm always looking at vehicles designed for the North American market, plus I do a whole lot of long distance driving.
2. Less intensive maintenance schedule, my town car will never need its timing belt changed, nor a valve adjustment, the primary services done, are simply to change fluids.
3. While is sounds jingoistic, its patriotic, I prefer to buy something made here.
- e40 15y agoThe Consumer Reports car issue just came out. There are a small number of American-made cars on the list of top cars. I would never buy a car not on that list, because reliability is an important factor. When there is a car on the CR recommended list that I like, I will definitely favor it over other cars not made here, but I won't be making sacrifices in quality just to buy American. I am hopeful that Ford, at least, is on the path to making a car I would buy.
- checker 15y agoI've noticed that you have more flexibility in choosing your mechanic with an American car because the mechanic will be more familiar with them. My parents' mechanic did great work on their American SUV but kept botching their Volvo.
- simonsarris 15y agoBoth the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord are more made-in-america than the Lincoln Town Car (but not by much). What's worse, the Lincoln Town Car got the worst score possible for expected ownership costs (1 out of 5) and had a 55/100 overall score. (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/lincoln/town-car.htm http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/lincoln/town-car.htm) Compare to a Camry's score of 93 or the Accord's score of 90, with 5 and 4 points for ownership costs respectively. Lots of foreign cars are made in America, several of them are far more American-made than American cars are. Check your own car here: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/page?id=13795239 http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/page?id=13795239 Or see the Consumer Reports article on it here: http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/06/how-much-of-your-car-is-made-in-america.html http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/06/how-much-of-you...
- grecy 15y ago> 2. Less intensive maintenance schedule, my town car will never need its timing belt changed, nor a valve adjustment. Which is also the reason it gets terrible mileage and is horrible for the environment. It's an unsophisticated hunk of junk, basically.
- protomyth 15y agoThe funny part is I have a friend slightly bigger than you and he fits great in the SmartCar and the Toyota Yaris. When he got in the SmartCar during an auto show a large crowd gathered and was pretty amazed.
- bane 15y agoIt sounds like all you really mean is #3. #2 is bizarre. I'm not even aware of a modern car that requires this as regular maintenance. More importantly, until fairly recently, American cars have a long history of requiring aggressive maintenance. They aren't as bad as say, German electrical systems, but they've been pretty darn bad. #1 is also strange as many foreign cars make specific American versions of their cars for the larger Americans. Or their world cars are sized for the large U.S. market.