Quote:
Originally Posted by Ladogaboy
That thinking was correct about 10 years ago. Recently, one could argue that the major Korean manufacturers have surpassed their Japanese counterparts in terms of power, efficiency, and overall value. Basically, people are still buying Japanese cars over others out of habit, not for any justifiable reason. It's similar to the way many Americans would only buy "domestic" vehicles, despite the foreign counterparts' obvious superiority. Funny enough, things seem to be coming full circle.
The trick is, when shopping for vehicles, one needs to assess each vehicle's overall specifications and values objectively. Otherwise, you'll get caught in the trap of popular thinking, and possibly get stuck with a car that has high public opinion but is of relatively little actual value in comparison to its counterparts.
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On my 2002 Honda Insight, in 30k miles of driving I had close to 7k in warranty repairs done at the dealer. Sold it at 62 k miles. I didn't want to wait and see what was going to go that was out of warranty.
My 92 VX was trouble free other than maintenance items normally replaced. At 62 k miles it still had 50% of the front brake pads. I bought it totalled with 27k miles and rebuilt it.
The Koreans seem to be the best buys for the money right now. They are innovative while Honda seems to be riding on their reputation. Also bought a 2006 Corolla brand new that had alignment problems. At close to 20 k miles they had to take the car to a frame shop and bend the mounts so the rear axle would align properly. The gave me a new set of tires as well. I drove the car exclusively and never did anything to damage the suspension.
The last two cars I rebuilt a 94 VX and an 08 Altima Coupe both never had the wheels aligned and both never had uneven tire wear after repairs. Kind of funny that I would have a problem with a brand new car with 6 miles on it, but no problem with two salvage rebuilt vehicles. I know other people who had similar problems with that model of Toyota and Matrix with serious tire wear and alignment.
The dealer I bought the Corolla from told me the uneven wear was because I did not rotate and balance the tires every 5k miles. I told them I drove the two previous Toyotas I bought there over 60 k miles combined without balancing the tires or rotation, because they did not need either. When they balanced the tires I later found they charged me for 4 wheel balance and did not balance two of the four wheels. When I checked the wheel balance myself at my old shop, I found the original wheel weights they had never removed on the rear tires and replacement (non Toyota) wheels weights on the front tires.
Never bought another Toyota or went back to that dealer after that fiasco.
regards
Mech