Speaking of Daewoo, I saw a Daewoo Leganza on the road today... Makes me wonder, did they not sell many, or were they such total crap (Like the Hyundai Excel) that not many are left on the road?

-Jay

I own 2002 Monte Carlo, and a 2002 Honda Civic Si. Both are very reliable. the Monte has 206,000 miles on it. the Civic, only 100,000 or so. I dont drive the Monte

Thinking about it, I don't know that I've ever seen a Daewoo in the puck and pull.

Because momentum takes generations to overcome!

Yah, 30 years ago the imports may have had the edge. I don't think they've had that edge for several decades at least, and yet people hang on to their ideas even without any facts or evidence to back them up. Another good example would be: warming up the family truckster. Sure, when Grandpa did it, it was a good idea... but it's been a bad idea for at least 25 years now, yet millions of idiots still do it.

BTW I've had imports and domestics. I think there are certain "eras" from certain mfgs that are better, but overall, I don't think one is better than the other. I do like older VWs but the new ones- I'll pass. Japanese cars from the '70s and '80s were just as bad for rust as any crap GM ever put out. I have several Fords with WAY more miles on them than the Toyota I had accumulated before it was junk.

It's hard to tell where the money is going these days. There are a bunch of "imports" that are built in the United States that use a higher % of domestic parts than a lot of domestic automakers use. And you have to consider that even when Toyota makes a car in Japan where is the money going back to?......the investors. Of which I would guess that the majority of investors in Toyota are American.

I think the perception came from the 80's and 90's when the cars were better.

I've seen the chevy c-10 and cavalier with 300+k miles on them, but in my experience those tend to be the exception and not the norm. Whereas the norm for imports is 200K miles without a major overhaul.

How much quality variation is there from model to model within the same brand?

I work at a shop fixing cars and I'd rather fix (and own) jap cars all day long than deal with domestics. Imports are designed better on average. half the domestics are designed by monkeys. chrysler/dodge are usually designed by monkeys on drugs.

there's also the issue of my size. I'm 6-4 230 lbs and I've never had trouble fitting in the smallest of imports after adjusting seats. some of them have small blind spots but overall not bad. I don't fit for sh*t in domestic small cars and some mid-size no matter how much adjustment there is. then there's the blind spots that could hide a semi... I almost got in an accident at work the other day test driving a car in the parking lot because there was a car behind the enormous A-pillar in a newish saturn.

euro imports.... very nice cars. it, off an assembly line, will run longer than the hand-built chevy (caddy CTS-V). the seats are nicer, and there will be fewer electrical bugs to be fixed. domestics have brought up quality enormously in the last 5-10 years but they still just aren't the same. Euro cars (unless designed to be worked on by stupid american mechanics like about 1/2 of VW line) you need a degree to figure out WTF is going on and a week and $10k in tools to fix anything....should you ever have to.

Another reason I drive a car nearly double my age.

I kinda like working on my domestic, and it's a Chrysler! Aside from that front sway bar's bushings which frustrated me to hell because it's a 1.325" solid piece of spring steel that needs pried into place and there are some metric and some SAE bolts/nuts, I've had no trouble working on my truck. Plastic snap-in tabs don't break like in my other cars and everything is pretty straight-forward.

UNLIKE the steering rack in the Cressida. I thought I was going to set that car on fire it pissed me off so bad. I think I just didn't have a handle on what I was doing or something. I hated working on that car. The Tracker wasn't so bad because the engine was tiny in that huge engine bay. I'm 100% positive a small block V8 could have fit in there with room to spare.

Well I can pick and choose examples of things that are easy to repair on imports and domestics and things that are a bear.

However, if you want to pay a premium in purchase price, parts, and service yet only have an average quality vehicle, get yourself a VW or a Cadillac.

I too am 6'4" and there is no way I fit in several cars, including RX-7, Miata, and retro Thunderbird. I have ridden in and driven several "high end" cars that had less comfortable seating than my "lowly" Tempo.

Nope. You don't always get what you pay for.