American Cars vs Foreign Cars
My wife and I are still part-timers until (we hope) August. Our home for the last 11 years has been Toledo, Ohio. This is a very strong union town because we are so closely connected to Detroit, which is just 60 miles up the road. There is a bit of controversy raging here in Toledo as to whether or not one should buy an American car. A reporter for the local newspaper, The Toledo Blade, went as far as to go to a meeting of teachers and count the foreign cars in the parking lot, which was more than half of the total cars. His point was that if other unions like the teachers want people to support them, then they should buy American cars to support the auto workers. My personal opinion is that I would love to support Ford, GM and Chrysler, but I am not a rich man. When I make a major purchase like an automobile, I have to make sure that I am getting a car that will a) last a long, long time ; b) get superior gas mileage; c) have low maintenance and repair costs and d) will hopefully have some residual value left when it is time to get rid of it. When I do my research on the above criteria, I wind up looking at a Toyota, Honda, Nissan, or Hyundai. I also have the bad memories of poor quality from the American cars I purchased in the 60's, 70's and 80's. For example, my brand new Pontiac Firebird that had the paint flake off in huge chips and the dealer and GM refused to do anything about it. I am sure that many people have had similar quality nightmares. Now I own 2 Toyota Camrys. Both have over 240,000 miles and look as if they are good for another 100,000 miles. I wonder if anyone else has any thoughts on the subject.
|