Younger Auto Buyers Shun Domestic Models, Says 2007 Avoider Study

H3 is also earned the rank of most avoided car among young people. I also know Ford makes their cars intentionally boring, because they want to attract the older generation baby boomers, which most of hte money lies.

 

Younger auto buyers are apparently smarter.

I detail a lot of different cars and it's clearly obvious that the american made (this doesn't exclude foreign brands that are made in the US) cars are lacking big time in quality compared to cars made overseas. This includes fit and finish, paint quality and other aspects.

One of my accounts is a local nissan dealer and when doing new car details, you can easily tell which ones were made in america. On the domestic cars, the windows are filthy, with suction cup and finger print marks, there is fabric remnants all over the seats and carpets, panels aren't put on all the way, wires coming out from under seats and panels, etc.. On the japanese made cars, everything is immaculately clean, with no quality issues, even after a couple weeks in a container ship and on the docks.

 

Not really a surprise, I have owned a mixture of both import and domestic and time and time again I had major reliability problems with domestic products.

An interesting little statistic snapshot of my experience; Every single domestic vehical I personally owned has literally left me stranded on the side of the road more than once.... every imported vehical I have owned has never ever once failed to get me to my destination.

Sure that might be a bit bias, but here is another little stat, if I add up all the km's from each vehical during the time I owned them.... it looks like this;

Imported Vechial total KM: 236000
Domestic Vehical total KM: 125000

I won't go into too much detail, but the domestic vehicals cost me WAY more to maintain and repair than the imports ever have.

Anyway, I find domestic products typically pretty cheap and poor crafted until you get into the upper price ranges. In contrast, even the cheapest imports generally have better fit & finish and just feel more put together. Give a Pontiac the ol' door slam test VS the Fit. BIG difference! I honestly can't believe anybody even buys cars like the Caliber or the Aveo these days.

 

Domestic cars also don't have that youthiness. The only car I can think of is a mustang. Kids drive a matrix, parents drive pontiac vibes. American car lineups tend to look older. There's also the scions, and of course, the fit.

Small cars also have advantages in driving into the inner cities, or parking near colleges. More kids are going to college and hanging out in the city and away from the woods, drive in theaters, road trips, bars in the middle of nowhere, or whatever Americans used to do. I mean look at the infiniti CUV. it looks really young and sexy. So it's not always about mileage either.

 

You know why we avoid them? Because our parents learned THE HARD WAY about owning domestics while we were growing up. Too many times.

 

Might just be me but even when the first Hummer came out I had no desire to own one. MPG or otherwise, I don't like cars with "fake" (non functioning) body parts on it like the hood vents on each side of the Hummer.

This is also part of the reason I laugh at Mustangs that have the fake hood scoops and side intakes.

But again purely subjective and some people probably think they look bad ass, good for them, just not my thing.

 

I'm with the majority here - domestic just isn't reliable. When I was visiting my parents' during Thanksgiving, my dad told me to avoid domestic cars. I owned several before my Fit, and every single one of them broke down (transmission died, two blown engines, one bad alternator, one bad water pump...yes, oil changes on time, fluid levels maintained). I won't be buying any more domestic cars unless things change, which I don't see happening.

I also won't be buying any used cars ever again...all of my previous cars were used.

 

We owned a ford taurus and loved it. It was the biggest car we had at the time, and it felt luxurious and we felt "american" owning it. Then it fell apart to the point it was worht 250$, less than the metal it was made of. It cost more to repair it (600 every time).

You feel VERY betrayed when this happens to you. In that link, if you read the original article, a 55 year old guy gave his input and said his dodge truck he bought for work broke after 2 years and he felt really betrayed. Now he'll never drive american again.

I don't think that's trivial. That fake air hole on the side is retarded.

 

I've converted several of my friends and family to buying all Japanese. My uncle, who prior to his first Japanese car would constantly make fun of them, bought a Nissan Maxima and has NEVER gone back. He says it's the best car he's ever owned, and admit thats I was "right" all along - and now he just bought a new Nissan Murano.

I adore Nissan, I've had 5 of them, this is my second Honda.

 

This has also been my experience with domestic cars. My mom worked for Packard Electric here in Ohio and she was totally against "foreign" cars. So I had a Buick Park Ave., a Cavalier, several Celebrity's, a Cadillac, and one Ford Taurus. All of them were absolute junk. Nightmares to work on, always breaking down. Yes all of them were used. I've never bought a new car till my Fit two weeks ago.

After the Ford I started buying Japanese cars. Mazda 636, Toyota Tercel, Honda Accord, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Accent, all used as well, and NEVER did any of these leave me stranded. (Except when my Honda Accord's timing chain went....my fault though.....I beat that car constantly for a couple years)

So I finally decided that a brand new Honda was the way to go. Chose the Fit because it has everything you could want, and get's excellent mpg. I'm going to take care of this car in every way and I will probably have it for 15 years.

I'm very happy that my car was made by a bunch of Japanese people on the Island!

Oh yeah, this is the real kicker here....I work for GM. Yeah....the company I work for is a Tier 1 supplier to GM Lordstown which makes the Cobalt. I surprisingly haven't had too many upset people at work.....I expected worse. But they're used to me driving foreign.

 

amen, I remember having to sit with my mom at the caddy dealer. Now she drives a honda

 

I have only owned 3 cars thus far since 2002 and all are Hondas. I owned a 2002 Civic, 1997 Prelude and a 1999 Civic Hatch.

I have only 2 problems. 1. I had some paint peel from my 99 civic...so I just got the car repainted. 2. A few rattles in the 2002 civic that eventually got fixed. My 11 year old Prelude has had 0 problems...I even talked to the previous owner. I traded my 2002 civic for the lude.

Im selling my 99 civic hatch for a new '08 Fit Sport in March.

My folks have either owned a Honda or Toyota since 1983. Their last domestic vehicle was a 1983 Chev S-10.

 

I've owned 2 fords. One was decent and the other was a complete piece of shit. The dealers in my area also sucked big time so I bought an acura. The RSX was way more reliable but the paint was more sensitive to scratching.

I then bought a golf which was worse than the 2 fords combined. I also know a few people with VWs and one just spent 3k fixing some dashboard electrical issue.

I bought my fit and don't think I will ever buy anything other than a honda again.

 

All i know is i will never ever buy an American car...EVER!
I hate American cars, all of them except Cadillac, which is too exspensive.
They seem to be so behind when compared to Honda, Toyota.. There build quality is horrible aswell. There not comfortable, they use really low quality materials. When you shut the doors it sounds like a tin can.
My friends laugh at me because my friend was going to get a 06 mustang and i talked so much crap about Ford and American cars he ended up in a G35c!

 

I have had

1 91 Ford Ranger
2 98 Chevy Cavalier
3 03 Suzuki Aerio SX
4 07 Honda Fit
5 03 Audi A4
6 02 Acura RSX

I love from the Fit down..

the other cars were just cheesey.. actually the Suzuki was not very cheesey I just did not rely on it as much as I would the Fit

 

my first car was a 98 chevy s-10 with a 4 cylinder.i paid 16 grand for it. within the first year, my 2.2 liter took a crap even though it was a isuzu engine. so i put a corvette LS1 in it. the engine ran great! i couldnt get any traction unless i had four sand bags in the bed but the american engine always was better. although im comparing a 1500$ engine to a 8000$ engine my point is that euro/jap cars are built better but you spend the extra money on any car and it will be more reliable. in any case, you get what you pay for.

 

this is probably also due to marketing and advertising.

honda intentionally appealed to a younger crowd with its element and fit ads, as did toyota with the yaris.

ads for domestics are about being "built tough" or off-roading.

i like my fit :)

 

I'm 21... if I didn't already lose equity from trading in my 8th gen towards the Fit, I'd be trading the Fit in for the new Saturn Astra. I used to hate GM but in the past 3 years or so they have done a major 360.

 

Isn't a 360 a circle? I think you ment 180. Don't worry, Jason Kidd made the same mistake.

 

It's a phrase dude... calm down, this isn't geometry class.