Poll: When you buy a car, do you buy American? / LJWorld.com

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Response		Percent	Votes
Where the manufacturer is based doesn’t matter to me.		41%	287
No, I won’t buy domestic cars.		30%	213
Yes, American only.		26%	186
I don’t buy cars.		1%	13
Total	699

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kuhusker (anonymous) says…

I am spending $25,000 for a new vehicle, not choosing what sports team to root for. American or not, it makes no difference. I want quality and reliability.
May 14, 2009 at 12:06 p.m.
autie (anonymous) says…

both. I have a ford and a couple of volvos. I'll buy american when they make one that doesn't fall the hell apart after 100K miles.
May 14, 2009 at 12:17 p.m.
kmat (anonymous) says…

Ford trucks good. Domestic cars bad unless you want to replace them every 100K miles. And not all foreign cars are good either. Toyota, Honda, Volvo, VW are great manufacturers.

Autie - my father in law had a Volvo wagon that made it over 300K. He finally gave it to a charity organization at that point. He had driven it for over 15 years.
May 14, 2009 at 12:27 p.m.
cthulhu_4_president (anonymous) says…

"When you buy a car, do you buy American?"
------------
Yes, I buy Toyotas............in America.
May 14, 2009 at 12:42 p.m.
average (anonymous) says…

Hard to say. My current Toyota was made in a UAW plant in California. The Dodge it replaced had a Mitsubishi engine and was assembled in Mexico.

I will say this. The Toyota was the most fuel-efficient car made in the US in its model year. If a thousand dollars or so of its purchase went to Japan, I reckon I sort of prefer that to several thousand of my dollars (in increased gas consumption) going to Saudi terror funding, Hugo Chavez, and Nigerian rebels. Just me.
May 14, 2009 at 12:47 p.m.
LA_Ex (anonymous) says…

As a generalization, Americans just don't put the same quality into the cars that we see coming from Germany and Japan. The American auto industry and the auto unions only have themselves to blame for the condition they are in. I've had 1 Audi, 2 VWs, 2 Subarus and 3 Toyotas. Other than a seatbelt recall, none of them ever went to the shop. I've had 6 or 7 American cars from all 3 manufacturers. Every single one of them has had something break, countless recalls, overall fit and finish issues, etc... My past British, French and Italian cars have all had breakdowns too, but that's almost expected. lol
May 14, 2009 at 12:53 p.m.
autie (anonymous) says…

kmat, I have a ford ranger with almost 250K on it. Still runs great and is in good shape. Our first volvo had darn near 300K on it and had to be taken out of service after it had been totaled..for a second time..kid drivers. and the motor was still fine..just didn't look very good with the driver side back door hanging out the passenger side.
May 14, 2009 at 1:06 p.m.
deskboy04 (anonymous) says…

I will only buy the Jeep Wrangler...as American as you can get!
May 14, 2009 at 1:35 p.m.
jobohe (anonymous) says…

I've owned American cars and imports. The only American manufacturer I would consider now is the one that is still independent, Ford. I don't like the degree to which the government is involving itself in business. It's easy to blame Obama for this, but the bailouts started with Bush.

Chrysler and GM are both icons with rich histories, but if the time has come for one or both of them to fail, they must fail. Businesses don't run for long on nostalgia.
May 14, 2009 at 1:40 p.m.
denak (anonymous) says…

If I had the luxery of buying a new car, where it was built probably would come into play somewhere in the equation but it wouldn't be a determining factor.

However, since I do not have the luxery of buying a new car, and probably never will, where the car is made does not really matter. It depends primarily on what I can afford at the time.

With that said, three years ago, I bought a 1991 Toyota Previa for $750 . Today it has over 240,000 miles on it and it is still going strong. I think that speaks for the quality that one gets when one buys a Toyota.
The only drawback to this vehicle is that it is probably single handedly the cause of global warming but other than that, it is a good car.

Dena
May 14, 2009 at 1:41 p.m.
Liberty_One (anonymous) says…

My S-10 with 167K miles is still running well. But I'll buy whatever's the best for the price.
May 14, 2009 at 2:49 p.m.
kmat (anonymous) says…

Glad to hear about your Ranger, autie. My Ranger is 18 years old and has 170K on it. So, it appears it will still have a lot of years left in it.

Just bought a Toyota Corolla this spring. The gas mileage is incredible! Before this I had a Nissan Altima. I used to have to fill it up every 4-5 days (work in Shawnee) and it held almost 15 gallons. This Corolla only holds 11.5 gallons and I'm only filling it up every 7-8 days. This is my first Toyota, but I think I'll be buying them in the future now.
May 14, 2009 at 3:30 p.m.
AlligatorMama (anonymous) says…

We only buy Toyota. Our Camry has 225,000 miles on it and is running like new! We've had a Corolla and now have a Rav4, they are all fantastic, well built, reliable and safe.
May 14, 2009 at 4:07 p.m.
merrill (anonymous) says…

The former big three have been manufacturing cars and parts abroad for many years.

So which ones are american made is the question?

Corporate america does not have to pay taxes on profits if goods are manufactured abroad. What a sweet deal while they screw the people out of jobs who made them what they were who BTW who just happen to be americans.

Again which ones are american made is the question?
May 14, 2009 at 4:50 p.m.
gsxr600 (anonymous) says…

The idea of "foreign" and domestic cars is highly skewed. Toyota's are really more American than GM and Ford automobiles. Look it up.
-------------------------------------------

"
autie (Anonymous) says…

both. I have a ford and a couple of volvos. I'll buy american when they make one that doesn't fall the hell apart after 100K miles.
"
------------------------------------------
Ford owns Volvo, by the way...
May 14, 2009 at 4:53 p.m.
Bossa_Nova (anonymous) says…

i wish i had a delorian
May 14, 2009 at 5:13 p.m.
jumpin_catfish (anonymous) says…

My Park Avenue has 203,000, still runs great and you can't beat Dynaride. But I have no objections to Toyota, Honda or German or Swiss cars.
May 14, 2009 at 5:57 p.m.
thebcman (anonymous) says…

if american auto makers would put out a decent product, i would buy it. until then japan gets my money.
May 14, 2009 at 6:11 p.m.
Practicality (anonymous) says…

I find it really interesting that some of the posters that complained about Wal-Mart drive foreign vehicles.

I agree with the poster about Ford Trucks. Pretty good vehicle, but I believe the Toyota Tundra and the Nissan Titan will give the F-150 a run for its money. I was outside of Chanute the other day and saw a definite good ol' boy driving a Titan. I believe US truck makers are in trouble when they start to lose even the good ol' boy market.
May 14, 2009 at 6:28 p.m.
phoenixforce (anonymous) says…

The only un-American buy is a hybrid.
May 14, 2009 at 7:19 p.m.
jonas_opines (anonymous) says…

summerguuurl008 (Anonymous) says…

"I have a Delorian. I'll sell it to you."

Is it the model with the flux capacitor?
May 14, 2009 at 7:53 p.m.
xbusguy (chris Ogle) says…

I have a 73 Chevy PU, 78 Jeep J10 PU, and an 87 Jeep Pioneer (little one) PU..... They are still drivers... AC still works on the Chevy.
But I usually drive my Hyundai Sonata...

Guess which one sits outside..... the Sonata... (must love to scape ice and snow)
May 14, 2009 at 8:36 p.m.
cheeseburger (anonymous) says…

summerguuurl008 (Anonymous) says…
I have a Delorian. I'll sell it to you.

If you can't even spell it correctly, I'm not buying it from you!
May 14, 2009 at 9:13 p.m.
labmonkey (anonymous) says…

Hmm... Buick rates at the top in quality this year (tied for the top among all brands), the Chevy Malibu sells like hotcakes because it compares well with the Camary, and Chevrolet makes a sports car that is able to compete side by side with a Lamborgini for less than a third of the cost. Yea, domestic automakers make a horrible product. As for trucks, the MO is the Nissan Titan is the best you can get for the money, but if you can afford it, the GMC Sierra is the best period.

I cannot wait for the Chevy Camaro and Chevy Volt.
May 14, 2009 at 9:24 p.m.
tangential_reasoners_anonymous (anonymous) says…

Why frame the question in terms of nationalism?

Nepotism will do.
May 15, 2009 at 6:43 a.m.
overthemoon (anonymous) says…

"The only un-American buy is a hybrid."

So gas guzzling is as american as apple pie? Reducing gas consumption is the one of the best ways to reduce dependence on saudi oil. So how is that unamerican? If the US car companies had been paying attention for the past 20 years, we'd have a whole array of hybrids or better to chose from. So much for american ingenuity. Down the drain with the nostalgia for daddy's chrysler.
May 15, 2009 at 6:53 a.m.
Starlight (anonymous) says…

You won't be running into me at the gas station Marion. My last tank averaged 72mpg;)
May 15, 2009 at 9:05 a.m.
Starlight (anonymous) says…

For your erudition Marion: I bought the car used. No huge payment, insurance or tax. It is a 2002 model. I paid less than half it's new sale price and two thousand under Kelly blue book's value of 66% of it's original value and it regularly sells for 75% to those not paying attention to numbers. Care to guess what it will be worth when gas hits four dollars again?
Your upgrades to your dinosaur would probably have gone a long ways to purchasing one of these. Might be hard to do though as only 18,000 were ever made. Jay Leno has one if that tells you anything about it's likely appreciation.
Your arguments are very hollow. Damn happy motoring, thank you!
May 15, 2009 at 9:44 a.m.
Starlight (anonymous) says…

Not to mention the write-off on taxes of 30,000 miles of driving and the 1084 gallons of gas I didn't have to buy.
May 15, 2009 at 9:56 a.m.
Starlight (anonymous) says…

Every year.
May 15, 2009 at 9:59 a.m.
jrlii (anonymous) says…

I gave up on Detroit years ago, and at that, I probably kept buying their products longer than I should. Of course my car WAS built in Indiana, but the company was not headquartered there. . .

Detroit lost it back in the '70s when they started devoting a substantial amount of their R&D budget to planned obsolescence: IE how to limit the life of their vehicles while Toyota, Honda & c. just kept making theirs better, and are now making cars which if they don't last 250,000 miles, they have been abused, while with a lot of Detroit iron people are still surprised if you get much more than 100,000 miles out of 'em.

Now, there are exceptions, my old-enough-to-vote-and-then-some Chevy pickup (there still isn't a non-Detroit brand selling trucks that size here) is pushing a quarter million, miles with no sign of quitting, even though the body is getting pretty rusty. And somewhere around someone is still driving the elderly C-10, that a friend rolled over the odometer enough times to loose track, 400K? 500K? he had no idea why it kept going, but it did. . .
May 15, 2009 at 10:36 a.m.
Starlight (anonymous) says…

Lose. Lose the extra 'o' please. Then there's an 'o' on the loose. This misspelling is going to make me lose my mind. Cows get loose, you have loose women, and you can loose an arrow. You can also lose an arrow or lose track of it.
May 15, 2009 at 10:52 a.m.
gphawk89 (anonymous) says…

Every car I've bought for the past 25 years have been American. All two of them.
May 15, 2009 at 12:04 p.m.
none2 (anonymous) says…

jrlii (Anonymous) says…

Detroit lost it back in the '70s when they started devoting a substantial amount of their R&D budget to planned obsolescence: IE how to limit the life of their vehicles while Toyota, Honda & c. just kept making theirs better, and are now making cars which if they don't last 250,000 miles, they have been abused, while with a lot of Detroit iron people are still surprised if you get much more than 100,000 miles out of 'em.
=====================
Exactly which American vehicles have planned obsolesce? Curious minds want to know.

I have two Dodge minivans. One is at 250,000. The other is at 190,000.
May 15, 2009 at 12:17 p.m.
fools_gold_is_he (anonymous) says…

Bronze/Sven/Ocean/Cool/Spiderman is proud of his stable of imports....just ask him.

Because he likes the panache of driving an import, and he thinks American corporations are all evil. There might be a republican on the payroll somewhere

Does this so-called self-described liberal really care about American Labor. Nyet!

To him it is all about self-interest, be it involving Architecture licensing, LHS practice field lawsuits, service on the Historic Resources Commission, or cars.
May 15, 2009 at 12:41 p.m.
G_E (anonymous) says…

In the 4 short years I've been driving, I've only had two cars, one domestic and one import. The domestic was a 1997 Mercury Sable, and it was a good car. A little bit too soccer mom for my tastes, but still solid. It was pushing 175,000 when it finally died - which was due not to a breakdown, but to an unfortunate collision involving some sand, a tight curve, and a concrete median.

After my baby Sable was a wreck, I got a 2003 Toyota Corolla, and I adore it. It has about 119,000 miles on it currently. I love that it only costs me about $23 to fill it up! (Although I wind up at the gas station just about as often as I did with my old car - simply because the tank is about 11 gallons as opposed to 16ish - but I spend less money each time.)

I think American automakers do make some great cars that get overlooked, but they've lost the confidence of their customers...and unfortunately, I don't know if they're going to have the luxury of taking the time to gain that confidence and trust back before they all go completely under.
May 15, 2009 at 12:50 p.m.
Starlight (anonymous) says…

The Ford Fusion is a good start. 41mpg EPA estimate. Driver attitude is a big part as a recent test drive pairing a Nascar driver and the premier hypermiler Gerdes got 80mpg from the Fusion. Of course Marion would point out that you don't get the thrill of pumping all that gas without putting the pedal to the metal.
May 15, 2009 at 1:15 p.m.
llama726 (anonymous) says…

"If you average a rate of return of 12 percent (which is doable), your money will grow to $2.4 million. Do you still want the car?”

--That is *not* doable. Sorry. A staggered investment of $23,814 over a little more than 5 years is gonna turn into $2.4 million?
May 15, 2009 at 3:45 p.m.
llama726 (anonymous) says…

Yeah, don't buy that battery replacement for the hybrid, just invest $400 a month for 5 years and you'll have $3 million. I read it on the internet.
May 15, 2009 at 5:35 p.m.
Starlight (anonymous) says…

If you must pry...
$59.87 property tax
$761.00/yr business use, 300,000 liability and comp/collision(lien requirement)
$244 payments for 36mos @ 5.9%(good credit gets you good rates even on 7 year old cars). Even with the loan interest I'm paying the total is far less than the Kelly blue book value.
Oil/filter change by self for about $30. Period.
You drive your lead sled 30,000 miles @ 20mpg(I think I'm being generous there) you burn 1500 gallons. I get 72.1mpg I burn 416 gallons. Difference 1084 gallons. At $2 a gallon the difference pays for the car in under four and a half years. $4 gas, it's making the car payments plus, then all gravy.
There is a guy refurbishing the batteries for $600 plus $50 per bad stick, of which there are usually no more than one or two. There is also the option of getting a salvaged battery for $250(another model's battery fits too). I don't have to worry about it for another four years or 75,000 miles as the manufacturer extended the battery warranty to 10 years(from being put in service)/150,000 miles. If I wanted to tinker there are garage mechanics turning these into PHEVs.
Using the 58.5cents/mile rate from latter part of 2008 over 30,000 miles you get $17,550 written off business earnings.
I'm glad you wouldn't want to buy this car. I'm happy so many people think like you or it likely would have cost me thousands more. It's my understanding it cost the manufacture over $50,000 to build and I got it for less than a fifth that cost. I like the high tech. I think I'll go check my flux capacitor. Back to the future!
May 15, 2009 at 6:46 p.m.
TacoBob (anonymous) says…

I only buy cars and trucks designed and engineered overseas. Where they are built is immaterial.
May 20, 2009 at 5:26 p.m.
lawrence45 (anonymous) says…

it's only money!! we cannot take it with us to the grave!!

burn that gas.

long live

detroit muscle
May 20, 2009 at 8:08 p.m.