89 Cressida on Pinks

[owequitit]

I drive a domestic every day. Honestly, it's holding up just fine. I beat the living piss out of it. It has a roots blower attached to it, so it's getting hot air force fed to it constantly. It'll run for 12-14 hours straight. Sure, I bitch about it... but aside from the previous owner putting stop-leak shit in it and destroying my water pump, it has never failed on me (and even when the water pump started to go, I still drove it to the shop...)

Imports ARE usually made to tighter tolerances. However, domestics aren't garbage. One of the reasons why "domestics don't last" is because their owners think that way. The resale value of a Cavalier is lower than that of a Civic... so why maintain it? The Civic will be worth something in 8 years. The Cavalier won't. So if it blows up in 7 years, who cares, right? You can also get used domestics far cheaper than used imports. I paid $11k for my GTP with 48k on it. It was pristine. I could've paid the same price for a CL-S with 84k on it, 4 curbed wheels, and 2 noticeable dents... Honestly, I bet that CL-S has broken already. It clearly wasn't taken care of.

Yes, but statistically speaking, there is a reason why the resale values hold out stronger.

[deevergote]

Very true. However, I still wonder how much of that is self-fulfilling. We assume imports last longer, so we maintain them better. We assume domestics are disposable, so we abuse them.

Of course, the build quality of many imports IS superior, I do agree there. Modern domestics (I usually consider anything 2004+ in this category) are coming very close to import standards, and imports seem to be getting lax in their standards. Even the German makes, such as Mercedes Benz, are developing reputations for having some reliability issues.

[owequitit]

Very true. However, I still wonder how much of that is self-fulfilling. We assume imports last longer, so we maintain them better. We assume domestics are disposable, so we abuse them.

Of course, the build quality of many imports IS superior, I do agree there. Modern domestics (I usually consider anything 2004+ in this category) are coming very close to import standards, and imports seem to be getting lax in their standards. Even the German makes, such as Mercedes Benz, are developing reputations for having some reliability issues.

Most imports are driven with the same level of care as most domestics. People don't like to maintain cars because they assume that if it is running OK, it doesn't need anything, and they don't spend money where they don't have to.

Given this equal level of care, there must be a reason why the number of trouble free domestics past 100K declines substantially as the miles wear on.

People don't say "I bought an import, so I should maintain it." Our first Honda got ZERO preventative maintenance. It still went 200K before it started having issues.