Curmudgeon said:Victor Smith said:I never did. One of the few mistakes Henry made was when he fired Louis Chevrolet he didn't shoot him.
, its hard to go to GM.Can you say “Vega”?
How about “Corvair”?
Or Edsel, Festiva, Pinto, Mustang II…a long list of junk.
Of course there’s the K-car, Omni, Colt…
And we can’t forget the Chevette, Omega, Pheonix…
Every brand has it’s dogs.
Nothing wrong with a Pinto.
Unless you wanted good mileage.
They were not prone to blowing up.
Unless you got nailed in the rear while stopped with the doors open by a 3/4 ton GMC with a camper shell doing 55.
Had a 72 wagon, 2.0 with auto for many years.
Mavericks worked just fine, as did Comets.
Edsels worked good (and still do), they were wrong market.
My daugther’s first car was a Mustang II.
Took her through high school and 4 years of college.
Used, $500.
Not exactly sure you have ever owned any of those.
Best Ford I ever had was a 72 Bus I still own.
I had a Chevrolet Caprice that I put over 1,000,000 miles on. It spent two years as a taxi after I sold it. The 84-89 Caprices were some of the best cars ever built.
Ralph
Curmudgeon said:
Nothing wrong with a Pinto. Unless you wanted good mileage. They were not prone to blowing up. Unless you got nailed in the rear while stopped with the doors open by a 3/4 ton GMC with a camper shell doing 55. Had a 72 wagon, 2.0 with auto for many years.Mavericks worked just fine, as did Comets.
Edsels worked good (and still do), they were wrong market.My daugther’s first car was a Mustang II.
Took her through high school and 4 years of college.
Used, $500.Not exactly sure you have ever owned any of those.
Point is all companies make good cars and all companies make garbage. Seems silly to me to limit ones choices based on cars they don’t even make anymore. That’s my point. One should not base their decision to buy/not buy a 2009 Malibu on the merits of a '74 Vega, nor should I forgo that '09 Mustang GT based on my old '74 Capri.
For the record, I owned a 1974 Mercury Capri (Ford product, they sold it). Worst piece o’crap I ever owned. Bad clutch at 40K, blown tranny at 80K. Ball joint broke and lost control of the steering. Got me through college but nearly killed me! I’ve owned Fords, GM’s, Chryslers, Nissans, Jaguars, Opels, Fiats, and many more. I keep an open mind when it comes to most things, including Fords. 
Mark Verbrugge said:I'd agree with that.
Sure, you win, all Fords are great and GM sucks. :)
TonyWalsham said:What? I thought Holden was big in your neck of the woods. I believe the last GTO was a Holden at heart. Aussies made some pretty cool cars back in the day.Mark Verbrugge said:I'd agree with that.
Sure, you win, all Fords are great and GM sucks. :)
I bought a 1979 Ford 3/4 ton 2x2 new. Still have it with 34,000 miles on it. It is now barn stored. Not one prollem while she was on the active list.
Bought a 1985 Bronco II for my wife. Nothin but a piece of crap! 2 trannies and 1 motor while still under warranty.
Bought a 1981 Olds Cutlass. 'Nudder piece of crap. This one went back under the lemon law.
Even our '99 Benz has had several warranty calls. Not drastic like the Ford and Olds.
Point is, it doesn’t matter who built it.
You pays your money and takes your choice.
I was droolin over my 2009 Camaro (I wish) the other day.
The whole thing is not made in the US.
It’s made up where HJ lives. In Canada!
I usually buy new but I keep them for a long time. My latest is a 2001 Dodge Ram pickup with an 8 foot bed. A matching cover allows me to haul full 4x8 foot panels completely enclosed and protected from the “occasional” rains we get here in Oregon. My first ever Dodge and the best pickup I’ve ever owned.
I must comment on the 1967 Cougar. I got one of the very first to be delivered in 1966. The XR-7 wasn’t yet available so it had the 289 engine. Very reliable and comfortable to drive. It was still running great when I parted with it after 11 years.
Longest lived: 1977 GMC pickup purchased new. 22 years.
Biggest lemon I ever had was a 1956 Cadillac convertible purchased used. I had more things go wrong with that car than with every other vehicle combined that I’ve owned. It would have been just as cheap to buy a new Olds at the time when repairs are factored in.
Mark Verbrugge said:
Sure, you win, all Fords are great and GM sucks. Pinto was a good car...of course that did not stop the bumper falling off the front of my dads brand new pinto while he was driving down the freeway! Took out both right tires as I recall.Point is all companies make good cars and all companies make garbage. Seems silly to me to limit ones choices based on cars they don’t even make anymore. That’s my point. One should not base their decision to buy/not buy a 2009 Malibu on the merits of a '74 Vega, nor should I forgo that '09 Mustang GT based on my old '74 Capri.
For the record, I owned a 1974 Mercury Capri (Ford product, they sold it). Worst piece o’crap I ever owned. Bad clutch at 40K, blown tranny at 80K. Ball joint broke and lost control of the steering. Got me through college but nearly killed me! I’ve owned Fords, GM’s, Chryslers, Nissans, Jaguars, Opels, Fiats, and many more. I keep an open mind when it comes to most things, including Fords.
1974 Capri.
Used to work on those when new at the dealership.
English Fords?
They just had RHD and two gas fills on the other side of the pond.
“The Sexy European” they used to say in the ads.
There were a couple of things that we had problems with, none of which you mentioned.
That was a learning curve for the US market, bringing that car in and figuring out all the oddities.
Bumper fell off?
Like, maybe somebody tried to remove it the night before as part of “Midnight Auto Sales” and got interrupted?
Best vehicle I have owned ever 2003 Ram1500 4x4 HEMI bought new has 90 k on it now and going strong, I say to each their own, the worst and still have is a 1991 F150 4x4 Truck, Paint peeled off ford would not re-paint, 7 transmissions 243k and we still use it for work, can’t get rid of it too much invested in transmissions. I will never purchase another Ford, next was 2002 PT cruiser for the Wife, great car and no problems mileage sucks for a small car but acceptable. The most fuel hungry car I have is my 66 Dodge Dart gets 1 mile per gallon, but I only drive it 1 mile at a time and 1/4 of that is WFO.
John Neal said:We used a 1999 Ford Super Duty 450 at work. It needed a transmission every 25,000 miles. 7.3L diesel was decent though. In 2005 the boss bought a 550 Super Duty as Ford swore the transmission problem was fixed. The new diesel is garbage.........we are now on the 5th motor and the truck hasn't broke 150,000 miles yet. The good news is it has needed only 1 transmission. Last year the boss bought a 2008 Kodiak to replace the Super Duty, since the F550 won't run more than a week without breaking down. It still won't run more than a week or so even though it is down to part time duty. He had to put new heads on it a couple weeks ago, had 13,000 miles on the new engine. The Kodiak is fine so far.
Best vehicle I have owned ever 2003 Ram1500 4x4 HEMI bought new has 90 k on it now and going strong, I say to each their own, the worst and still have is a 1991 F150 4x4 Truck, Paint peeled off ford would not re-paint, 7 transmissions 243k and we still use it for work, can't get rid of it too much invested in transmissions. I will never purchase another Ford, next was 2002 PT cruiser for the Wife, great car and no problems mileage sucks for a small car but acceptable. The most fuel hungry car I have is my 66 Dodge Dart gets 1 mile per gallon, but I only drive it 1 mile at a time and 1/4 of that is WFO.
As for the Holden GTO…I’d love to have one. Great sleeper car. Looks like a Honda but hauls a**.
Ralph
Mark Verbrugge said:Hey Mark.TonyWalsham said:What? I thought Holden was big in your neck of the woods. I believe the last GTO was a Holden at heart. Aussies made some pretty cool cars back in the day.Mark Verbrugge said:I'd agree with that.
Sure, you win, all Fords are great and GM sucks. :)
I have owned two Holdens over the years.
Never ever buy a new Holden again.
For that matter, neither would I ever buy a new Ford.
Unless of course they were fully battery powered.
Not even hybrids.
No more internal combustion engines for me.
I was wandering around the Dodge website. They plan to release several electrics in 2010.
Ralph
My first brand new car was a 1986 Isuzu Trooper, purchased in early 1987. Bought my second Trooper, also new, in 1991. Third and current Trooper was purchased in 2001 and it’s the best one yet. Sadly, Isuzu is kaput in the USA so I’ll have to try something else when this one finally dies.
My wife’s current vehicle is a Scion xA we bought in 2006. Her previous car was a 1986 Toyota Tercel wagon that lasted 20 years.
We keep our cars until they’re too worn out to make it worthwhile to keep repairing them.
And I agree that Detroit, and all other automakers foreign and domestic, make cars that people want. I don’t buy into this idiotic notion that the only reason people aren’t driving tiny treehugger socialist sardine cans is because Detroit won’t make them.