Originally posted by: JungleMan1
So according to your theory, all the domestic buyers who bought Ford and GM vehicles are deliberately lying about problems on their vehicles when surveyed about, not what their opinion of the vehicle is, but how many times they've taken it in and for what...this of course being because they are loyal to the manufacturer.
I gave you my theory about JD Power - it's an opinion at best, backed up by no hard evidence at all. I feel that like any other survey, it can be biased. I really hold no faith in it whatsoever, as I witness differently on a daily basis. Agree with me or not, I don't care.
I can tell you that when I call the local GM dealer for parts for one of the many GM cars in my shop, they have 7 guys working the parts counter. The Honda dealership has 2. I can tell you that the last time I as at that GM dealership, they had twenty bays going in the service dept - cars with engines and transmissions out, major repairs. When I was at the local Honda dealership, they had 19 out of 20 bays going with routine services - oil changes and brakes. Bay 20 was doing a transmission - the lady had run over a parking lot block. Now that the rebates are fizzling, they domestics can thank their lucky stars their vehicles are unreliable, that they have the backend (service) to fall back on, or a lot of dealerships would be going under. I can tell you that we get new Chevy trucks on our lot with a Chevy emblem on one side, and a GMC emblem on the other. I can tell you that at least twice in the past 10 years, we've assisted GM and Chrysler in repainting hudreds of vehicles. GM had a problem with their grey paint in the early 90s, and about 5 years ago we repainted a least a 100 red Dodge trucks - we had to take the entire bodies down to the bare metal. I can tell you that GM has so many recalls, that they send a tech TO OUR SHOP to do them on site. We have too many cars to move to them, it's just easier.
Honda has it's recalls, yes. Most notably the recent recall of certain Accords for transmission problems - they actually made the transmission case out of spec, and would need replacement. However, they take care of their customers and extended the warranties on them. On the flip side of that is a company such as GM, which calls engine knocks in their truck V8's and Caddy Northstar's "normal", and wont do a damned thing about it. They also say the same thing about clunking rear differentials in their trucks.
I agree that a large part of the reason for lagging domestic sales (cars anyway) are due to a preconceived notion that they're unreliable. GM even released a commercial a few years ago (the idiots) actually ADMITTING their previous cars were unreliable, and come buy a new one, they're so much better. Didn't help.
On my end, I haven't really seen an improvement in quality. Perhaps they don't break as much as they used too, but the same goes for everything else - the Japanese improve their design and manufacturing processes regularly as well. IMO, GM, Mopars and Fords still break much more often than their asian counterparts.
I've got nothing against American built cars - American autoworkers build Hondas and Toyotas too. My gripe is with the corporate end. They've screwed the pooch so bad that now 18% of every vehicle goes to union benefits. They have no choice but to make them cheaply.