Brand loyalty or hate?

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Originally Posted by PimTac
Any brand loyalty goes out the window if the owner has a bad experience with that product.


That happened to me with Chryslers. I bought an Intrepid new in '98. Took care of it meticulously. Changed the oil and filter every 3K miles and used only full synthetic. The engine starting burning a qt every 500 miles when the car had reached just 50K miles. I'll never buy another Chrysler product...
 
Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
What I find happens is you find a product you like and it is easy to just keep using that one without realizing they have actually changed many things about it. You rely on the brand, which lures you into thinking things will remain that way. I am reminded of a marine pump I purchased that was identical to the replacement pump, from the outside. However, I soon discovered that the construction of the pump had been cheapened in many ways that were not detectable from the outside. SS through bolts holding things together had been replaced with self-tapping screws into plastic, for example. We see the same thing here on BITOG all the time. Oil filters seem to change construction on a regular basis.


PureOne filters comes to mind...
 
Originally Posted by grampi
I bought an Intrepid new in '98. Took care of it meticulously......The engine starting burning a qt every 500 miles when the car had reached just 50K miles. I'll never buy another Chrysler product...
I had a bland Dodge Caliber that worked well. So many people had problems with other Chrysler products, Caliber CVT transmission,& other sub-systems, I got rid of the Caliber at 53,000 miles, BEFORE I had problems. Like I said in an earlier post:
1) Ford Festiva(KIA car).....got me through very slow economic times.... still have it. 2) Our 11 year old Hyundai (who bought KIA) Accent has 145,000 miles & should soar past 200,000 miles, presently giving its highest MPG (48+) ever. 3) Our two Elantras have a total mileage of 125,000 miles & nothing has ever gone wrong with either one, while sipping gas, too. 4) The last good new car deal in America was the sale of TWO 2009 Hyundai Accents for $14,000.
 
Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Why do we exhibit tribal loyalty to particular brands, or enmity to other brands based purely on what company a product comes from? We read statements here all the time like, "that filter brand is garbage," or "I would only drive a Chevy." It makes no sense when you look at the numerous products companies make and compare them. Sometimes one product from a brand is great, but another product from that brand is beaten by another company. Or maybe a particular oil is perfect for your ride, but it would be useless in my ride. Or, a more common scenario is that several products are nearly identical in performance, but there will always be people saying , "I would never touch that stuff with a ten-foot poll." It seems like many threads become shouting matches between different brand tribes with no reasoning. I look at shopping for parts like tools. My toolbox is a mixture of expensive tools from various brands for jobs that require expensive tools or ones that will last a long time, then some of my tools are cheap ones that just get the job done at a less expensive level. Sometimes I need a tool for one particular job--it makes no sense to spend a fortune on something I use once every few years. Other tools are oddballs I picked up because they are particularly good at what they do. I can't imagine just picking one tool brand and then never buying tools elsewhere. Shouldn't oil, filters, cars, trucks, and all the other vehicle stuff be chosen or the merits of the product? Does the brand really tell us anything?


Because of past experiences correlated with statistical data. At least, that's me.

EX: Chrysler is trash.

I owned a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited/HEMI/QD2 and it broke often and the bushings rotted and so forth. Junk. I Googled, and got Consumer Reports, TrueDelta, JD Power, etc. data, and they confirmed that Chrysler has a bad reputation for quality. Ergo "Chrysler is trash" is my opinion, based on personal and empirical data.

ETA: I literally read only the first post that I quoted. Looking up, I can see that maybe I'm not alone...
 
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Because of past experiences correlated with statistical data.

Sure, but doesn't the "past experiences" part often mislead us? Companies change, they are bought and sold, management shifts, products are changed, etc. Case in point is look what happens when discussing oil filters. I still find the minute I mention FRAM on other forums the thread becomes filled with people proclaiming they will never touch those trash filters that have ruined countless engines, blah, blah. It is no use explaining you are talking about current generation FRAM Ultra filters. That type of factual information just flies by the haters who are locked into their Brand nonsense. I'm old enough to remember a time when adding the word "Japanese" to a description of a product was condemning it as cheap and shoddy. Early Japanese motorcycles we got in the USA were actually quite good in comparison to others on the market, but they were considered cheap trash by much of the public.
 
I used to. All three of my cars are from now defunct brands. I'll never do that again, right ?

Brands used to mean something. One bought part of that history and legacy as well as a symbol.

Now they mean nothing. They don't even represent the country they originate from or the people who build them. What we have now are generic "global" platforms, plug in engine A to transmission B appropriate to region, tune accordingly. Or just build in the cheapest offshore country and hang the brand name on it when it hits the shores.

That brand pride went out the window when the manufacturers started making their logos out of plastic and gluing them on in the 80s. Sort of a symbolic representation of what they companies did to themselves over the years.

Not planning on buying any time soon, but brand won't affect me when I do. Probably Kia and a fung gu to domestics like my Dad gave them by buying a Subaru in the 70s.
 
I'm very brand loyal from the point that if a vehicle or product works for me and meets my expectations and I'm happy with it. I don't sway very much when I need to purchase the same item again
 
Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Quote
Because of past experiences correlated with statistical data.

Sure, but doesn't the "past experiences" part often mislead us? Companies change, they are bought and sold, management shifts, products are changed, etc. Case in point is look what happens when discussing oil filters. I still find the minute I mention FRAM on other forums the thread becomes filled with people proclaiming they will never touch those trash filters that have ruined countless engines, blah, blah. It is no use explaining you are talking about current generation FRAM Ultra filters. That type of factual information just flies by the haters who are locked into their Brand nonsense. I'm old enough to remember a time when adding the word "Japanese" to a description of a product was condemning it as cheap and shoddy. Early Japanese motorcycles we got in the USA were actually quite good in comparison to others on the market, but they were considered cheap trash by much of the public.

...correlated with...
 
Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Quote
Because of past experiences correlated with statistical data.

Sure, but doesn't the "past experiences" part often mislead us? Companies change, they are bought and sold, management shifts, products are changed, etc. Case in point is look what happens when discussing oil filters. I still find the minute I mention FRAM on other forums the thread becomes filled with people proclaiming they will never touch those trash filters that have ruined countless engines, blah, blah. It is no use explaining you are talking about current generation FRAM Ultra filters. That type of factual information just flies by the haters who are locked into their Brand nonsense. I'm old enough to remember a time when adding the word "Japanese" to a description of a product was condemning it as cheap and shoddy. Early Japanese motorcycles we got in the USA were actually quite good in comparison to others on the market, but they were considered cheap trash by much of the public.


Bad personal experiences with a brand are tough to get over. I remember the Fram oil filters that fell apart, and getting over that was no easy task. The name became synonymous with junk. Now the Ultras are darn good filters, but it was tough getting over the urge to stay away from their filters. It's the same with Chrysler products for me, except I'm not convinced they've gotten that much better. Burn me once, shame on Chrysler, burn me twice shame on me...
 
Originally Posted by grampi
Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Quote
Because of past experiences correlated with statistical data.

Sure, but doesn't the "past experiences" part often mislead us? Companies change, they are bought and sold, management shifts, products are changed, etc. Case in point is look what happens when discussing oil filters. I still find the minute I mention FRAM on other forums the thread becomes filled with people proclaiming they will never touch those trash filters that have ruined countless engines, blah, blah. It is no use explaining you are talking about current generation FRAM Ultra filters. That type of factual information just flies by the haters who are locked into their Brand nonsense. I'm old enough to remember a time when adding the word "Japanese" to a description of a product was condemning it as cheap and shoddy. Early Japanese motorcycles we got in the USA were actually quite good in comparison to others on the market, but they were considered cheap trash by much of the public.


Bad personal experiences with a brand are tough to get over. I remember the Fram oil filters that fell apart, and getting over that was no easy task. The name became synonymous with junk. Now the Ultras are darn good filters, but it was tough getting over the urge to stay away from their filters. It's the same with Chrysler products for me, except I'm not convinced they've gotten that much better. Burn me once, shame on Chrysler, burn me twice shame on me...





True but the cost plays a huge role. Paying $6-8-10 for a oil filter is not as risky as paying $30,000-40,000-50,000 for a vehicle.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
Originally Posted by grampi
Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Quote
Because of past experiences correlated with statistical data.

Sure, but doesn't the "past experiences" part often mislead us? Companies change, they are bought and sold, management shifts, products are changed, etc. Case in point is look what happens when discussing oil filters. I still find the minute I mention FRAM on other forums the thread becomes filled with people proclaiming they will never touch those trash filters that have ruined countless engines, blah, blah. It is no use explaining you are talking about current generation FRAM Ultra filters. That type of factual information just flies by the haters who are locked into their Brand nonsense. I'm old enough to remember a time when adding the word "Japanese" to a description of a product was condemning it as cheap and shoddy. Early Japanese motorcycles we got in the USA were actually quite good in comparison to others on the market, but they were considered cheap trash by much of the public.


Bad personal experiences with a brand are tough to get over. I remember the Fram oil filters that fell apart, and getting over that was no easy task. The name became synonymous with junk. Now the Ultras are darn good filters, but it was tough getting over the urge to stay away from their filters. It's the same with Chrysler products for me, except I'm not convinced they've gotten that much better. Burn me once, shame on Chrysler, burn me twice shame on me...





True but the cost plays a huge role. Paying $6-8-10 for a oil filter is not as risky as paying $30,000-40,000-50,000 for a vehicle.


Unless the filter comes apart and ruins the motor...
 
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