Tired of hearing of how the U.S. makes only garbage cars!

[buster]

bottgers, I'm not so sure though that Nissan/Mazda and Subaru are any better quality wise.

 

[Korean_redneck]

Bottgers:

I"ve owned three Korean cars.

 

[Audi Junkie]

quote:

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There's a subset of people with every car brand and model that you have to wonder about. 58 yo guys that buy Corvettes and have never driven the car at anything near it's limit, middle managers with Beemers because they're "German engineering" but mostly because they cost more than what the neighbor just bought, Hondas with giant wings, 4X4 trucks with 38" tires that have never been on terrain tougher than tall grass, etc.

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...add to that list people who buy economy cars that are uneconomical due to poor depreciation. CR's objective number-crunching in this matter yields the following gruppe:

Hyuandi Accent
Kia Optima
Kia Rio
Mitsubish Lancer
Pontiac Sunfire
Suzuki Aerio

It's the same phenomenon, buying for a function that is not realized.
There is, however, a bit of hippocracy for most of us to judge the esoteric reason behind a vehicle purchase. We are almost all a bit guilty of "justifying" things. We don't know the actual motives behind the justification of say, a guy who wants a pickup truck just so he can "pick-up" a few hot chicks by helping them move into apartments or college dorms, it may be totally worthwhile to him. Nor should we judge the esoterics of a guy who maybe chooses a finely engineered car because he just likes the marquee or maybe even grew up with that brand. Those are all ambiguous/esoteric reasons to buy, but the cold-calculating economist/accountant approach says buying an economy car that's uneconomical is illogical on a whole 'nother level than just buying a car that you "enjoy". (unless you "enjoy" thinking your car is economical when it is not!)
What I "enjoy" about my car is that it has unique performance parameters that reside in the car itself. My "justification" is that reasonable amout of attention to this car will keep it and it's *uniquie* abilities fully functional. (it just also *happens* to have the best ranking for depreciation) You could apply logic this to a sports car if you drive 150mph, a luxury car if you drive long distances. I drive in snow so I have the car than functions best in snow and on long trips. If you drive a certian car for economy, well...shouldn't it be economical???

[ January 01, 2006, 03:21 AM: Message edited by: Audi Junkie ]