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Originally posted by beanoil:
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Originally posted by jmacmaster:
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Originally posted by ChromiumSteel:
Sorry. A car like a Honda Civic that is made for 300,000 trouble free miles has much more value than an American made piece of crud that makes numerous visits to the dealer for warranty work by mechanics who much of the time don't immediately solve the problem. That's funny, someone using the words value and American car in the same sentence.
This kind of blanket condemnation of every every vehicle made by the U.S. manufacturers is simply untrue. I've had a number of vehicles made by the big three that I ran a long time with very little replace and repair expense other than the things that always wear out on any vehicle. A good example is the Ford Ranger pickup referred to above. Since they were first built they've been known as a high quality small pickup. I own one and know numerous people who also own one and I can attest to their value, quality, and longevity. They commonly go for 200,000 miles or more.
I happen to believe that generally speaking, the Japanese vehicles are of better quality and value and last longer than American vehicles. But there's been duds among the Japanese vehicles and there's been plenty of American vehicles that were not crud with no value.
Ford Ranger = Mazda B2000 . Nuff said.
Incorrect.
The only Ford truck sold in the US that was developed by Mazda was the Courier. The Ranger is a product of Ford's own designers.
Back when there was a B2000, it shared nothing at all with the Ranger. I have worked on both pre-'94 Mazdas and Rangers enough to know that they share nothing.
In 1987 Ford contracted Mazda to build the M5OD transmission for the Ranger and Bronco II. Ford has always contracted other companies to build the manual transmissions for these trucks, and the transmissions have always been the weakness in their design.
In 1994 Ford began selling Rangers to Mazda which were rebadged as the B2300, B3000 or B4000 depending on the engine.
In 2001 Ford and Mazda introduced the 2.3L Duratec in the Ranger and B-Series. Mazda did play a role in the development, but it was not entirely their work. It was most definately a collaboration, and I'm sure the entire project was probably funded by Ford.
So no, the Ranger is not a Mazda, or a Japanese vehicle. It is definately a Ford and definately an American vehicle. Just because an American vehicle is built on the same platform as a Japanese vehicle does not mean that the Japanese company did all of the development (though I will admit that historically that has been the case most of the time).
