I had consistently purchased US vechicles, nearly all GM over the last 20 years despite the repair and reliability issues that were always there.
3 years ago we bought a used Civic have had amazingly good reliability. If the US autos are starting to catch up, great. Its about time. But,
people still prefer VW, Honda, Toyota, Volvo, BMW, Mercedez for some reason….. Chrysler, Ford and GM are tough sells. And, I still maintain that they are too close to the oil companies. Much of the equipment that is assembled and sold as a US vehicle isn’t even built/manufactured in the states. So, what does built in the US really mean any longer?
When the “US” vehicles are competive, the word will get out. American people want to by “American” brands, but over the years Chrysler, Ford and GM have had some serious growing pains, and again have been too close with the oil companies to really put a dent in fuel economy. The fuel economy of of Japanese vehicles has been noticably better that those of the US manufacturers over the years.
US manufacturers have done nothing but push back on Government mandates to improve fuel economy, while the Japanese manufactures have embraced them and have additionally learned to build vehicles that are more reliable. I believe that Japanese vehicles in other countries have better fuel economy than the Japanese models sold here and that its due to the US manaufactures pushing Gov regs that restrict the higher fuel economy.
GM, please make fuel efficient, relaible vehicles and I’ll start buying them again. I don’t think 10 year bumper to bumper warranty is too much to ask for. Would like a 15 year warranty. I don’t want to buy a new car every 5 years. And, if I take care of my vehichle (I had my last GM for about 14 years despite many visits to the mechanic over time and I have owned a Chevy SUV for about 6 years now and don’t plan to get rid of it until its no longer cost effective to maintain) 10 to 20 years should be no problem.
