Rey C.
Racing is life... anything else is just waiting.
Although I didn't buy into the IPO, I too wanted to see GM turn itself around - and in large part, it has (at least financially - other than the European operations, it's doing quite well financially). And even though I haven't bought a domestic brand in a very long time (the only American brand I own is an old Chevy pickup truck that I used as a tow vehicle for my race car and an antique Chevy truck that my *** gave me), I'd like to see Ford (especially), GM and even Chrysler do well in the market. My suggestion for you is to get a subscription to Consumer Reports before selecting another vehicle. The facts (from both JD Power and CR) indicate that the average car built in 2012 will have fewer initial and longer term problems than the average car built in 2011, and the average 2011 car has fewer problems than the one built in 2010... so on and so forth. But within each brand, and within each model within the brands, different cars will display certain common problems year to year. Some years are good and some years are bad, for even the same model. As for cars from the old days... it's kind of like the saying, "the older I get, the faster I was." What that means is, people tend to be nostalgic, and remember the things from years past as being better than they actually were. The truth is, cars tend to last much longer now, with fewer initial and longer term problems than years ago. But what has also changed is that with all of the safety and electronic features these days, cars now are much more difficult and expensive to work on than before. I know a good deal about engines and cars, but even I find it difficult to do anything more than the simplest tasks these days. I couldn't even change the spark plugs on my WRX last year. Luckily
brick, it was time to change the timing belt and hoses too, so I had the plugs changed along with that "normal maintenance" (good bye, $800). But in general, cars now tend to last much longer than they used to. The average age of the cars on American highways now is 10.8 years. As far as I know, that is an all time record high.I love cars. Other than a pretty woman, there's nothing that gets my attention faster than a svelte, clean, high performance car. And I've been lucky enough to work in and around the automotive industry for about the past 20 years. But one thing is true, even with me, people will often offer up whatever brand that is their favorite. The factual data may or may not show that brand to be all that reliable. And even reliable brands may have unreliable vehicles within the ****** in certain years. Lexus and Acura tend to always be near the top when it comes to reliability. Yet I've never owned either brand. They just don't do anything for me. But they do tend to make very good cars. Some GM vehicles usually get very good quality marks too though - Buick in particular. And some of the cars mentioned here as being stellar really aren't. Some of them (by data from quality surveys) have less than stellar initial quality and longer term service records - and they can be incredibly expensive to work on and acquire parts for. But you might get lucky. I had a Jaguar XJS that should have been a lemon, but I got great service from that car. I got lucky. I had a Porsche 944 S2 that should have been a decent car and it was one of the biggest lemons I have ever owned - and it nearly broke me to get it fixed... just so that I could sell it. So lightning can strike, but typically, the data is a good guide.
So stick with Consumer Reports and keep an eye on the annual JD Power reports. Use that fact based data, and not anecdotal stories from buddies or pals. It really will prove useful. Really. :hatsoff:
