toyoguy

marginal? can you name an inferior product in its class?

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?se...&page_number=17 I'm curious to know how the headlights work

just build the freakin IS500 already

I don't know who's in charge of Honda, or even if one man has so much authority. Either way Honda doesn't have a media darling. No doubt Honda managment has become incompetent. Nissan always had first rate engineering talent. Goshn was always about short-term gains. http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarti...-IndustryNews-4

anyways pathetic month for Honda, and more pathetic cars coming down the pipeline.

probably cause Toyota is fleeting the Corolla.

http://www.nissannews.com/corporate/news/c...703030856.shtml Goshen is trouble

here's June 2004 http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet...=74&docid=27076

I drove the Jetta 2.5L and the GLI. The steering feel is great, but the brake feel is poor. I dunno how that happened. Overall nice ride, not worth anywhere near the absurd prices they're charging though. The DSG is the main reason I drove it, an exellent piece IMO. Other than that, the hi-quality paint finish, and the steering feel I see little reason to fork over that kind of cash.

$$$, but people are paying for the GT500

they make us watch MTV U in the university's circuit room. I've see that commercial like five times/week, and I don't find it amusing at all.

more sales for the RAV4, that's for sure

Who reads the Toronto Star? Hell, I barely locate Toronto.

Your prices are off. Those parents like mine switched over to Toyota/Honda have had far less maintance costs, payed for my school and my brother's. They will retire comfortably. They could have paid less and purchased an Intrigue, (or some other POS) instead of my Camry and given it to me. But after driving a friend's Intrigue, Maxima, Galant, Jeep GC, Pathfinder and a brand new Taurus rental I'm sure as hell glad they didn't. Yup my car doesn't hold up like $h!, have tons of steering play and a creaking suspension. To be fair my friend's newer lower mileage Maxima doesn't squeak, neither did the new Taurus but both drove pathetically. I also know that two 125k+ mi Camry's (one driven totally city, the other previously owned by a construction contractor passed to his kid), drove a lot like mine which btw is solid, minus some additional suspension wear. I've also driven a 3rd gen Camry and I was highly impressed w/how well assembled it was. I've driven my friend's TL (75kmi) and an older TL, both drove solid as a rock. Now ideally a car should be built like my friend's 1st gen all city driven LS400 w/150k+ mi...if I could only afford the LS460. My uncle had a Carvan, now drives an Odyssey. He also had a Neon, replaced by an RX330. And he has a 1993 Camry, his first non-Toyota/Honda vehicle. Perhaps you could say he is yuppie, he trades in cars like every 10yrs, and his avg income places him in a similar bracket as LS430 owners. My brother still owns his Accord cpe my parents gave him, I guess he's a yuppie too even though he's now a $150k+ ER doctor and owes nobody financially. Though he does have a high stripper affinity which might explain where his money goes. My friend who owns the Pilot is a yuppie too, he now drives a Civic and traded his TL in for a fully loaded Pilot he gave to his recently married wife. My Civic driving cousin is a Yuppie as well, even though he's 32 and pulls at least $500k yearly. Now I worked for him in Manhatten and, I'd actually estimate he makes closer to $750k. He owns a 2002 5er he never drives (i've seen it sit totally sedentary for over 2months), mainly cause the seats are hard as a rock, and the transmission tunnel crams his legs in. I've driven it, even though he doesn't, I do really enjoy rwd and extra seat bolstering. It's solid, minus the HID ballasts that have failed on multiple occasions, and the suspesnion components which have simply worn out. Outside of the poor quality leather/mismatched wood veneer w/bubbles, sterile interior, and crappy ass audio, its a superbly built machine. Now one of the other Camry's I drove belongs to a friend, he is a yuppie as well. He owns his own business that probably pulls close to $150k. Never set foot in college other than DeVry. Busts his ass at 24/7 at work and DeVry university, and he's about 25yrs old. I guess he's a yuppie too. Personally I enjoy stir-fry dishes. The only Japanese consumer electronics I own are my Onkyo reciever and a Yamaha DVD player. Now if I could afford ML or Krell components I would, but I can't. Mass produced equipment is what I'm stuck with. I don't own a TV, my laptop is an HP, my cell is a Motorola, and I probably should get a digital camera. I've never been to Japan and won't for recreational purposes. Anyways my next car certainly will be built by Toyota or Honda, and I'll hold on to it for at least 10yrs. I'll gladly pay extra for superior quality parts and engineering. In the long run it actually saves me money since I will actually enjoy my car after 50k mi, where anything else would drive so poorly I'd be forced to replace it. You can call me and my friend's yuppies, based on what we drive all you wish if that makes you feel better.

No, Honda doesn't need premium and is 10-15cents more per gallon that much? only if you want to pay them, most necessary services are cheap via online couponsexample on my Toyota done by dealer: $22 oil change (top off fluids) $40 coolant change $100 tranny flush $150 complete brake job (turn all 4 rotors) $15 air filter replacment I believe a walmart battery was ~$40 I had a friend change my spark plugs for $40 + $50 for the stock platinums The Odessey is sold at invoice assuming it's financed, my next car won't be, neither was my current car.

We can all play this dumbass game and assume Mitsubishi is the equivalent of Honda and Toyota, even though no reliablity survey (JD or CR) ranks them on the same level. Nor does any review testing their competance. But since they are all Japanese... Oddly there is a correlation where GM and Mitsubishi sell less cars, and Toyota and Honda coincidently report gains every month. And oddly enough GM and Mitsubishi cars surveyed reliablity are below those of Toyota and Honda. And oddly GM and Mitsubishi rarely win a auto review compared to there Toyota or Honda counterparts.

Here's some more anecdotal stuff, my dad's Oldsmobile stranding him at least twice yearly, w/no working A/C. And my dad's current Camry running flawlessly for the past 12yrs. My dad's just dying to returning to GM vehicles.

Those #'s are as off as Toyota's Prius

Tahoe EPA rating 15/21mpg Actual 13.5mpg http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drive...89/pageId=67965 Actual 12mpg http://www.caranddriver.com/roadtests/1048...-ltz-page4.html Actual 14.5mpg http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/suvs/...hevrolet_tahoe/ Escalade EPA rating 13/19 Actual 12.5mpg http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drive...28/pageId=94774 Actual 11mpg http://www.caranddriver.com/roadtests/1089...lade-page4.html Yukon 16/21 Actual 13.3mpg http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...14005/1005/FREE

According to ALG Honda's Odyssey holds its value better than any other minivan. http://www.alg.com/deprratings.aspx Yes, Honda has fanatically loyal customers. I have a friend who's owned a previous TL, TL-S (lost two trannies), current TL, and now a Pilot. He purchased all these vehicles new, but only after owning a Grand Am, and Wrangler, which were also purchased new. Believe it or not he has no plans of ever buying an American sedan again. Yes, cars depreciate quickly, they all do. Yes, SUV's are slow and get poor mileage.

Then why isn't it marketed as a cash incentive? Too bad in every single non-EPA test, GM’s industry-leading full-size SUVs fail to deliver better mileage.

here's the fleet #s for mid-yr 2005. http://www.fleet-central.com/af/t_pop_pdf....05/cars_web.pdf Impala: 23,702 (62.1%) Grand Prix: 6,878 (52.2%) LaCrosse: 4,990 (no data) Monte-Carlo: 2,112 (36.1% vs Solara 8.2%) now the argument could be made that GM is reducing fleet sales, but so is Toyota. I bet the new Camry is well below 14%, and the new Corolla (arriving this yr) will be well below 16%. Let's not forget FJ 6,670 H3 3,418

lets see what the NHTSA has to say Ford Says It's Patriotic to Buy A Mustang, but Sienna Is Made In Indiana With More U.S. Parts By JATHON SAPSFORD and NORIHIKO SHIROUZU May 11, 2006; Page B1 Few sports cars have captured the nation's imagination like the sleek Ford Mustang, a 21st-century reincarnation of an American classic. The Toyota Sienna minivan, by contrast, speaks to the utilitarian aesthetics of Japan: refined interiors, arm rests and lots and lots of cup holders. Yet, by a crucial measure, the Sienna is far more American than the Mustang. Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that were publicized in "Auto Industry Update: 2006," a presentation by Farmington Hills, Mich., research company CSM Worldwide, show only 65% of the content of a Ford Mustang comes from the U.S. or Canada. Ford Motor Co. buys the rest of the Mustang's parts abroad. By contrast, the Sienna, sold by Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., is assembled in Indiana with 90% local components. There's more than a little irony in this, considering Ford has launched a campaign to regain its footing with an appeal to patriotism (catchphrase: "Red, White & Bold"). "Americans really do want to buy American brands," asserted Ford Executive Vice President Mark Fields in a recent speech. "We will compete vigorously to be America's car company." As the Mustang shows, though, it's no longer easy to define what is American. For 20 years now, the dynamic car makers of Asia -- led by Toyota, Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. -- have been pouring money into North America, investing in plants, suppliers and dealerships as well as design, testing and research centers. Their factories used to be derided as "transplants," foreign-owned plants just knocking together imported parts. Today, the Asian car makers are a fully functioning industry, big and powerful enough to challenge Detroit's claim to the heart of U.S. car manufacturing. The result is a brewing public-relations war, with both sides wrapping themselves in the Stars and Stripes. Toyota, for example has been running commercials touting its contribution to the areas of the U.S. economy where it has built factories. Next year, the staid Toyota Camry will undergo the ultimate rite of passage by entering the most prestigious circuits of the National Association of Stock Car Racing. Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said his company's vast network of dealerships saw the Nascar link as a crucial marketing tactic to raise Toyota's profile in the U.S. heartland. "Our dealers told us it was really important to do this," he says. On Thursday, the Level Field Institute, a grass-roots organization founded by U.S. Big Three retirees, is scheduled to hold a news conference in Washington. Among the points the group is expected to make is its belief that comparing relative North American component content is an ineffective way to determine who is "more American" among auto makers. A better way, says Jim Doyle who heads Level Field, is to look at the number of jobs -- from research and development to manufacturing to retailing -- each auto maker creates per car sold in the U.S. Mr. Doyle says the institute's study shows that Toyota in 2005 employed roughly three times more U.S. workers, on a basis of per car sold in the U.S., than Hyundai Motor Co. Each of the Big Three manufacturers in the same year employed roughly three times as many U.S. workers, on a per-car-sold basis, as Toyota. "What's better for the American economy?" Mr. Doyle asks. A GM car "built in Mexico with 147,000 jobs back here in America or a Honda built in Alabama with 4,000 or 5,000 jobs in America?" Measuring local content is extremely difficult because a part made in America can be assembled from smaller parts, some of which might come from abroad. All of which underscores how the line between what is and isn't American, at least in the auto industry, is "going to be increasingly difficult to pinpoint" as car makers become increasingly international and produce more in local markets, says Michael Robinet, a vice president at CSM Worldwide. General Motors Corp. is importing Korean-made cars to sell under the Chevy nameplate. Japanese car makers are using American designers for cars being sold in China. Some of the high end luxury BMW "imports" on the road are made in South Carolina. "We don't look at it as an American industry," says Mr. Robinet. "It really is a global industry." That said, the Japanese manufacturing presence in the U.S. is growing. Foreign-based auto makers in the U.S., led by the Japanese, account for 1.7% of U.S. manufacturing jobs, according to a report by the Center for Automotive Research, Ann Arbor, Mich. After $28 billion in cumulative North America investment -- and annual purchases of parts reaching $45 billion or more in recent years -- 67% of the Japanese-brand cars now sold in North America are made in North America, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. Japanese investment in U.S. production was a response to the trade tensions of the 1990s, when tensions flared over Japan's surplus with the U.S., of which autos and auto parts were a large portion. By spreading investment across the U.S., Japan's car makers have won crucial allies among U.S. politicians. Last year, when President Bush took to the road to tout his Social Security plan, one of his first stops was a major Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., a conservative corner of the country where the phrase "buy American" no longer means what it once did. "As the son of a union member, I'll admit that free trade is an issue with which I've struggled," says Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, who has a Nissan Titan pickup truck in his garage. But he adds: "Remember that every Nissan built in Canton also was engineered by Americans, for Americans." What isn't clear is how Mustang fans like Fred Barkley, president of the Bluegrass Mustang Club of Lexington, Ky., would react to the news that the Mustang is only 65% American, at least by one government measure. Mr. Barkley, owner of three Mustangs, one from 1965 and two from the early 1990s, says it "doesn't bother me too much." Told the Toyota Sienna has higher North American content than the Mustang, he is unimpressed. "I wouldn't buy a Sienna," he says. "I don't like them because they are foreign."

The Camry was also tested, it got no coverage either.