You know what is funny about all this, You are basing the opinions I express on a Toyota fan site, and I'm not the only one who is opressed by American car fans on that site. Why are you linking things I said on that site, it's a Toyota fan site, here I don't say things like that. It appears to me you people are worst when it comes to bashing imports. Sometimes people like Croc and FOG just take it too personally, hello, there are more important things in life than cars! Yes it's my number one hobby, I've been a car enthusiast since I was basically born, spending my early childhood memorizing all the makes and models on Polish roads. As a matter of fact, my three favorite cars when I was a kid was the Corvette, the Jeep and the Camaro, surprise, surprise! I grew up here in Canada with my dad's '89 Civic. Grew to love Hondas because of that. It was my first car when I was 17, my first car that I was with a girl intimately, and the first car I destroyed the clutch on (lol) I always hated Toyota because they were better than Honda and I knew it. I began to hate Hondas when I started working at Honda in High School being a detailer in 2001, after the introduction of the 2001 Civic. You learn allot from mechanics and people in sales who have worked on many different cars in their lives. As a matter of fact, allot of the mechanics even at Honda dread Hondas, they praise Toyota for their engineering excellence. Moving on in the working for Honda days, I was a breif Suzuki fan (let the tomatos fly) I had a 97 Swift, which served me well for half a year, till I rear-ended a new Benz on the 427 on June 1, 2001, 2 days before my 18th birthday. In the meantime I was given a '90 Colt for free which served me for a year, and drove til 380,000 km, and was still running, and refusing to die, dispite the abuse, meanwhile I talked my dad into buying a 97 Caravan, in which he spent more money into repairs that the car was worth in a 5 year period from '99-'04. Then I moved to working at a Daewoo dealership, while attending college, where I got my Lanos, I thought, oh it's an Opel engineered car. It sort of served me well for three years, til I had to sell it a few months ago, because I had little-to-none resale value in it. Plus parts are on back-order and are expensive
Well the dealership turned into a used car dealer. There are or were working mechanics from all sorts of backgrounds. Some of these people had years of experience with cars. And I've seen some stupid things screwing up with cars, especially with Fords and Chryslers and all GM's except the 3.8's. Now I always had respect for GM cars, hence I liked the last gen Grand Ams, and the last gen Grand Prix's. And one of my fav cars that we had there were Monte Carlos and Impalas. Now what GM is doing is disgusting me with their cheap-cost-cutting designs that look dated as soon as they come out. I liked how Pontiac had nice, sporty designs, made them look hot, now it's just bleh! Now working there for a while, I have noticed the pros and cons of all cars, from my experience and my mechanic friends, the best cars out of the US cars were only recommended the GM cars with the 3.8 and maybe the Grand AMs and Aleros, but they were hated for their cheap front suspension design, and bushings and axle control arms always broke. However, Ive seen it for myself that the best overall engineered cars in the long run, are and have been for the longest time, Toyotas, and pre-2000 Hondas. Another thing that is important about all this is resale value, that destroys GM owners, upon trade-ins. However if you are a used car buyer, you can't beat a used GM for the money. It's all about long term. Before you start the name calling, that I'm a hater, no I'm a realist. GM had its glory days, when they were laughing because they owned 50% of the market, but sooner or later, it will fall. Because Toyota planned this that if it pumps more money into R&D, it will succed, and it is. GM is in trouble, because in MY OPINION, they did not think of the future, what will be in ten years. You can't be on top forever and keep givng the same thing over, and over, and over, while everyone around you is advancing. In my opinion once again, Toyota deserves much credit, for their hard work in the past 30 so years, because now it is paying off. And what goes around comes around. The domestic manufacturers were laughing at Japanese cars in the 70's and now it is kicking them in the ass. I had to dish out some dough, to get my '97 Camry 5 Speed. It's a boring, however driver friendly designed car. It is 7 years old, and still is solid. I did however had a bad experience with the Toyota dealership I bought it from, but that is another story. One other things, I noticed about this board, the "I hate Toyota because of their dealers" Ok, so this is beginning sound like a Saturn ad "Oh, Saturns are great cars, because their dealers treat me like a somebody" I've been to good Toyota dealers and bad ones. Actually the best Toyota dealer I have been to was the one in Whitby, the service was great, and everyone was friendly, it's only the Toronto ones that are arrogant, and I will admit to that. I am a car enthusiasts like all of you, otherwise, I nor you would not be spending so much time on this board. Some of you are more political than car enthusiastic. The "I love GM's because I support the economy when I buy one" Ok, that's nice, I believe this board should be focusing on the love of cars, not the politics involved. So please, let's stop fighting, stop the name calling, and talk about the love of cars, not the politics.
