Thinking of buying a new car... help needed.

[AJWatson3]

I am sorry to burst your bubble, or it has already been said in other post but most foreign car companies actually make their products in the United States. However, most US car manufactures make their cars in other countries, like Mexico, and Canada.

So if I want a big-wig company exec to get my money I should buy American... and if I want an American working family to get my money I should buy foreign....? :doh:

[Mass_SkinsFan]

You can still get a Ford or Chevy thats made here. It's tough though. Look for a "1" as the first number in the vin.

I will probably end up looking at Chevy, or the other GMAC vehicles. I believe that Ford has a foreign interest as part of its ownership group, correct? If so, that leaves them out of the running.

Mass,

Are you just insanely bitter about foreign things because the white man took all your land and killed all the buffalo?

No. There's no known American Indian blood in my family. Personally I think they got what was coming to them for failing to push us back into the Atlantic Ocean when they had the chance to do so a couple hundred years ago, just like they did with the Vikings and the Roanoake settlement. My issue has to do with the concept of economic isolationism that I believe in.

[AJWatson3]

Wow. So much for peace and diplomacy.

If you truly practice economic isolationism you must spend half of your life figuring out what you can and can't purchase/consume...

Don't you think that a majority of what you spend ends up in the pockets of a vast minority.... that's not really helping you or our country.

[OVCChairman]

Mass,

Are you just insanely bitter about foreign things because the white man took all your land and killed all the buffalo?

Besides that thanks for your input. That is the whole point of this thread. I need help buying a car and will most likely buy American because I will get more for my money-- but not if it's gonna crap out on me in five years. I have a sweet 98 Maxima that has been very good to me. She just passed 150,000 miles and my mechanic says to expect another 100,000 more. That's the kind of car I need to get so I'm gonna have to keep an open mind when buying the product.

hey buddy, like i said i'm a car salesman. I work at Ford, been driving Ford vehicles since i got my license. Ive had 1 japanese car, a mitsubishi eclipse, and i HATED it.

To be perfectly honest with most of you, you cannot fault american car companies for outsourcing thier products. This is the RICHEST country in the WORLD, therefore the people working in this economy REQUIRE MONEY, for housing/living/etc. Japan/Korea/Asian markets dont require NEARLY as much money for people to survive, therefore it doesnt cost as much to pay them. In turn the product can be cheaper because they dont need to spend as much. THERFORE, American companies are forced to pinch pennies to try and compete with this. To be perfectly honest with you, there is not difference between car companies. ALL car companies are learning from eachtoher. You want to blame someone for "shotty" work on their American car, blame the people who buy foreign cars. If everyone bought American cars companies wouldnt have to cut corners to compete, they would be able to be 100% true American vehicles, and the quality would be second to none. I will never buy a foreign car again. It has nothing to do with the car itself, it's the fact that I live, breath, and work in America, and i dont want my money going anywhere but back into the American public's pocket.

Call it a rant but i'm not bitter, i just hate how people can knock something and they just continue to add the problem.

[Mass_SkinsFan]

Wow. So much for peace and diplomacy.

I believe in peace through superior firepower, and I've never been a really big fan of international diplomacy. So long as foreign countries keep to themselves I see no real reason for us to deal with them any more than absolutely necessary, and vice versa.

If you truly practice economic isolationism you must spend half of your life figuring out what you can and can't purchase/consume....

I do my best to try and buy as much in the way of American products as humanly possible. In some cases it just isn't possible, but I try as much as I can.

Don't you think that a majority of what you spend ends up in the pockets of a vast minority.... that's not really helping you or our country.

It's not a matter of helping me or the country. Obviously the profits go to the companies and their investors/heads. I have no problem with that. I'd just prefer to see those investors/heads of the company be Americans.

[Koolblue13]

Wow. So much for peace and diplomacy.

If you truly practice economic isolationism you must spend half of your life figuring out what you can and can't purchase/consume...

Don't you think that a majority of what you spend ends up in the pockets of a vast minority.... that's not really helping you or our country.

What is your problem with buying American? If you don't care, fine, but why get on somebody who does. Mass might be a little extreme in his stance, but so what. I do what I can to buy American, but it's hard.

BTW, $1,600 average of every car sells, goes to retired workers health care. When an American car is made in Canada or Mexico, an American benefits.

[praise_gibbs]

No. There's no known American Indian blood in my family. Personally I think they got what was coming to them for failing to push us back into the Atlantic Ocean when they had the chance to do so a couple hundred years ago, just like they did with the Vikings and the Roanoake settlement.

:finger: :finger:

[Koolblue13]

:finger: :finger:

:laugh:

[Mass_SkinsFan]

:finger: :finger:

I don't think it's funny. Especially since we're not allowing the exact same thing to happen. The only difference is that this time it's across our Southern Border, and while we have easy, simple methods of stopping it, we refuse to do so.

[praise_gibbs]

I will leave this be...

Moving along, moving along.

[AJWatson3]

Dude, I don't have a problem buying American. In fact every pizza I have ever bought was made in America. Many other products too! I won't go out of my way to buy American anything just because it is American. I think it's better to get the best you can for the fairest price and force everyone else to catch up or get out of the business. Americans catch up and surpass... we have to earn it.

Who makes the cars that are bought in Canada or Mexico? Why aren't they made in D-*******-TROIT? So who can make money? So who can make more money? Whose fault is it that the Japanese started making a better product at a more affordable price? Maybe it was because the same people that are making more money w/ Mexicans making cars now, cut corners and quality then to stuff their pockets then....? Or maybe we just didn't make a better product.

Why would I want to suport them? They are the last group of people that need an extra buck.

So are American cars better now because Mexicans and Canadians are making them? What happened along the way?

As originally posted, my grandfather, Korean War vet, 50-year worker at the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Baltimore, isolationist and racist as all hell, bought a Honda CRV. Swore he'd never buy anything non-American in his life-- if he could help it. He previously owned Dodge Caravans....

So it's a choice. I want the most for my money. I have no shame buying foreign. I would love to buy American... even if it's kinda foreign too...

[AJWatson3]

I don't think it's funny. Especially since we're not allowing the exact same thing to happen. The only difference is that this time it's across our Southern Border, and while we have easy, simple methods of stopping it, we refuse to do so.

If we keep employing the Mexicans to make our American cars they will have a better means to invade our country. They might bring their killer dirt-weed... it makes you crazy! I don't think the Mexicans are coming here so that they can steal land, enslave people, and have religious freedom... even if it means killing and displacing millions of people who were here before them.

Or if Mexicans are making more money there will they no longer want to come over here? Is that the thinking behind it?

You are old school... like 1850's American old school. Or maybe 1930's German old school...

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Again, I absolutely loving my Mazda 3. Handles great, not a single problem with it. I think it's a little below what you're trying to spend but I'm putting it out there anyway. Hell, the one problem I had, a flat tire last week, revealed to me that I had tire pressure sensors in the car. I didn't even know that. Great, great car.

[Mass_SkinsFan]

You are old school... like 1850's American old school....

Yes, I am like 1850's Old School. So far as I'm concerned Abraham Lincoln began the destruction of this country when he put down the Second American Revolution.

[praise_gibbs]

If we keep employing the Mexicans to make our American cars they will have a better means to invade our country. They might bring their killer dirt-weed... it makes you crazy! I don't think the Mexicans are coming here so that they can steal land, enslave people, and have religious freedom... even if it means killing and displacing millions of people who were here before them.

Or if Mexicans are making more money there will they no longer want to come over here? Is that the thinking behind it?

You are old school... like 1850's American old school. Or maybe 1930's German old school...

Well ****in said, bro.

[AJWatson3]

All I wanted was some information about what kind of Auto to buy, what eveyone had, why they liked it. Why they didn't. I wanted actual reasons. And all I got was this lousy thread. My bad.

Thanks to those that helped. I'll probably still buy a Pontiac (native american name...) Vibe, assembled in Freemont, CA.

[AJWatson3]

Again, I absolutely loving my Mazda 3. Handles great, not a single problem with it. I think it's a little below what you're trying to spend but I'm putting it out there anyway. Hell, the one problem I had, a flat tire last week, revealed to me that I had tire pressure sensors in the car. I didn't even know that. Great, great car.

Below what I am trying to spend sounds great to me. Again, it's about value. I am trying to buy a house and start a family in the next couple years so every extra dollar that I don't have to spend on a car will be well spent elsewhere.

[praise_gibbs]

All I wanted was some information about what kind of Auto to buy, what eveyone had, why they liked it. Why they didn't. I wanted actual reasons. And all I got was this lousy thread. My bad.

Thanks to those that helped. I'll probably still buy a Pontiac (native american name...) Vibe, assembled in Freemont, CA.

I have a 2003 Chevy (American made ) S-10 pick-up. Small, yet effective (where have I heard that before :doh: ). V6, 4.3L, 200 horsepower. Not the fastest, in fact not very fast at all. Still love it though. Burgundy in color and I have a decal with the word "Redskins" on the top portion of the windshield. I had it so far for 5 years and virtually have NO milelage on it-- 30k. That's right... Thirty. No major problems with it at all.

I think I made a good choice fresh out of high school, when I decided to make my first big purchase.

[The Sir]

Below what I am trying to spend sounds great to me. Again, it's about value. I am trying to buy a house and start a family in the next couple years so every extra dollar that I don't have to spend on a car will be well spent elsewhere.

I haven't seen you on here in a while. How you been man?

Jackets have a chance this year to do well I think, ACC looks set to have another down year. Hopefully this time we can beat a team like Wake, lol.

About the car question. If I were you, I'd stay away from them Pontiacs, I like the way the G6s look but I just don't trust Pontiac. You should take the advice that someone already gave, get an 06 Altima. You can get them relatively cheap and if all you care about is affordability, quality, and gas mileage. It's a great choice.

[AJWatson3]

Americans have always made the best trucks.

Question:

You didn't think it would go very fast, did you? That is a work engine, mad torque and hauling capability, no doubt...

[praise_gibbs]

Americans have always made the best trucks.

Question:

You didn't think it would go very fast, did you? That is a work engine, mad torque and hauling capability, no doubt...

Nope. That was one of the reasons why I purchased it. I have a lead foot.

I live in the suburbs of South Jersey and rarely do I drive on the expressway or even the parkway, so speed is not needed. I would only have to stop 10 feet ahead at the next light anyway.

[AJWatson3]

I haven't seen you on here in a while. How you been man?

Jackets have a chance this year to do well I think, ACC looks set to have another down year. Hopefully this time we can beat a team like Wake, lol.

About the car question. If I were you, I'd stay away from them Pontiacs, I like the way the G6s look but I just don't trust Pontiac. You should take the advice that someone already gave, get an 06 Altima. You can get them relatively cheap and if all you care about is affordability, quality, and gas mileage. It's a great choice.

Been busy reading, less posting.

Funny, I was the member who joined exactly 1000 after you. What are they even up to now?

Per the Altima: they look great. I've heard numerous positive reviews about them and I am already a very happy Maxima owner. In fact I've never met anyone who owned a Maxima and was ever planning on buying anything else after they got their first... I just can't afford that much car this time around. The Altima is very similar to my current car, just w/ new styling... and I thinkk you can get them nicely equipped in the low-$20's. But I really need something a little more economical with better gas mileage.

And GO JACKETS! BEAT THEM DAWGS!

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Below what I am trying to spend sounds great to me. Again, it's about value. I am trying to buy a house and start a family in the next couple years so every extra dollar that I don't have to spend on a car will be well spent elsewhere.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062101130.html

Surprising Zip in a Fun, Thrifty Package

By Warren Brown

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, June 24, 2007; G01

The car went zoom-zoom, sip-sip, which was odd. Most cars that go zoom-zoom don't sip; and most that sip don't go zoom-zoom. When you get a car that does both you pay attention. The subcompact Mazda3 2.3 Sport sedan was hard to ignore.

We did not want the car. We preferred something larger to drive roundtrip to Cambridge, Md. -- the site of this year's Mazda product rally -- from our home in Northern Virginia.

But I goofed. I scrapped earlier plans to attend the event. I thought we'd be too busy moving out of our Arlington house, which is scheduled to be remodeled. But nothing in the construction world happens the way you think it will happen. We were all boxed up with nowhere to go.

"At least we'll be away from this mess when we go to the Mazda thing," my wife, Mary Anne, said a week before the rally date.

I said nothing.

"We are going, right?" she asked.

"I canceled," I said. "I thought we'd be moving."

Mary Anne said nothing.

My wife's silence is far worse than her ranting when she's angry. It's an intimidating quiet. There is no way to combat it. You can't argue with silence. You can't reason with it. And even if you choose to leave the house for a marital time-out, it does no good. You come back to that silence, that churning black hole of unspoken anger -- deeper, more dreadful than before.

I called Mazda.

Yes, they still had space for me and a guest or two at the rally. Sorry, there was no Mazda CX7 or CX9 crossover utility vehicle available. No, all midsize sedans and wagons were spoken for. "How about a Mazda3?" the Mazda spokeswoman asked.

Personally, I love the Mazda3. I think it's one of the best subcompact cars ever made -- sporty, very decent interior, fun. But it's a subcompact. A roundtrip drive of 260 miles in a small car with a wife still boiling over a delayed remodeling job is no easy thing. Add a third body -- a persnickety daughter who once usurped the master bedroom in her childhood home and who held onto that space until she left for college -- and you have a problem.

"We'll take my Mercedes," said daughter Binta, who is a lawyer in New York.

"It's a Mazda event," I said.

"And that means . . . ?"

"Yes," I said, and left it at that.

The ride began in perfect silence, which this time was a good thing. Binta in the rear did not complain about being cramped. Mary Anne in the front passenger's seat fell asleep. The little Mazda3 2.3 Sport, once it broke free of Beltway traffic, just whizzed along.

Mary Anne awakened. "Not bad for a little car. It's kind of nice," she said. Binta acquiesced from the rear. "Not nearly as bad as I thought," she said. "It's a little tight, but all right."

I was feeling good. Heck, I was feeling great. The women were happy. I was out of the boxed house and the dog house. But . . . .

"You're going to get a ticket!" Mary Anne shouted. "You're speeding! Slow down!"

I looked at the speedometer, which was backlit in red. My God! I was speeding. I hereby take the Fifth Amendment and decline to say how fast I was going. I didn't feel the speed. I had gotten to that point so effortlessly in a subcompact, front-wheel-drive car with a 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engine and a five-speed automatic transmission. It wasn't even the fastest or most powerful version of the Mazda3. Fast and furious honors go to the model line's top runner -- the turbocharged, 2.3-liter, four-cylinder 263-horsepower, appropriately named Mazdaspeed version of the Mazda3.

I slowed to a more reasonable pace.

"Should we get gas now for the ride back?" Mary Anne asked when we reached Cambridge.

"We don't have to," I said. We had a mostly spirited 130-mile drive. We had used barely one quarter of a tank of regular unleaded gasoline. We drove back to Arlington without adding fuel. Mary Anne did several late-weekend errands in the car without adding fuel. I drove it all over Arlington on Monday. Finally, after accumulating 330 miles, I refilled the tank before returning the car to Mazda. There was little less than a quarter of a tank left when I went to the pump.

I told Mary Anne. Stupid! I should have kept my mouth shut.

"What would we have to pay for a car like that?" she asked.

I reminded her that we already had enough to pay for, which is why those moving boxes are stacked all over our house.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062101129.html

Nuts & Bolts

2007 Mazda3 2.3 Sport Sedan

Sunday, June 24, 2007; G01

Complaints: If you come to the Mazda3 2.3 Sport expecting it to perform like a truly hot-rod Mazda3 Mazdaspeed, you will be disappointed. But if you come expecting ordinary subcompact competence, you will be overwhelmed.

Ride, acceleration handling: This is a subcompact car with a short wheelbase, meaning it can be a tad bumpy on poorly maintained roads. But overall ride is very good. Handling is excellent. And it goes fast enough to yield a spousal shout: "Slow down!"

Head-turning quotient: Friendly, cute and hot -- one of the most attractive subcompact cars available.

Body style/layout: The Mazda3 2.3 Sport is an economy, subcompact, front-wheel-drive car with four doors and a notchback trunk. It is available in four basic trim levels -- Sport, Touring, Grand Touring and Mazdaspeed. The Mazda3 also is available as a wagon.

Engine/transmission: The car has a standard 2.3-liter, 16-valve, inline four-cylinder engine that develops 156 horsepower at 6,500 revolutions per minute and 150 foot-pounds of torque at 4,500 RPM. The engine is mated to a five-speed manual transmission.

Capacities: There is comfortable seating for four people. Mazda claims seating for five. I wouldn't want to be the fifth person. Luggage capacity is 11.5 cubic feet. The fuel tank holds 14.5 gallons of recommended regular unleaded gasoline.

Mileage: We averaged 30 miles per gallon in highway driving.

Safety: Side and head air bags are optional. Traction and stability control were not available on the Mazda3 2.3 Sport at this writing.

Price: Base price on the 2007 Mazda3 2.3 Sport is $18,140. Dealer's invoice price is $16,979. Price as tested is $20,095, including $1,360 in options (power sunroof, satellite radio and cargo net) and a $595 destination charge. Dealer's price as tested is $18,715. Prices sourced from Mazda and http://www.edmunds.com.

Purse-strings note: Mazda is having a hard time meeting demand for the Mazda3. That means no sales incentives on this one. Compare with Chevrolet Cobalt, Ford Focus (shares the Mazda3 platform), Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Kia Spectra, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Golf.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/06/08/DI2007060801578.html

Charlotte, N.C.: Hi Warren:

Love your chats. I'am considering buying an Elantra or a Focus. What would be your recommendation? Or maybe something else?

Warren Brown: Elantra, best value for dollar.

Focus, more expensive. But better quality, more fun, and now, thanks to Ford's truly serious quality improvement drive, as reliable as any compact car from any manufacturer anywhere.

But I'd go with the Focus-derived Mazda3: hot, fun, fuel-efficent and reasonably priced. The problem is trying to find one!

[BAFGA]

If durability is your primary concern, AJ, you need to be looking at Subarus.

Subaru is partly owned by GM.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Subaru is partly owned by GM.

I don't know much about Subaru's but my stepfather has an Impreza and I swear he's having some sort of problem with it every other week.