The Chevette was a retired British productl -- when it stopped
selling in Britain, GM shipped the tooling to the US and built it here.
Peter
On Dec 8, 2008, at 4:04 PM, R A Bennell wrote:
Maybe, but . . . do you remember the early Japanese cars?
I had relatives that bought Datsun 510's. Nice engine and tranny
etc but no body. One of my cousins was teasing an
uncle about how small and light his car was. Grabbed the front
fender and tried to lift the car. Bent the fender!
I recall very rusty Toyotas running around that were not very old.
Their early cars had really ugly interiors too
with wrinkled plastic floor mats instead of carpet. They made good
engines but not much else in those days.
On the other hand, the Chevette was hardly an exciting car, but if
you took care of it, I don't know if you could
wear it out. Crappy but cheap and reliable.
For whatever reason people like Consumer Reports always has nothing
but good things to say about Honda and Toyota
etc and almost nothing good to say about domestic vehicles. They
love the Tundra and hate the F150. I like my
F150's and have no desire to have a Toyota truck. I have had a
couple and they were no better than the domestic
stuff and more expensive to repair. I still have my 95 4Runner but
the body is so rusty I don't know if I can fix
it and no one else could licence it as it is for safety reasons. We
had a Toyota Avalon and although it was a nice
car, it certainly had its share of issues and Toyota did not stand
behind it. I could have bought a domestic for
less money and probably should have.
I sometimes wonder if people have been brainwashed over the years
to believe that Asian cars are wonderful and US
cars are garbage by the auto media.
There is also a constant media drivel objecting to SUV's. It makes
no sense to me. They are wonderful "utility"
vehicles. That is why people buy them. They are for the most part
small 4 wheel drive trucks that replaced the
family station wagon as a vehicle that could do it all - haul
people or goods or tow a boat or a trailer etc. I
don't want a Prius. It wouldn't do me much good. I don't commute
far in the city and I need something capable of
hauling on the highway. A Volt won't work either.
So, count me as unconvinced despite the fact that we just bought a
Honda Accord to replace the Avalon.
Randy
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Allan Streib
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 3:43 PM
To: Mercedes Discussion List
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Cerberus wants money back
"Tom Hargrave" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
The issue is not quality or cost but America's perception of small
American cars.
For example, when GM & Toyota manufactured cars in the US as a joint
venture, the Toyotas had consistently higher reviews and reported
less
warranty issues. But the two product lines were the exact same cars,
manufactured by the exact same workers, with the exact same parts.
The
only difference was the trim package.
Don't forget that Detroit's first entries into the small car market
were
abysmal. Remember the Chevette? The Vega? The Pinto? The Gremlin?
These forever after tainted the public's opinion of Detroit's
ability to
build a good small cars, and also cemented the opinion that import
small
cars were good.
Allan
--
1983 300D
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