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The car question: Honda Accord? Nissan Altima? Or something else?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by accguy, May 3, 2013.

  1. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    American quality has been on an uptick the past decade and the popularity of imports mean American pricing often beats that of import counterparts. It could be a win-win-win for the car owner and American auto workers and American-owned companies but many are stuck in the 80s-early 90s.

    But 30-50 percent of the purchase price may stay in country (in the form of non-union wages) so folks can feel better about buying an import.
     
  2. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Has nothing to do with "feeling better" about buying an import. Some of us have been driving higher-quality Toyotas or Nissans or Hondas for 15-25 years now. It's up to the Big Three to convince us to switch, not the other way around.
     
  3. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Exactly. I've been in a Honda for 20-plus years. Bought a new CRV nearly two years ago and love it -- after putting 169K on a Passport. I didn't bother looking at anything else because I've been in Hondas for so long -- and 0.9 percent financing wasn't offered anywhere else.
     
  4. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    I don't have a problem with this. As long as we aren't pretending that because Hondas or Toyotas are assembled in America that buyers aren't still sending more money out of the country than stays in.
     
  5. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    It's simply way too much money to spend on anything but the most reliable machine that will give you the most trouble-free miles you can get.

    Some American cars can flirt with that ideal, but it's still too much of a roll of the dice for me.
     
  6. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    There is no such critter as a car that is 100% American-made. It may have an American nameplate and be assembled in Detroit or Arlington or Shreveport, but odds are 60% of its parts are made overseas. Contrast that with a Toyota assembled in San Antonio with as much as 80% parts made in America.

    Your true conservative will opt for the Toyota because it has more American content. Think how that makes Grandpa feel.
     
  7. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    Just because some parts may be from outside the country, that doesn't mean the company isn't still American, with profits staying here (and theoretically cycling through our economy).
     
  8. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Probably too complicated to do, but I would like to see some kind of pie chart showing where the $35,000 for a Lexus ES goes.

    How much "stays in America" and how much "goes to Japan"?

    And when, say, some of that money goes to corporate headquarters in Japan and they use part of it to sponsor the Honda Classic golf tournament in America . . . shouldn't that count as money staying in America? And since Honda spends $1.1 billion on advertising in the United States, isn't that money going to American ad agencies and America media?

    The lines are so blurred now. There are all kinds of ways that money going to Japan makes its way back here.
     
  9. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Yeah, I'd like to see that chart, too. I'm not convinced that buying a Ford over a Toyota means more American dollars are cycling through the U.S. economy. Fifteen years ago, sure. Globalization/Internet probably has changed that ratio in many ways, though.
     
  10. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    A conservative, philosophically speaking, would buy the best product because it's up to the competitors in the market to produce the best product at the best price rather than relying on a customer's misplaced sense of nationalism.
     
  11. murphyc

    murphyc Well-Known Member

    You do realize Hyundai and Kia are sister companies, right? Both have made tremendous strides in the past decade or so, together.
     
  12. Uncle Frosty

    Uncle Frosty Member

    The Accord remains the gold standard.

    I have seen nothing but raves for the 2013 redesign.

    The cheap financing helps, too.

    My wife's Honda is eight years old and each year for the last three, we've asked each other if we should replace it this year.

    The answer is always no, because it runs every bit as well as it did when it was new, so we're going to keep it another two years.
     
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