Foreign Cars

Comparing import and domestic cars

by Shadi Houseman

After 14 years, the Chevy advertising slogan, "Like A Rock," no longer stands for a tough, dependable automobile made by US manufacturer General Motors. Instead, GM adopted the new tag line "An American Revolution" and like its other Big Three counterparts, GM struggles to bridge the great divide between North American vehicles and imports.

The "Big Three" - North America's three biggest car makers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - are not so big anymore, and Detroit, the Motor City, saw 2006 as one of its worst years ever.

US auto sales slipped from 70 percent of the market in 1998, to 52 percent in the U.S. and 50 percent in Canada by 2005. Toyota, Honda and Nissan, the Japanese Big Three, lead the pack of foreign auto manufacturers with superior quality and dependability.

It's possible to understand why customers avoided purchasing a certain vehicle, when studying the survey data from Maritz's New Vehicles Avoided Study (NVAS) of 17,500 customers who leased or purchased a vehicle from Oct. 2004 to March 2005:

Top 10 reasons for avoiding U.S. models:

  1. Reliability Concerns
  2. Did Not Like Look
  3. Too Expensive
  4. Previous Bad Experience
  5. Poor Fuel Economy
  6. Lacked Certain Features
  7. Did Not Want Domestic
  8. Poor Quality
  9. Rapid Depreciation
  10. Too Small

Top 10 reasons for avoiding ASIAN models:

  1. Too Expensive
  2. Did Not Like Look
  3. Did Not Want Foreign
  4. Too Small
  5. Poor Fuel Economy
  6. Not Made In America
  7. Boring / Bland
  8. Previous Bad Experience
  9. Lacked Certain Features
  10. Reliability Concerns

Top 10 reasons for avoiding EUROPEAN models:

  1. Too Expensive
  2. Did Not Like Look
  3. Too Small
  4. Reliability Concerns
  5. Did Not Want Foreign
  6. Maintenance / Upkeep Too Expensive
  7. No Convenient Dealer
  8. Lacked Certain Features
  9. Poor Fuel Economy
  10. Lacked Performance

Despite memorable jingles and marketing campaigns over the past few years, reliability, quality and durability issues continue to plague U.S.-made vehicles far more than either Asian or European models. "An American Revolution" may indeed be necessary to keep U.S. auto sales from further sinking "Like A Rock."

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okay let me get this right, you want to put black fiberglass on your car seats and dash.... doesn't sound too comfortable to me, but you would definitely be able to slide in and out of it really quick....gives a whole new meaning to "firm ride" seats Now the leather comment may be a better route to go but it is going to cost you big time. You should look at good vinyl substitues for the leather. After all it's a 99 Eclipse and you don't want the seats to be more expensive than the car. Either way you are going to need to take it to an auto upholstery shop to get a good job done.
Posted on 12/7/2007 3:53:00 PM by Anonymous
I was looking to do my cars interior seats carpet and dash bord if you can all black. The dash bord i was looking to get it done in fiberglass. But what i really want to do riht know is the seats and the car pet all black seats need to be lether. I have a 99 mits eclipse well if you need any more inf just let me know thank you email me at Ray_69me@yahoo.com Raymundo
Posted on 12/7/2007 2:05:00 PM by Anonymous
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