Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?

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mcgsxr

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #40 on: 29 Mar 2017, 11:53 am »
I listed the cars I owned.  Here are a few more my wife has owned:

1994 Honda Accord
2002 Honda Accord
2007 Hyundai Entourage
2014 Acura RDX

If I tried to list all the motorcycles I had it would be a real memory test.  Of the 32 I owned over a 10 year period the majority were Suzuki (GSXR's) with a single Honda, a single Kawasaki and a few Yamaha's sprinkled in, mostly during the Taiwan years.  I had 14 GSXR's over a 4 year period where I was building and parting out bikes in the late 90's.

kclark0395

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Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #41 on: 29 Mar 2017, 12:32 pm »
My last four cars were Acura. They have had terrific reliability and we have a fantastic dealer near us who I use for service I don't perform myself. My wife drives a Toyota SUV and has had a couple Toyotas, but other than a brief stint with a Subaru it's been decades since I've owned any other brand.

Dave G

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #42 on: 29 Mar 2017, 01:07 pm »
Japanese cars.  I'm 65 and have only owned four cars, that is, cars where I'm the primary driver :

1980 Honda Civic wagon
1989 Mazda MPV minivan
1999 Toyota Sienna minivan
2008 Toyota Highlander SUV (bought used in late 2010) 


GT Audio Works

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #43 on: 29 Mar 2017, 01:09 pm »
I love my 240 Volvo's..."The Brick"...I have 3.
One of which I have owned since new.
The '93 with 230,000 miles is mine... gave one of the '92's to my 20 yr. old daughter.
The other '92 my 18 yr old son is using, (much to his indignation) till we fix his 2001 VW Jetta VR6 ,
which we are always fixing, terrible car for reliability.

Sure these cars are going on 25 yrs old but parts are cheap and plentiful on ebay, and they they are exempt from NJ DMV inspection.
Their issues are well known and easily fixable, but for the most part very little has gone wrong with my 240's over the years.
They have smooth and ample low rpm power delivery, they handle surprisingly well on a twisty country road.
They were a popular rally car back in the day, great inherently rigid and balanced chassis.
On the highway they have a smooth solid and satisfying ride.
They have a classic European sedan look, similar to the more pricey Mercedes W123 series.

I would think most people would laugh at them on the road, but when I move to a more sedate lifestyle out west a few years from now.
I will find a nice clean 240 or 242, stiffen and brace the chassis, massage the suspension, wheels and tires with aftermarket goodies and drop in a nice 300hp small block mated to a 5 speed. The only hint as to anything not stock will be the sticker I now have on my '93.

Then we will see who is laughing !
Greg
 

twitch54

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #44 on: 29 Mar 2017, 02:28 pm »
since i got my drivers license in'69 I can't remember the number of cars /  brands I've owned but while I've enjoyed many Ford, GM and Mopar my fondest memories are with my Mopar muscle of the late 60's / early 70's and the six Corvettes I've owned over the past 40 years.

The only bad memory was my '88 F250, leaked every known fluid there was and some of which the Ford dealership couldn't even identify !

kmmd

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #45 on: 30 Mar 2017, 09:28 am »
Ah, I guess so:

1986 Honda Prelude Si - gone
2000 BMW 528i - gone
2007 BMW 335i coupe - my daily driver
2015 BMW M6 Gran Coupe - European delivered - my weekend car
2016 BMW M3 - European delivered - wife's

Next car - BMW M5 AWD or maybe Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio if it's more reliable

jaywills

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Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #46 on: 30 Mar 2017, 11:18 am »
Looks like it for me, too:

'68 BMW 1600
'74 BMW 2002tii
'75 BMW 2002
'75 BMW Bavaria
'81 BMW 533i
'85 BMW 325is
'91 BMW M5
'01 BMW 740iL

lokie

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #47 on: 30 Mar 2017, 12:09 pm »
I guess I am:

2002 Toyota Land Cruiser- still a daily driver and going strong.

rockadanny

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #48 on: 30 Mar 2017, 12:51 pm »
Ford for me. I've worked for Ford and GM in various engineering depts., and preferred the way Ford developed, engineered, and built their cars over GM. And also preferred working for Ford over GM as well. Ford felt like a family business. I also greatly respected Ford declining any federal gov't. bailout money. (I believe they could have taken cash, but chose otherwise, wary of the strings attached. I could be wrong about this as my memory is suspect.) Plus, I have had best luck with Ford products as well, including my current vehicle: 2003 F-250 V10 4x4. It still runs great, and to this day get compliments on its looks.

stereocilia

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #49 on: 30 Mar 2017, 02:28 pm »
I'm on my second GTI. I would buy another VW, but I won't because of the diesel cheating scandal.  :cry:

Photon46

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #50 on: 31 Mar 2017, 12:14 am »
I've gone through a few cars in my life; 1961 Austin-Healy Bugeye Sprite, 63 and 65 VW Beetles, a VW 311, 1961 Mercedes 190, Datsun 1600 & 2000 roadsters, 2 Datsun 240Z's, Toyota Celica, Acura RSX, a domestic diversion into a Ford Contour, a 2003 Honda Accord, Mazda 2000 Pickup truck. There are others not worth mentioning. My current drivers are a 2008 Acura TL and 2013 Lexus CT200h. I like the Acura TL as much now as the day I drove it off the lot, one of the very few cars I've owned I could enjoy for a long time. (The '61 Mercedes 190 was another one that I really liked and wish I could have kept. Engine block developed a crack.)

In an earlier career, I worked in service management for Acura, VW, Saab, Volvo, and Mercedes dealers. Having worked with German cars for over a decade, I'd never spend my money on one. I love many aspects of German engineering and the way many of them drive, but the reliability of German cars pales compared to Japanese cars and I have no patience for trips to the dealership to fix problems that are the result of poor quality control and over complicated design.

I find Acura and Lexus to be the right blend of quality, pricing, reliability, and engineering. (Although Acura has slipped due to some problems with their newer models.) They definitely aren't the pure driving machines that the best from Porsche, Audi, and BMW are, but they are good enough for me and their reliability is what ensures my loyalty.

Dieterle Tool

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Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #51 on: 31 Mar 2017, 11:57 pm »
+1 for Toyota.

Johnny2Bad

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #52 on: 1 Apr 2017, 12:55 am »
Ford for me. I've worked for Ford and GM in various engineering depts., and preferred the way Ford developed, engineered, and built their cars over GM.
...
 I also greatly respected Ford declining any federal gov't. bailout money. (I believe they could have taken cash, but chose otherwise, wary of the strings attached. I could be wrong about this as my memory is suspect.)

Ford didn't take any bailout money mostly because they nearly went bankrupt a few years earlier than the crisis*, due almost entirely to gross mismanagement during times of plenty, and were forced to divest most of their non-core divisions to raise cash (Jaguar, Volvo, their interests in Mazda, Land Rover, there were a few more ... Corning, maybe?), which allowed them to set up bank / other financing and crawl back into stability.

So, when the crisis hit they had effectively already had their bailout money in hand and were also already deep into restructuring. Now, you're right that it was regular financing rather than government crisis money, but none the less, they almost managed to go south during a time of record automotive sales, and benefitted from the fact that banks were actually lending when they needed them to lend.

* In 2006 Ford had a record $12.6 Billion loss; which worked out to $4,700 per vehicle sold. They mortgaged practically every asset they had in North America, including the trademark for the Blue Oval logo, and secured $23 billion in financing.

Less than three years later the shoe dropped on the automotive industry but GM and Chrysler didn't have any "crisis" financing in place; there was no call for it when they both were enjoying record sales and were profitable. Once the meltdown happened they were faced with the double whammy of no cash flow (no-one was buying) plus it was impossible to secure any financing as no-one was lending. Lets not forget that the end result was GM went bankrupt and Chrysler only escaped on a technicality, by selling the farm to Fiat. Neither would have, had they had a pre-crisis war chest in place like Ford did.

Business is funny sometimes.

rockadanny

Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #53 on: 2 Apr 2017, 01:11 pm »
Ah, thank you for the explanation Johnny2bad. Very interesting.  :thumb:
I suspected I was suffering from a somewhat memory2bad.  :lol:

syzygy

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Re: Are you loyal to a brand (of car)?
« Reply #54 on: 2 Apr 2017, 06:39 pm »
3 Hondas in the driveway right now; Odessey, Accord, and CRV. I'm very close to buying an '03 S2000 this week. It seems that we are a Honda family.