Random As Rhyme

When I wrote my blog on the bumper sticker that said “Lost your job yet? Keep buying foreign“  it was intended as a knee jerk reaction to a bumper sticker I saw and didn’t like.  I never really thought it would grow to be the most commented post (thus far) on my blog.

I suppose though I should have figured with the potential fall of the big 3 domestic automakers looming in these turbulent economic times.

Economics are tough, I should know I barley passed my O.A.C. class on it. However when one commenter posted: “as a consumer why would I care about all these politics? I just want a reliable car that is fun to ride.” I was inclined to not only agree but write another blog on this issue of Domestics Vs Imports.

I was at the 2009 Canadian International Auto Show yesterday and had a  chance to see what all of the major automakers are going to bring to the table in the upcoming year.

My girlfriend is currently looking for a hatchback, similar in size to Mazda 3’s or a compact SUV/cross over similar in size to the Nissan Rouge . Shes the perfect example of someone looking for a car that looks good, is fun to drive, reliable and affordable.

She spent most of her time comparing vehicles the matched the aformentioned criteria while I jumped in and out of factory pocket rockets (STIs, GTI’s, Speeds) and drooled over classic vettes, 32 fords, chargers and lambos.

My girlfriend currently drives a Civic, its her second, and she has had it the whole time we have been dating. It’s never broken down and other than needing tires, gas, and oil changes never seems to need maintenance.

With this in mind she is leaning toward purchasing another import, however one domestic has caught and held her eye, the Pontiac Vibe.

Her mom drives a Sunfire, and her sister drives a Grand Prix, neither of which have had overly lemon like qualities.

The Vibe is rated as being fairly reliable and the new ones do not look so bad to boot. On the surface it would appear as though Pontiac has stepped up it’s game and listened to consumers by coming out with a reliable affordable appealing car.

It’s no real secret that the Pontiac Vibe and the Toyota Matrix roll off the Cambridge Ontario assembly line as essentially the same car with different aesthetics.

While researching for this post (automotive posts don’t pour from my brain as easy as cartoon/toy ones) I noticed that, generally, the Matrix sells for slightly higher than a similarly optioned Vibe, and holds its resale value much better than the Pontiac.

Even though both cars are essentially the same, and powered by the same Toyota power plant people will pay for the the Toyota badges due to faith in the reliability the Toyota name holds.

I think this is a pretty strong case towards the fact that Domestics are struggling at convincing their market to buy the vehicles they put out, even the ones that are on par with or share the same components as their import competitors.

We also looked at a few Dodge/Jeep compact suvs and compared them to their import equivalents and no matter how nice a Dodge looks and how competitive the pricing is Lyndey’s family history with unreliable Dodge vehicles will prevent her from ever purchasing one.

Which is a shame since some of they are actually fairly nice looking and comfortable. I actually find the Jeep SRT8s quite appealing.

I love how Domestic manufacturers make power vehicles (new term I made up pronounced VROOOOOM), they sure now how to make them loud fast and bold. However like everything else I want its bloody expensive, moving on…

My girlfriends car hunt is a great example of a consumer who doesn’t care about the politics, and just wants a good reliable vehicle. And while Domestic cars present a nice package the reputation of poor reliability haunts them like a bad credit rating.

When everyone is hurting, or going to be hurting financially no one can afford to take the risk in buying a vehicle that could be a maintenance nightmare. The damage to the big 3s reputation could be irreversible and for the sake of the millions that work for those companies I sincerely hope it is not. But even when the political dust settles, will you run out and buy Domestic?

Someone buy both these cars? Thanks.

Today I was cursing on my way to hockey today and I saw on the back of a Ford escape a bumper sticker that read “Lost Your Job Yet? Keep buying Foreign” it was sandwiched between two war support ribbons. As I  up-shifted my Mazda (who is was in bed with Ford) I thought to myself damn this car is going to cost me my job right?

Wrong.

I hate bumper stickers, they are an ugly way to get an often incorrect opinion/statement/propaganda/gibberish across to people who are not effected by whatever witty quip you are flaunting about.

I have owned a few cars in my day, 3 to be exact, one domestic two foreign. To be more specific, one German, one American, and my current is Japanese. By no surprise the American wound up on the bottom in terms of reliability, fun to drive, and fit and finish but that thing was damn curse and deserves an entire blog of it’s own.

It would be entirely to easy to ridicule domestic cars for their turdiness (Aztec anyone?) but if Mr Escape owner were to look at the readily available facts foreign car manufactures DO employ Canadians, and not just in retail but, also the manufacturing sector.

Honda has plants in Alliston Ontario and Markham Ontario, and Toyota has plants in Cambridge and Woodstock, and both are going to continue expanding into Canada, and probably no doubt have plants in the states.

Now I can hear Johnny Escape screaming ” My uncle Will lost his job because of people damn buying foreign cars!”. That sucks, really, I am not an ass, losing your job and supporting 2.5 kids on one income must be tough, especially when one of your kids its just the bottom half. However he didn’t loose his job just because of foreign cars.

Like most things in this word there is more to this issue than meets the eye (Transformers references are awesome), the economy is hurting right now, and the reasons why people are loosing there jobs are far too complicated to be fit onto a “witty” bumper sticker.

But hey, you can always