Quote:
Originally Posted by ronmcdon
Ok, lets say for the sake of discussion, 'reliability, mileage, and power' are the most important determinants of sales figures.
Exactly how much different are Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans in those regards?
I thought all three brands were pretty solid on all 3 counts.
Well...I'm not sure about Nissans being reliable, but that probably reflects my own bias.
idk if I can agree that how a car looks is not important.
Lot of purchases are pretty much emotional buys that rely on whether or not the potential likes the visual design, and the image it brings.
About FWD, I'm personally pretty content as long as the car drives well.
I'm reluctant to bash just because it's FWD.
For everyday driving, I can honestly say I don't mind as long as the suspension's not too soft.
For track driving & autoX, FWD might not be optimal, but at least it's predictable and almost always easy to push.
Not saying FWD is good enough for all, but I think it's fine for 90% of ppl looking for a car.
Would be great if there's a roadster that's actually cheap.
Have no idea how Mazda is still selling the Miata at over $22k.
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Ok to a certain extent Toyota, Nissan , Honda are neck in neck in reliability with Toyota possibly edging out Nissan and Honda. Thing is all makes have their quirks even Toyota. Nothing is infallible. As an expert I know in Semiconductor manufacturing would say , "It's not a question of will there be defect its a question of how it is handled"
In other words when it comes to manufacturing there is always a chance of a defects nothing is perfect 100% of the time. Its a question as to how the manufacturer chooses to address the issue. How is the quality control? ETC..
Toyota showed us in the last year or so while they are excellent in build quality they actually do have problems from time to time and they handled it poorly at first.
Nissan has shown it as well, except that for the most part they warrantied everything on a pretty liberal basis rather than deny it. Point for them.
Honda has not had issues of its own in the past as well. So there no manufacturer is infallible.
In fact S2k shred diffs like they are made of butter.
Now on looks you are speaking about yourself. Considering you are here and you are an enthusiast you hold looks to be a little more important than average econobox buyer. Which is what we are talking about.
If the car looks ok to a lot of them then they are happy. It does not have to be sexy, cute, etc...
Tell me a Yaris is good looking? LOL Yet Toyota sells a ton of them. Same goes for Nissan with the Versa.
Now your opinion on FWD is like the average driver who was most likely raised on FWD. I.E. mom and dad owned a FWD car. These people learned to drive with these cars and get comfortable with torque steer and how the FWD car drives.
Now if you were raised on all RWD cars, then FWD drive sucks in a lot of ways. Torque steer is annoying and with more HP you get more of it. The only way to combat it is to run a LSD which adds costs to the car.
On top of that in certain driving situations FWD is the absolute enemy because once it goes you don't get it back. In a RWD car you drive out of the situation nearly 99% of the time.
Granted in inclement weather FWD can have its edge but it still has the ghastly demon hanging around.
When I rolled my G20 last summer it would not have happened, if I had been driving a RWD car at the time. Once the rear end stepped out to much and the front went It was ok here we go, no amount of trying to correct through steering input was going to help the situaion, The rear end stepped the front went and caught and into the blue I went. LOL
Trust me I tried my damnest to pull it back. The implicit nature of FWD was not going to help.
In a RWD drive car I would have gassed it corrected and powered out of the situation with my rear wheels taking control.
Oh and I don't recommend you try what I went through to see if it does not happen to you. LOL
And yes it is amazing Mazda still sells Miata's at 22k especially since they have become bigger, uglier and heavier.
It was a incrediable deal at 15k when it first came out. Very reminiscent of the phenomena of the 240Z at 4k. in 1970.