Dear Mr. Ford a modest proposal 3631

No they are not the same but the differences among them are minuscule. The point I was trying to make is NO manufacture foreign or domestic builds a perfect vehicle, that is why they all have a warranty. No dealer network, foreign or domestic has a lock on perfect dealerships.

I'm tired of hearing in these NG how great import brands are and how bad are the domestics. That simply is a fallacy. When I still owned my fleet service business we serviced thousands of vehicle of just about every brand you can think of every month. Guess what, they all have problems on occasion. None of the brands one can buy today stands out among the rest. The only real difference among them is style and price. No mater where one looks for statistics that is obvious. Rating brands of vehicles on a 'list' will always show one on top, and another on the bottom, but the difference among brands is statistically insignificant. To say I'm never going to by brand 'X' again because I had a bad one, is just as ridiculous as saying others should by brand 'Y' because the one I owned was great..

The best one can hope for, when purchasing any brand, is that the one they buy is not one of the less than 2% that every manufacture build that is problematic. The odd are far more likely you will get one of any brands 98% that are not problematic. Any brand one can buy today will easily go to 200K or more if given the proper preventive maintenance. In the real world a buyer should be more concerned about the drive home price, insurance cost and the cost of replacing the vehicle, among brands rather than worrying about the brand. There is no doubt that at some point your vehicle will need to be repaired if you keep it long enough, so you should look at the difference in parts prices and the shop rates as well . There is no reason to pay a premium price to buy a particular brand hoping that you will get one of the 98%, odds are you will. If you want to go by statistics, go by the most accurate statistic of them all, total sales numbers. There is a reason the Camry is the number one selling car and the F150 is the best selling vehicle. Buyers will not continue to spend their hard earned money year after year on vehicles that for them are problematic. Look on any dealers lot, foreign or domestic, and you will see vehicles from other brands, foreign or domestic, sitting on their lots that the former owners no longer wanted for some reason.

We keep hearing how GM and Ford market share is eroding but the fact is the market is growing almost every year and both GM and Ford are selling more vehicles today than at any time in their history. When GM had around 50% of the market there were only 8,000,000 vehicles sold in the US by around five manufactures.. Today the market is anywhere from seventeen million to nineteen million vehicles annually from over thirty brands and over 175 models. The fact is GM and Ford sell far more than any other brand year after year, period. More buyer must like what the have to offer than any other manufacture.

mike hunt