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• Saturday, December 13, 2008 06:50 AM

  To the morons who buy foreign cars

  Yes, you're morons. Like snobby, sniffling heiresses at an art auction, you look down your noses at US cars and bemoan their quality, while fawning all over Toyota, Nissan, and Honda. Of course, I'm willing to bet few, if any, of you even know how a car works, and have never dared try to fix one yourself, which no doubt you also feel is far beneath you.

  But I've spent my life working on cars, all makes, and will tell you what's already been proven: smart money buys US cars. Dollar for dollar, they're as well-made or better the foreign cars, are far cheaper on average to buy and repair, and the profit made on those cars goes to a domestic company, not a foreign one.

  What about the surveys ya'll cite? Any survey that involves self-reporting of defects or costs is notoriously flawed, as anyone in marketing will tell you. People spent more money to buy their Camry, and so of course they're going to report greater satisfaction with it. This illusion of a quality difference is ingrained in Americans now. All the "satisfaction" studies just reinforce that.

  That said though, of course you're going to be more satisfied with a $30K Toyota than with an $18K Sunbird. Of course there will be a quality difference, just as there would be in any two items separated by such a large amount of money. But you dopes insist on comparing them anyway, and dinging the US carmakers for the difference.

  Here's a simple test to show what I'm talking about: look at the all the cars around you on a busy highway. Lots of foreign cars, right? Now look at the relative ages of those cars. Maybe you can't tell easily, if you haven't been watching all along, but I can tell you my 1997 Blazer is nearly always the oldest car on the road. Where are all the Hondas/Nissans/Toyotas that are older?

  They're already in the junkyard. You'll see them there, too, stacks of them, if you ever take the time to go look.

  And save your "horror stories" of your prior experiences with the domestic cars. I've seen stories for every foreign car just as well. And in the mid 70's to late 80's, the domestic makers did need to play catch-up to Japan, but that's been corrected, as it should have.

  Read the chapter in "The Millionaire Next Door" about car buying. It's a detailed analysis of the relative costs. You'll see how much money you've wasted worshipping the foreign cars.

  Thanks for helping ruin US manufacturing, you idiots.

  —True2Blue Read True2Blue's other letters
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