2008 Honda Accord EX from North America - Comments

"I am 100% domestics now. Maybe my small effort however late is an effort. I saw no significant quality or repair advantage in the past several years with new imports anyway. I will certainly include my German car purchases as well as Japanese models. The ones actually made here with smaller salaries and less benefits is not offsetting the higher salary loss. If your comment on everyone including first time buyers should pay and lose their homes now; is that the punishment you wish on people?"

Good for you. My family has had 2 C-class Mercedes, 2 Japanese cars (both garbage) and one VW. We are now 100% domestic and plan to stay that way. I am talking to all of our friends, neighbors and business associates and pointing out the advantages to our country of buying from AMERICAN industry. A lot of misconceptions are bandied about by import dealers and uninformed import buyers. The truth is that buying Japanese hurts 90% of those working in the U.S. auto industry while helping only a handful and routing 99% of the profits to Japan. In addition, there is much evidence that proves that Japanese cars are no better (or as good as) domestics (just see comment 19:08 above).

I have started volunteering to take friends who own Japanese cars to domestic dealerships to compare. Thus far NO ONE who has test driven the new Ford Fusion has not bought one. Our local Ford dealer can't keep up with the demand. Their used car lot is full of late model Accords, Camrys and Altimas (as well as a couple of Acuras that managed to limp in before their transmissions expired).

I encourage you to join with other patriotic Americans and help to educate the people who don't understand business or automobiles. Usually an open-minded person truly appreciates having someone point out how they can support U.S. industries and get better cars at lower prices.

19:08.

The logic is simple. These numbers represent only a fraction of owners. If we look at actual monthly sales figures for these vehicles, we will see that most domestic models you listed do not rank in the top five for sales. Someone must be satisfied when a model sells upwards of 300K vehicles per year.

27th Aug 2009, 21:36.

I was strongly considering a Ford Fusion as my next automobile, but because of the extremely biased opinions that you have put forth on this site, I would never buy one (or any other Ford product for that matter).

"I have started volunteering to take friends who own Japanese cars to domestic dealerships to compare. Thus far NO ONE who has test driven the new Ford Fusion has not bought one. Our local Ford dealer can't keep up with the demand. Their used car lot is full of late model Accords, Camrys and Altimas (as well as a couple of Acuras that managed to limp in before their transmissions expired).

I encourage you to join with other patriotic Americans and help to educate the people who don't understand business or automobiles. Usually an open-minded person truly appreciates having someone point out how they can support U.S. industries and get better cars at lower prices"

First of all... I have never seen a Ford dealer that was full of used Hondas, Toyotas and Acuras. The dealer near me usually has mostly used Fords out front. Also the Fusion is in no way in short supply here. Any quick search will turn up at least 100 cars within 50 miles. I'm not saying they aren't great cars, but let's not start making imports look worse than they are. And an Acura "limping in" to any dealer is ridiculous... unless it was in an accident before coming into the dealer of course.

Oh and please educate me how it makes sense to continue to support a business that has mismanaged itself to the point of needing tax money from the government in order to survive. Please let me know why that makes sense to you. Yes, I know Ford has not gone that route.... yet, but they have been pretty close and are not much better off than GM and Chrysler.

Plus, the worst deals I have gotten on cars have been American brands. I have walked out on many deals because they won't lower their prices and the cars are expensive at MSRP. Ford is the worst offender there and has some of the highest priced cars. Unless you get a huge rebate, any foreign car is a better bet. I've had the same experience at different GM dealers as well. It took me three hours to buy my last Ford going back and forth to get them down to the payment I said I wanted when I came in. The last Honda I bought (2008) took literally 30 seconds of discussion. They offered invoice pricing and I got 2.9% financing. Easiest deal I've had in a long time.

Domestic dealers really like to stick it to the public with their horrendous markups as well on new models. Look at the Mustang when it came out in 2005 as a retro model. Dealers were tacking on at least $8K over sticker for the first year. Dodge did that on many of its cars as well like the Neon SRT4, and now the Challenger SRT8. Ford dealers are still going strong with this practice as the markup on a Shelby Mustang is ludicrous. Try getting a Camaro SS for sticker right now.... good luck!

Foreign car dealers don't seem to do this as much. I know they all do it at some point on certain cars, but domestic dealers are by far the worst offenders. The car companies should have more control over these practices. I know many people that have shunned American cars due to this.

By the way most of the top ten cars purchased during "cash for clunkers" were Hondas & Toyotas, the Ford Focus did make the list.

However, the brand most traded in was Ford.

I see nothing wrong with this, the dealers, sales people, new car prep-people etc. who benefited at the dealership level were Americans for the most part.

Many of those Hondas & Toyotas were built by Americans.

The sales taxes collected went to American States. The excise taxes will go to local communities.

The cash for clunkers program helped America and American car dealerships.

I feel sorry for those so short-sighted that think it was a failure because every car sold through this program wasn't a domestic.

It sounds to me like some people would like to force us to buy "domestic cars". To those, please feel free to establish your own dictatorship, but do it far away from the USA please.

"Domestic dealers really like to stick it to the public with their horrendous markups as well on new models. Look at the Mustang when it came out in 2005 as a retro model. Dealers were tacking on at least $8K over sticker for the first year. Dodge did that on many of its cars as well like the Neon SRT4, and now the Challenger SRT8. Ford dealers are still going strong with this practice as the markup on a Shelby Mustang is ludicrous. Try getting a Camaro SS for sticker right now... good luck!"

This is 100% true, however these are very high-demand cars. No one is falling all over themselves to get a Camry or Accord.

"These numbers represent only a fraction of owners"

An average is an average. It doesn't matter if you are dealing with 5 or 5,000,000. Pollsters base NATIONAL trends on a sampling of only a few hundred or less. Generally a sampling such as that shown in the comment referred to is as accurate as any.

"Thus far NO ONE who has test driven the new Ford Fusion has not bought one. Our local Ford dealer can't keep up with the demand."

I hope you're not carrying these people in at gunpoint. For some reason I believe your claims about this are bogus. If the Ford Fusion was as great as you and your "friends" think it is, it stands to reason that annual sales would at least rival comparable models from Honda and Toyota. Fusion does not come close. Also, I believe you should start a website so you can begin an advertising campaign for the wonderful Ford Fusion, maybe then they can move a lot more of them. What's interesting is that at the local Ford dealers here (three nearby towns), the used lots always has LOTS of Fords, hardly ever do I see Honda, Toyota, etc.

I do not feel the government should be in the car business. I think it raises prices, and less used parts to buy to maintain older cars that poorer individuals need to get to work. If you commute only a few miles and lack public transportation, why go into further debt to get a loan?

I could get into health care insurance next, Lasik for example, which is not covered by insurance went down 30 percent, while what is covered goes up.

Quit buying imports and grow our economy back These patches are not good I feel long term. Why would Americans want low paying import car manufacturing jobs and less benefits? I wouldn't take one and would accept retraining from my downsizing or change fields. Go back to college too.

"Quit buying imports and grow our economy back"

Buy whatever you want, but stop telling me what to buy please.

"the markup on a Shelby Mustang is ludicrous"

I couldn't agree more. A friend of mine at a local Ford dealership recently sold a special order Shelby for $10,000 OVER list. Wealthy people are willing to pay for expensive toys. As for first year models of exotic cars, I can't fathom why people won't just WAIT a year or two. In two years you'll be able to buy a Camaro well below list. I waited until 2007 to buy my Mustang because I wasn't about to pay more than list in 2005. I ended up getting a fully loaded one with every option Ford offered on that model for only $20,340. In 2005 it would have cost way more.

I know some 60's Camaro, Corvette owners that have paid 10 times recently what they sold their cars for only 20 years ago. It was a really bad move then and even with the dip in some prices its still considerable. You can wait and maybe die tomorrow. If you really want something work hard and get one if you can. I make nearly every local show and love every minute vs. looking at my bank account. I paid everything I have off and do not mind paying more.

"Why would Americans want low paying import car manufacturing jobs and less benefits?"

Gee aren't the overpaid, ridiculous benefits jobs that union workers have, the reason the big 3 is in so much trouble??

I'd rather work for a stable company that isn't bleeding to death in overpayments for current employees and retired employees as well. Yeah, you'll make less, but does making more money make sense when the company you work for is going to go broke from it? Sure if you care about nothing but yourself and don't worry about anyone else or their future. Guess that is the American way though isn't it?... or it was!!

10:12 I wonder if you tell every single customer that enters at your domestic workplace... a really good one would be "You can buy it a lot cheaper overseas instead of buying from us, if you look hard enough and please scour the planet to do so".

16:56 - I really have no clue as to what you are talking about.

Are you saying that you have the right to dictate what individuals buy?

If that is your argument, I disagree.