2005 Toyota Tundra 4 door from North America - Off Topic Comments

Comments like 12:06 seem to be becoming more and more common regarding imports (Toyota in particular). It is now blatantly obvious that the quality of domestics far surpasses that of all imports.

With regard to comment 12:45, ANY car apparently would be a better choice than Camry. Check out the 2006 Camry reviews and see how many GOOD ones there are (Hint: You can count them on your THUMBS!!)

Good! I am sure you can get a nice discount on a Ford anyday! Yay for prices that the gov't pays!.!.!

15:26 Domestics aren't, never were, and likely never will be nearly as good of a vehicle as almost any import. They've dug themselves into such a hole that they may not even exist in a few or several years.

I'm guessing best case scenario for them is that they will be overtaken by Toyota or Honda eventually. Honda can't make enough cars to satisfy demand, and the Big 3 keep coming up with worse and worse designs, and they can't get rid of them.

I'd hate to be someone with a lot of stock invested in Ford or GM; to watch them screw up so badly with cars like the HHR, and the Cobalt. The Cobalts look nice (design copied from Nissan) but it's still the same cheap material, low quality, corner cutting type of car that the Cavalier was, and the Cobalt won't sell anywhere close to as well as the Cavalier did.

And the HHR, that's a joke. Not even worth mentioning. It's almost as stupid looking as a PT Cruiser or a Dodge Nitro.

Honda is working on advancing the technology in it's already brilliant vtec engines, and the Big 3 offer up things like the Nitro and the HHR. It's pitiful.

"And the fact that you're trying to tell people to be unpatriotic and go buy a car from a Japanese company (I don't care if they're built here, they pay the workers 30% less than the domestic companies and all the profits STILL go back to Japan). That tells me that YOU are the one who is fanatical not the people trying to support their own country"

I usually just read here for the laughs and don't post, but the amount of misinformation here has left me puzzled. Yes Toyota is a Japanese automaker, but a large number of their share holders and workers are Americans. I am sorry where did you get your information that Toyota pays 30% less for laborers? Last time I checked they paid equally, I assume you where just making up numbers to make your argument seem better.

If you want to talk about unpatriotic, how many plants have Ford, GM, and Dodge closed in the U.S., so they can move them to Central and South America, where they can pay a lot less for workers? While we are looking at it, how many plants has Toyota and Honda opened in the U.S. in the last 10 years? Let's face facts Ford, GM, and Dodge are no longer American made, they are more Latin American made now.

To 3/17 13:30.

Go ahead, shred the PT Cruiser, HHR, and the Nitro. But admit that the Scion XB and Honda Element look just as stupid driving down the road. But you will perhaps say they are styling masterpieces, huh? It is always in the eye of the beholder.

"If you want to talk about unpatriotic, how many plants have Ford, GM, and Dodge closed in the U.S., so they can move them to Central and South America, where they can pay a lot less for workers? "

The reason they were forced to do that is because they are being crushed by pensions, and needed to improve their profitability while being undercut by Japanese auto makers dumping underpriced vehicles on the market.

Stock price and shareholders dictate everything now; they only care about how much profit is being made. American car quality is great, and has been for decades. Their profits are not great, because they are the last bastion of the "this company will take care of me for life" mentality that the unions came to espouse and demand. These contracts were negotiated before the "leaner and meaner" days of the 1990's, and before it became clear that individuals needed to take charge of their own retirement plans.

At some point, the unions will have to realize that companies can't afford to pay pensions, and can't afford to pay $30/hour for semi-skilled labor in the age of globalization.

Good luck with the resale value for your "quality SUVs". You should see all the classified ads around here for them - no one wants them.

What makes everyone assume that all of these new 'domestics' are going to be reliable? They never were.

They might possibly be put together SLIGHTLY better than they used to be, thereby impressing former 'domestic' vehicle owners.

The threat of losing their jobs may have motivated the troops at GM and Ford to begin to care about the quality of their product. They're still not even close to par with Toyota and Honda.

The imports have always been great, and I don't know where some people get the idea that they've lost anything; I know plenty of people with brand new Toyota's and Honda's; nothing ever goes wrong, top notch like always.

Yeah, I know they've had a few more recalls lately, but the engines and drivetrains are still near perfect.

I'll stick with the imports that time has proven to be reliable. Honda and Toyota cars are simply better by design, defeating the Big 3 on the drawing board.

The Big 3 have no choice left, but to sell their labor to the lowest bidder. They need to make a wagonload of money, fast, because everyone out there with their wits intact stopped buying their junk a long time ago, and now, despite their efforts to tweak the numbers, they reflect this trend clearly.

They didn't have the quality control and didn't spend the money to make them right before, so who out thinks that they'll start doing that now, with their massive losses and a need to sell as much crap as they can as fast as they can?

They'll continue to do what they've always done, which is slap together as much crap as they can, put a sticker on them, and roll them out on the showroom floor, squeaks, rattles, missing bolts, and misaligned and loose parts and all. And they'll tell you that "quality is job 1", or "everyone at GM is concerned about quality". And just maybe, some of the public will actually believe this, and they'll pull themselves out of the pit once again.

Well, to anyone out there who buys one, you deserve the problems you're going to have. A small amount of simple research will clearly show anyone that buying a Toyota, Nissan, or Honda are the obvious choices if you want a good car, SUV, or small-half ton pickup truck.

Looking at the Tundra and Camry reviews, (as well as having friends who have had bad experiences with both) I can't fathom how Toyota can stay in business. It seems every other one off the assembly line falls apart within a month. My domestics (2 GM and 1 Ford) have never given me one second of trouble. I think the new GM cars and trucks are some of the best in the world.

Yeah, I'll admit that that particular Scion and the Element aren't that good looking either, but at least the styling is clean looking. It's a boxy utility vehicle, and that's obvious. You know what they're going for, just simplicity of design.

But the Nitro? What the hell is the idea there? It's a mess.

And the PT Cruiser, KIND of looks like some 40's or 50's car, but not really. And the one with the wood-panelled sides? What's the attraction there?

And the HHR looks so bad I don't even know what to say about it. I can't believe they sold ONE SINGLE HHR. It's that bad.

My aunt loved that damn PT Cruiser, and had one of the first ones in her little town. The paint peeled off of the rear door TWO WEEKS after she bought it. Somehow, believe it or not, her particular model had body panels that were painted, but not primered first. At least with the imports, you have quality control.

"Let's face facts Ford, GM, and Dodge are no longer American made, they are more Latin American made now."

Facts? Please do cite your facts. We'll be waiting a long time.

05:06 Thanks for an accurate comment; they're few and far between here lately. But you can't present facts like those to these Big 3 fans; they'll ignore them, or tell you you're wrong and just completely fabricate their own facts as they wish were true to paint Ford, Dodge, and Chevy in a better light. The reality is that they're selling out to avoid going under because of many years of bad practice and bad business ethics leading too many years of poor automobiles.

"What makes everyone assume that all of these new 'domestics' are going to be reliable? They never were."

So can you explain why every domestic vehicle my family has owned that was made since 1976 has passed 200,000 miles? These include Ford, GM, and Dodge all the way from 1976 to 1997. If you are so enraptured by Toyota and Honda, you must be used to having junk and just don't know what nice things are. I suppose I would feel sorry for you, except for your continued bashing of superior American products.

"The imports have always been great, nothing ever goes wrong, top notch like always."

Ha, this is hardly the case. Japanese cars have come a long way, but they were junk when they first arrived on these shores. And yet you admit that they have more recalls, while trumpeting how they are perfect? Talk about denial. How many miles on your Japanese car? Unless it's over 200,000 you haven't even earned the right to talk about American cars.