On Topic (36) | Off Topic (2) | All (38)
So what your saying is because the product is made in the USA, that's what makes it inferior?! What about the fact that European cars are CONSIDERABLY more unreliable than American made ones, i.e. Land Rover, VW? I don't know where you would get the idea that made in USA products are worse then Japanese ones (probably some kooky web sight), but I sure would like to know what your proof is. And "melt the glaciers campaign??!" Who did you hear that from, Al Gore?
Just in time manufacturing, lean production, flexible manufacturing and a work ethic where business is a way of life originated outside the U.S.A. In Japan "Kaizen" is a very organized philosophy of continuous improvement. Its not just the products... its the management and workers minimizing wasteful actions and focusing on quality throughout the mfr. processes. The "imports" made over here have definitely slipped in quality in my opinion. Not an economic or history class and I do like and currently own one domestic and one import. I buy at least one new vehicle a year many have been GM by the way.
"Just in time manufacturing, lean production, flexible manufacturing and a work ethic where business is a way of life originated outside the U.S.A."
Not true. Charles E. Sorensen of Ford Motor Company did so in 1910.
It is true that many Buick models score well in quality & reliability surveys, as do many Honda & Toyota products.
You can get a good or bad example of any vehicle.
Drive what you like, like what you drive, and respect the other persons right to do the same!
Unfortunately we are not in 1910... we are in 2006. The concepts with only one car model, one color etc. are not relevant today. You could say Eli Whitney as well, but that is not relevant to today and especially with the workforce since. I have experienced more defects since 2000 with domestic models vs my imports. Maybe GM increased drivetrain warranty on 2007 models will improve my brand loyalty stance.
<<<Unfortunately we are not in 1910... we are in 2006. The <<<concepts with only one car model, one color etc. are not <<<relevant today.
It's all relevant. The point he was trying to make was who was FIRST.
Yes it was Eli Whitney with the cotton gin... that was actually first.
I love my Buicks. I own 2 Buicks, (My first new car that I bought at the age of 23), a 1993 Regal with approx. 380,000 miles now, and it still is awesome and never has had any work on the engine or transmission. The only thing I have replaced was the lower radiator hose and a dog-bone style motor mount. Altogether, this has proved to be a very reliable car. Last month, I took this car from Pittsburgh, P.A. to Washington D.C. then to Santa Rosa, California then to Texas and Florida and back. On the whole trip I was getting gas mileage in the upper 30s, and my average speed was about 80-90 MPH. I had absolutely no problems. If it was possible, I would drive this car to the moon and back without fear of having any problems. Anyways... my other Buick is a 1988 Buick Electra Park-Avenue, which is what I use for business trips with multiple people at a time, as it is much more luxurious and roomy than the Regal, but when it is just me or me and one other person, I use the Regal because of it's better gas mileage. I also love the factory Bose sound system in the Park Avenue. My friend has a 2001 Honda and it has only 60,000 miles on it and it is already giving him crap. He is now trying to sell that, and is looking at a 2004 Buick Regal GS. I am concluding, saying that I will keep my Buicks forever. Also, here is a quote from my friend who owns the Honda: "Buicks rule, Imports suck"
Although just reading through, I fear I must comment on the Buick-Toyota discussion. I have owned two Buicks and three Toyotas. On my Buicks I NEVER had a scheduled service that came to $500+ which all of the Toyotas REQUIRED... every 30,000 miles or so. Ouch. Two of my Toyotas, but neither of my Buicks were laid up at the dealer for over a week... in the case of one, over a MONTH... and I had to fight with Toyota to get money for my rental car as the warranty only covered a rental car for a week. In addition, I am not at all happy with the Toyota Service writers-their main goal is to extract money from you. My experiences with American cars service departments has been much better... and MUCH cheaper for scheduled maintenance. My old boss used to see bills of $2000 for maintenance of his Toyota, but like many of the responders here, loved the car and kept buying them.
Buick cars are the best, because they are the most safe cars in the market, look at iihs.org, the static shows Toyota Camry is 110%, Corolla is 159% and Honda Accord is 123% above average to cause injury or death, and Buick LeSabre, is only 55%, Buick Century is 85%, well under average. Pay attention to these facts, then you know America car or Japanese car is safer, if you still argue for Japanese cars, someday if crash happens to you, you will have no chance to say "I should drive a Buick", you lose then you lose for ever.
Don't believe, look here, how Camry kills.
http://www.geocities.com/toyota_camry_06.
Japanese cars have, from the beginning, lagged far behind most domestic brands in safety. The reason is very flimsy construction of the bodies. Japanese cars don't have heavy steel frames, as many larger domestic cars do, and the smaller domestic cars using the unibody construction techniques use much more (and heavier) bracing in critical areas. You are far more likely, as the previous comment states so well, to be killed in a Japanese car than in a domestic.
The Buick is an especially safe car (as the previous commenter points out) and is very solidly built. American auto manufacturers have for decades put much more emphasis on safety than Japanese companies.
If I have a choice between protecting my family in a crash or putting them in a car that is TWICE as likely to kill them (again, refer to comment 21:06) you better believe they are going in the Buick.
Comment 06:52 says that "if everyone in America drove a Toyota it would be a better place". In one sense that might be true. Since you are TWICE as likely to be killed in an accident in a Toyota as compared the much safer Buick, I guess it might serve to help control the population and make our roads a little less crowded.
I've always done my own maintenance on my cars because I enjoy it. Yesterday I was buying oil for an oil change in my 2001 Pontiac and struck up a conversation with an older gentleman who was also buying oil. He told me he was changing the oil in his 22 year old Buick LaSabre that had 358,000 miles on it. He went on to state that it still did not use one drop of oil, and had never had any major repairs of any kind. I wasn't at all surprised. As I was changing the oil in my 6 year old Pontiac later it occurred to me that in 6 years and 60,000 miles I had never even CHECKED the transmission fluid, brake fluid, coolant or power steering fluid (I did, they were all fine). GM cars have spoiled me like that. I usually go 100,000 miles without even doing a brake job. My Pontiac has had one battery replaced since I bought it, and other than oil changes and an air filter (I switch to K&N on all my cars so I never have to change them again) it has never had another thing done to it. How anyone could regard these cars as unreliable is hard to imagine.
I agree that Buicks are very high quality, reliable, and over all very comfortable cars. I personally own a 1999 Park Avenue which I am very pleased with. I work with someone who owns two Buicks (a 1993 Roadmaster and a 1995 LeSabre) with over 200,000 miles each! It is interesting to note that Buick is rated above Honda and Toyota in the J. D Power & Associates initial quality rating, second only to Lexus. I think it is unfair to slam either manufacturer, Toyota and Buick are both fine manufacturers of automobiles. I personally would never buy a Toyota, maybe a Lexus, but it is simply rude and unfair to demean someone who would. And the same goes for Toyota buyers who so often times think their cars are next to gods.
Let me make this painfully clear; the Kaizan or the five S are simply what pasty CEOs can do to make themselves feel on top of things. Most failures are theirs, not the worker as they cost cut products and insure the demise of the company such as the big three. I fail to understand how some business degree holding goof can possibly think that making the product worse is good for business.
Back to the Japanese work ethic; well I use to work for one of these North American plants. It was under Japanese supervision. May I say those hard working managers left around five every day.
Secondly, they did very little to see what was happening on the floor.
Third, they had very little programs to do preventive maintenance. Heck I have pictures to prove this. In fact it took them a month to replace parts to a robotic welding arm that was seizing and jerking as it attempted to weld. Instead of shutting down, they kept on running. On my own line the robot was getting stuck once a container; that is one out of sixteen parts. Every time I had to go into the booth and do what I could just to get another container. When making between 400 and 500 parts a day, that gets pretty old.
However the best part is that despite your best efforts, they want to blame you. No no, it can't be the Motoman robots, they're made in Japan, so it must be the workers. Yep, it was a real slap in the face.
The mechanics would try their best to fix the robots, however to be honest, they are under qualified to work on those machines. While the workers and the mechanics are trying to squeeze as much as they can out of pathetic equipment, the engineers, both Japanese and American, sit on the butts playing solitaire or something.
So in the end fed up with this lackluster operation, and the fact I was so mad that some nights were sleepless. I decided to take my revenge. I began to take photos of many things so that when I had sufficient proof I could mail them to the media and possible damage the name of the company, especially since they are public. Unfortunately during one Saturday while things just got worse and worse, I finally snapped in part due to the lack of sleep and lack of sugar in my system. And I couldn't even take my breaks, and get some candy as the line was worse than ever before. So I ran as slowly as possible so that the production would be in the red. When lunch break came and my supervisor had to take over, I left without a word. I am sure that he got intimately aquainted with the horrible line, but I doubt that was sufficient to make a difference.
So there is your quality.