I got around to watch this 20/20 special on the rise, fall and rebirth of GM that was on my TiVo.

The fact that caught my ear was that apparently its the baby boomer generation that buys into Toyota's marketing while its the generations before and after that still prefer and buy domestic cars.

Any comments?

all my friends drive imports, or if they buy domestic they buy ford.

I think the baby boomers also suffered through the worst Detroit had to offer, and the beginnings of imports being mainstream and better then the domestic cars. We have also seen the end of people being brand loyal which I partly feel is caused by the loss of people being able to repair cars themselves. It is getting more and more rare that people are a Ford or Chevy person for life. Cars also used to have a hierarchy Ford was the lowest common denominator with Chevy being more expensive. Ford and GM built cars for the working class while Buick's were perhaps a step above and Caddy's were an unobtainable symbol of wealth. I could never quite put a finger on when that all changed though.

I'm the guy that buys a car because I like it, not because of who built it. That's why I'm buying a Saturn. I've had imports since I started driving, and the little Astra turned me back on to GM cars. I know it's imported, but it's still a GM car.

My parents were both born in '61 my dad drove "REAL Cars" and after several lemons in the 80's and success with imports in the 90's and 00's have both sworn off buying domestic ever again. My grandfather who used to be a Buick and Cadillac man is now driving a Camry. My grandmother still drives a 94 V8 Cougar faster than I do.

Actually my parents are not happy with Toyota or Nissan right now. "Nissan isn't as nice as Toyota" my mom puts it and my dad's had a lot of problems with his Tundra. I don't know what my dad will do in 8 years or so when he decides to buy a new vehicle. But my mom is going to replace her Pathfinder in a few years with probably a Subaru Forester.

My boss traded in his Custom "Private Circuit Racing" Mitsubishi EVO for a Yellow Corvette. Got about 15k on the trade in; wasn't happy. But he loves his car; even though we all think it's a bit gay. (the color of the car.)

It's funny cause his car couldn't keep up with mine on the highway in torrential downpours. AWD Advantage FTW.

for those of you who tuned in late, i was raised in a household where we drove Fords exclusively. My parents are 59 (dad) and 58 (mom). My mom started driving GM's when the Fords were just too unreliable. My first 'real' car was a 1980 Ford Pinto. I drove the wheels off that car, just went everywhere with it and despite it being 11 years old at the time, i only had it break down once where i couldn't get it home (timing belt snapped 3 miles from home).

My Cavaliers never had an anxious moments and I drove them all over the east coast. The thing I am getting at is the whole 'import=indestructible' thing. It's a fallacy, a falsehood. It's a car built by guys and therefore is just as prone to breakage and failure as any other car. As Skelly once put it, people who buy toyotas are people who get more excite over buying a refrigerator than a car. In the 1970's and early 80's, American cars sucked. The styling sucked, the build quality sucked, they had no balls, they were the pits. i think by 1990, Detroit started to come around, slowly.

i'm too fucking tired to launch into a diatribe about imports. Understand this, I don't hate the cars, i hate the uneducated fucktards that spout on and on about resale value and build quality... it's a car, not a trading card. you bought the fucking thing to drive, not trade every two years.

I've been pretty much raised on imports ... but I agree with you Sam. I can understand where my parents are coming from on their views of domestic; they stopped driving them at the point when it was an all time low.

My dad's last good domestic was a 71 Plymouth Duster. He takes care of his cars. It's not unusual for him to keep a car for 10 years or more. He replaced the Duster with an mid 80's Dodge Diplomat. The Diplomat had so many problems. Which he replaced with the 92 Toyota "No-Options" Pickup which was replaced with the Tundra. I rolled the 92 truck around a hill on December 4, 2009 and after re-splicing the battery cables July 14th it started back up no problems. That's after being beat to hell by me for a year previously and sitting over 8 months without being started up.

My mom went through a number of ill fated small domestic cars. The two most memorable were the 74 Chevy Vega which burned more oil than it did gas. That car didn't last long. She ended up not driving for most of her college times. And she had a late 80s corolla with pop up head lamps that she got billed as a "sports car" and had to pay three times on insurance as she should have. She regrets getting rid of the Corolla. But she needed the 4WD Pathfinder because of her line of work never closes ... essential personal are expected to be at the hospital even when there is 1 foot of snow on the roads.

Posted by TheVicariousVadder the 74 Chevy Vega which burned more oil than it did gas.

I had a 1989 Hyundai Sonota. It ran for 680,000. This is when Hyundai was known to be a hunk of junk. At the end, it was a genuine two stroke engine, as it burned a 50/50 mixture of gas/oil.

Posted by Greg I had a 1989 Hyundai Sonota. It ran for 680,000. This is when Hyundai was known to be a hunk of junk. At the end, it was a genuine two stroke engine, as it burned a 50/50 mixture of gas/oil.

She drove it from college to home ... 40 miles and it was down a quart of oil. She used to keep a case of oil in the trunk.

my 86 Dodge 600 coupe was like that... go through more oil than gas. Not sure where the hell it was going?

sam i dont know if you ever had the problem, my 83 j2000 had a mechanical fuel pump, at the end, to shut it off i had to keep it in drive cus it would diesel forever

never had a mechanical fuel pump on my J's, but my Horizon with the VW 1.7L would do that every now and again.

I found this tonight...

http://www.dailyfi...t-of-bankruptcy%2F

GM must really be hard up and I mean hard up.

Shael

Heh... that article was actually a pretty good read.

I think Chrysler had a perfume or something at one time for some Plymouth model in the 80s...

the perfume was lee iacocca ball sweat
chuck norris thinks hes tough, he is no match for lee!

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! the perfume was lee iacocca ball sweat

If Anyone here is a reader, read Lee Iaccoca's autobiography! Its a no bullshit look at everything he was involved in.

that man needed a ball bra to carry his balls

I like GM for 1 reason only.

LS1.

Light, ridiculously powerful, can be stuffed almost anywhere, and is cheap to modify and every autozone has enough parts to rebuild one.

Posted by Sinister Crayon I like GM for 1 reason only. LS1. Light, ridiculously powerful, can be stuffed almost anywhere, and is cheap to modify and every autozone has enough parts to rebuild one.

a friend of mine stuffed an LS1/6speed into an 86 Mustang SVO shell he had... ridiculously fast car now.