General Motors?

[Marco-Polo]

good mileage, For some reason Americans do not view them as being a good value. I am not sure why. I guess we are remembering things like the Chevette.

In terms of total cost of ownership - cost of purchase, fuel, insurance, service, sundries, minus resale value - it's hard to argue that big 3 automakers provide what's comparatively "good value", especially at the bottom to mid end. That's not to say that Detroit doesn't make quite decent cars at an acceptable price point. They've moved well past the era of "On A Clear Day, You Can See General Motors".

American brands tend to have disproportionately low resale values. The major factor in low resale value is probably the perceived quality, which has a decent basis in objective reports of quality (ie, Consumers Reports, etc); buyers hedge against the market for lemons (the seller knows the car's true value relative to other equivalent cars, and is more likely to sell if the car's actually worth less (ie, is defective) than the average used car, resulting in a used car market overpopulated by lemons) by purchasing a brand with a reputation for high and consistent quality - in other words, a Japanese one.

 

[CoventryCat86]

I've owned so many cars over the years but here's a list of "daily drivers" :

1968 Chevrolet Biscayne station wagon
1972 Chevrolet Kingswood station wagon
1963 Chevrolet BelAir station wagon
Datsun 1200 (a 1971, a 1972 & a 1973)
1974 Chevrolet Impala coupe
1975 Toyota Celica
1963 Chevrolet Impala convertible
1970 Cadillac DeVille convertible (blue)
1970 Cadillac DeVille convertible (gold)
1972 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 limousine
1979 Datsun 810 coupe
1979 BMW 733i
1982 Buick Century
1986 Buick Century Wagon
1987 Buick Park Avenue
1986 Jaguar XJ6
1989 Buick Park Avenue
1996 Jaguar XJ6

My brother and I still have a 1978 Chevrolet K20 4WD pickup "work truck" and I have a 1987 Jaguar XJ6 project car hanging around.

I've never owned a Ford or a Chrysler product or an AMC for that matter.

I love big, 4 door sedans and I really hate this whole SUV craze, freakin' Buick only makes two cars now.....and I can't even think of what they call them anymore, I think one is a Lucerne....
The 1991 - 1996 GM "C" cars (Buick Park Ave & Olds 98) will be valuable "classics" in years to come as will the last generation Buick Riverias (1995 - 1999).

As you can tell from the list, I've always been a GM fan but I've never bought a new car in my life and never plan on it. I have a deep sentimental attachment to GM but people's tastes have changed over the years and I don't see GM making any cars in the near future that I want to own.

I drove Nissans/Datsuns for a while and the Japanese to this day can't make a car that won't rot to living hell way before it's time so I won't waste my money on them anymore.

I'm sticking with used Jaguars for now. 1995 - 1997 XJ6 are one of the best cars they ever made. 1998 - 2000 are junk but they fixed the V8 in 2001 so those are an excellent value for the money at the moment.

 

[sack]

Used to buy Chevys, now i buy Fords. What can i say, i'm a sucker who buys American. :thumbs: