Marco-Polo
Go Irish Go!
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2008
- Messages
- 724
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.