Motor Trend truck of Year

_RaT_ · Jan 17, 2005

What gets me is the drone of the open mufflers these kids put on thier little Civics ect. That, and all these cars/trucks with bass setups you feel from 100' away, much less hear.


Isn't that the truth. They can sound like they are doing 105 mph and be doing 30 mph.

BigDave · Jan 17, 2005

( http://www.jdpower.com/presspass/pr/images/2004055afull.gif

To close, my point was my point is that Dodge, is not on any top 10 (which it is not). )

Hmmm, your chart where Toyota is number one and not 9th shows Daimler-Chrysler at 8th. I wonder who makes Dodge? I wonder why 8th isn't in the top ten? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Now let's take a realistic look at these surveys, and yes these are surveys with personal bias. My wife says her Infiniti never had a single problem. She's filled out 5 or 6 surveys so far and stated this apparent fact. By my count she's had three problems in the first ninety days: squeeling window(dealer fixed, but reocurred), wiper sprayer not working (dealer ignored), nav. sys. that gets lost way to often(dealer says nothing can be done). She won't go back to the dealer since they stained her leather seats during the last visit (dealer: we don't remember doing that). Talk about that five star Infiniti service. She spent $44K on her car, so naturally it doesn't have any problems. Uh-huh. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

So, if you still want to believe the numbers are unbiased anyway, then look at the actual values rather than their order. Let's start with the IQS. This measures current vehicles available in the market place. The average new Toyota has 1.04 problems within the first 90 days of ownership. The unreliable, with some parts made in Mexico Dodge, has 1.21 problems per car. Wow that's huge, every fifth Dodge owner will have one more problem than every fifth Toyota owner. It's really worth an extra few thousand bucks for that much quality. My Dodge has had zero defects in the first year, so I'm better off than the avarage Toyota owner. Go figure. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif Toyota's Scion has 1.58 problems per car, but we'll ignore those and focus on Toyota's Lexus score of 0.87 problems per car. This means one out of every ten Lexus owners who paid $35K for a dressed up Camry will have zero defects. One in ten Lexus owners will be in the same league as my Dodge in terms of initial quality. Man, I even got one of those problematic 4wd trucks /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I don't think reliability is much of an issue anymore with today's cars. Sure, some folks get lemons. My Toyota was the least reliable vehicle I had. The rust bucket with mechanical & electrical problems that I bought isn't the same truck offered today. It was one of those made in Japan trucks that my friends tried to convince me was bullet proof. If guess if it's broken down, it's not getting anymore wear & tear, which should make it last longer. Right? At least I started to think for myself - eventually. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I bought three new cars this year. The Infiniti FX35, because that's the first car my wife actually got excited about. An Audi A6, because it was a steal. Finally, the Dodge, because it was the most impressive truck in looks, performance, & ride. Maintenance, reliability, purchase price, & resale all made the 5 yr cost to own competitive with the other trucks. Toyota's high resale is washed out by their higher purchase price.

As you may have guessed, I'm not a brand loyalist who offers his first child to his favorite manufacturer. In fact, I am an anti-brand loyalist. I have never made a repeat purchase. I consider them all. After months of truck shopping, I found that the Toyota was only one notch above the Chevy in my top five list. The Titan was third, and the Ford F-150 took the second spot in BigDave's Study them, Drive them, & Cost them survey. If Toyota makes the best truck when I'm in the market again, I'll buy one. If Hyundai is making the best truck, I'll buy one of those instead. This time it was Dodge.

Buy the car/truck/bike/tractor that you like. If you like Toyotas, I guess that's okay too. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

willywildes · Jan 17, 2005

Dave you tell it like it is. i have guys i work with who are brand loyal and say they haven't had any problems with there favorite brand. they forget the rear end that broke pulling out of work.the trans that leeks like a colander, and so on. and they always get 5 to 10 mpg better than everyone else. the wife has a benz the biggest disappointment next to my lemon Vet or Ford exploder. toyota have great luck with but you have to be 5'9" or less,no leg room. they kill my hip and back. buy what gets your goat and hope for the best.

WW

gsxr1100 · Jan 18, 2005

willywildes -- I hope this is the truck on Toyota since I am 6'2" and fit fine my my car?

gsxr1100 · Jan 18, 2005

I should have stated Dodge is BELOW Industry avg. Opps! I was looking at another chart but I would want a car/truck ABOVE the “bar” but that is me. Or I would want a car closest to #1 as possible. I guess #8 is ok for ya! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

My point Dave in case you missed it is that the American cars are not up to par yet. You can tell me this and that about the surveys, show me a clean pix, etc but fact is a fact, Japanese are better all round. They will continue to be unless the domestics step up here.

I love it what someone states a Lexus is a ".. dressed up Camry". First ride in both and tell me that. #2 far nicer interior on ES #3, better options on the ES that are not available on the Camry, #4 ES has quieter doors, $5 I do not see HIDS on Camary., #6 better warranty on ES. I know my car is worth XXX dollars but I did not pay retail nor care. Also in 2001 it was only 25% the same as Camary. I close family member has a Camary and it is not like mine.

Also who pays retails for a car/truck? If you do, you are not doing your homework.. You can tell me this and that but I find that people with Japanese have way fewer problems. I have owned a Ford, sucked. A Chevy, sucked. Pontiac-sucked. So has my family and so far, the domestic’s cars are not up to par yet. The dodge look ok, but I am not paying over $30+ for an American car with a BELOW Avg rating.

All autos have issue but so far I have only needed 2 issues fixed after 2.8 years. My domestic auto was over that with 4 months! Never mind real problems. The Chevy was off the scale, big time!

To close,I have purchased this auto (first one) that has less problems, far less, then any domestic auto I have ever bought. I shop on longevity, not resale down the road. I want a car that is good down the road and I could careless about what I “could” see it for. Also it has been #1 for years, not dodge my friend. So far I have not seen any US car manufacture come above my car yet (as noted). I am not brand loyal at all. I buy the best car I can since so far it is not made in our 50 states.

sneaky_pete · Jan 18, 2005

( I mentioned above, I pulled my ThunderHeader. The bike ran great with it on, but because of low back pressure did have noticable low end power difference.)

Soon after they first came out, I put a Thunderheader on a hot-rodded shovelhead (welded & ported heads, hot cam, dual-plugged heads, etc.). Because of the head work and cam timing, it was like turning on a switch at about 3000 rpm. The Thunderheader did real well at high rpm's, and it was real fun to ride, but it was way too loud. My life has been "saved" so many times /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif that my hearing is not good anymore, so I got rid of it.

Egon · Jan 18, 2005

Anybody know the basics of the criteria used to establish the reliability of vehicles.

Egon

_RaT_ · Jan 18, 2005

I'm pretty sure the various manufactuers advertising dollars are one important criteria.

gsxr1100 · Jan 18, 2005

I just go by JDP and some other websites.

http://autos.msn.com/home/reliability_ratingsinfo.aspx

http://www.forbes.com/2003/12/02/cz_jf_1202flint.html

I do not think it is advertising dollars since if it was, my Ford would have been #1!

willywildes · Jan 18, 2005

I was speaking of the Tacoma truck. One look at the Tundra price and i will buy the Ford or GMC for 10K off the MSRP every time. same MPG no reason to get a V6. The Camery is a fine car but i want RWD.

WW