Have you been loyal to a particular make of car?

[Bertha Venation]

I've never had anything but Toyotas, and I'll never have anything else.

[onehandle]

1. Honda for 20 years+. But I bought my first GM since the 80s last year.

A 45th Anniversary Camaro.

Not only to support the recovery, but because American cars have finally caught up to cars from Asia, quality-wise.

[gollygee]

2. I grew up in GM town

with a huge GM plant (now closed) and so I became a fan of GM, as was my family for a long time. After the plant was closed I didn't feel quite so loyal and had a couple of Fords. My husband generally likes GM, particularly for trucks, but we are no longer brand loyal. I now have a Toyota, which I would never have been able to see myself buy when I was a kid. When we were a GM town, you just didn't drive foreign cars here. I mean really, it wasn't done. My husband has a Chevy truck, but he also picked up a small used Ford that has much better mileage so he only has to use the truck when a truck is actually necessary for the job at hand.

[seabeyond]

3. i have bought mostly (ok, thinking, all) american. no particular co. was gonna buy toyota

this last time to have the safest, longest running, highest quality even though i paid for the name and didnt get the extras. their quality plummeted. so, bought american again, lol.

[Denninmi]

4. General Motors.

My father worked for them his entire career, it was kind of hard to pass up the juicy employee discounts they used to give back in the 1980's and early 1990s. Now, nada as far as I know. But I haven't bought a new car in 10 years.

[loli phabay]

5. yup im toyota all the way though when i retire and move to europe i will get a bmw

[pipi_k]

6. Not from loyalty, really...

mostly accidental that many of my vehicles have been Dodge/Plymouth.

I don't have a preference.

Well, I guess anything but Ford.

[glacierbay]

7. Ford

I've owned nothing but Fords since I first started driving.

[RebelOne]

24. Ford here too.

I am on my 2nd Ford Taurus. I love that car.

[d_r]

26. on my third Ford

My wife's on her 4th Saturn, I guess it will be the last one. It's paid for and has good years left in it I'd say.

I've also had an oldsmobile and a pontiac.

[Aristus]

8. My wife and I are on our second Acura.

Good car.

My brother still owns and maintains in perfect working order the 1973 Wolfsburg Volkwagen Beetle my father bought brand new (and which my brother helped pick out at the age of 3.)

[Mopar151]

9. Actually, Fords, despite the "handle"

Raced a "Mopar" (powered Modified) for 25+ years. Have owned several old 318 Mopar street cars, 2 Pintos, a "fox" Mustang, 3 Ford pickups, 2 "Calais" Oldsmobiles, Chevy Impala "Vortec" V6, Chevy I-6, 3spd Malibu wagon, a thoroughly rotted Corolla, and a Mazda GLC rear-drive, a couple of 5.0 Grand Marquis......

[Bertha Venation]

10. "a thoroughly rotted Corolla"

But did it run?

[Mopar151]

15. Most of the time

Occasionally it would quit, 'til you ran a jumper from the battery to coil +. "Thermostat" was cardboard in front of the radiator.

[NightWatcher]

11. I had two Corollas, mom had two Camrys and a Matrix, stepdad had a Tacoma and Corolla Wagon

I had a Ranger and currently have a 13 year old f150.

[Go Vols]

12. Never owned a non UAW made car

I am partial to Ford products.

[OriginalGeek]

13. I've owned so many used cars

it's hard to say I am loyal to any brand however I prefer GM simply because my favorite cars (that I have a legitimate shot of owning and/or have owned) are Pontiacs (Firebirds, LeMans, GTO, etc...).

My grandpa has owned GM cars all my life that I can remember and, up until he couldn't get what he needed any longer, they have mostly been Oldsmobiles. He has been in the Airstream travel trailer club since before I was born and usually pulled his trailers with the biggest Olds he could get. But as his trailers got bigger he had to switch to Suburbans for a while and now he has a 3/4 ton Avalanche. But he just sold his trailer and bought an Airstream motorhome - his is built on a big Chevy van chassis.

My first car was a '68 Firebird and I have owned a 71 Firebird Formula and as soon as I can get my shit together I will have one of the new Camaros for my mid-life crisis car. (Unless GM relents and makes a limited edition Firebird just for fun).

My grandpa lets me drive his 65 LeMans around for fun on occasion but he always goes with me so I can't really let it fly....

I freely admit that my car biases have little to do with rational examination of quality and dependability. It's purely what makes me feel good.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. We've been driving Toyotas since 1980; we love them!

My husband recently branched out with the Nissan Leaf (groan)...

We both feel that it's desirable to have cars that we can both drive.

[TrogL]

16. Dodge

[bigwillq]

17. I've always had a Nissan

Three Altimas and two Sentras (I lease)

I currently have a 2012 Sentra. I love it.

Nissans have always been good to me.

[Populist_Prole]

18. GM, mostly Pontiac.

Though I've owned 2 new Ford Mustangs ( great cars ) and a Dodge truck too.

[mnhtnbb]

19. Yes. Nissans and BMW's.

[lastlib]

20. CHEVY!!

My father worked for GM, so it put a lotta meals on my table and paid a lotta tuition. Plus they're good cars--I've never owned a bad one, except when I bought a used one that had been wrecked (previous owner lied about it). So far have almost a million miles on Chevy's, with few problems.

I was about twelve years old before I realize that the brand name for one of "those other" cars wasn't "DamnChrysler"! Heard that so much from my father, I was almost sure that's what they were really called.

[ddavis195600]

21. No, not really

[dr.strangelove]

22. For about 20 years it was all Hondas, the past 10 and now, its all Fords

Both served me well.

[Throd]

23. V8 powered Oldsmobiles

I have 4, but if I can find a good deal on a 1970 Toronado, I'll have 5.

[NV Whino]

25. Hondas and Toyotas

[ohiosmith]

27. Nope. I've owned ten different makes.

[MerryBlooms]

28. Ford and Honda Accord. n/t

[HopeHoops]

29. Ford, but I've had others too. All Big-3 makes.

[Broken_Hero]

30. Sorta...

I tried two Dodge Intrepids both died in the 130k range, a ford that died in the 130k range, and a GMC van that died in the 120k range. Our current Malibu is in the 115k range, and I hope this sucker lasts over 150k, if it does I will more than likely be loyal to Chevy Malibu. I also have a 96 Chevy Suburban, and its currently at 165k, and I do feel loyal to that vehicle.

[sarge43]

31. GM

Except for a Morris Mini in England and that POS Pinto

[hack89]

32. When I was young and poor, I was partial to "cars that ran."

I drive Hondas now.

[PD Turk]

33. Ford

I love Ford products, I've gotten more miles per buck out of them than anything else Ive owned. I have a 1994 Lincoln mark viii that has 285,000 miles on its original engine and driveline and still runs and drives like new.

[Flaxbee]

34. Bertha, no doubt you will think I'm crazy.

I have always loved Hondas and Toyotas. My family had both; we now have an Odyssey I really, really like. My sisters have Toyotas.

But I hate whaling.

Japan is a whaling country, and I don't know if I can support Japanese industry.

Is that ludicrous?

So, next purchase might be a German car. I don't know, though; I *really* love our car, and when I had another non-Japanese car for a few years, I just wasn't happy.

[Major Nikon]

35. I have 4 cars in my fleet. All are Chevrolet

I have owned a Honda in the past, simply because that's what my wife wanted at the time. I tend to stay away from Honda and Toyota if possible, because many of their vehicles are made by non-union employees.

[cloudbase]

36. No loyalty,

though there are some brands I won't even consider given past experiences.

[graywarrior]

37. Toyota, but I switched to Honda

[csziggy]

38. GM - my parents had Buicks and Cadillacs when I was a kid

I took my driver's test in a Cadillac Sedan d'Ville four door sedan - 18.5 feet long and I parallel parked that sucker perfectly the first time!

The first car that was "mine" was the 1958 Buick special four door sedan (about the same length as that Cadillac) that Grandmother had purchased new, passed along to my parents when she got her 1964 Buick, was my sister's for a couple of year, then I got to use it until I went off to college in 1970. It still ran perfectly.

I've had a Toyota Corolla, a Datsun station wagon, a Chysler minivan, and a Ford F-250 diesel. They were all OK vehicles. But my favorite thing to drive is a GMC 2500 Suburban - it can pull my stock trailer with all my mares in it or my flatbed fully loaded with hay. It's comfortable for trips and when I was showing all my tack and feed fit in it and was safe from the weather and from thieves.

Since 1977 I've only owned two Suburbans. The first I bought new off the lot and it was our main truck until 1993 when the engine block cracked. It had something over 250,000 miles on it - we'd driven it for several years with a broken odometer, got the odometer fixed, put another 50,000 on it and then it broke again.

I hunted for three months to find another three quarter ton Suburban and there was not one to be found in the Southeast except new which I couldn't afford. So I ended up with the Ford F-250 - as I said an OK truck, but diesels don't like sitting for weeks on end and it just wouldn't start every time I needed it. So I sold it when I found a four year old Suburban for a a really good price.

That was in 2004 and that is the truck I currently use. It still sits most of the time but it starts every single time even though the mechanics have told me the battery has a bad cell. I'm hoping by the time I wear that one out I can get an all electric Suburban!

[Xithras]

39. Subaru, but I wouldn't go as far as to call it "loyalty".

Anyone who spends a lot of time in the snowy mountains driving a Subaru can attest to the fact that the things are rock solid reliable and as sure footed as mountain goats. Subaru's tend to occupy a fairly hard to hit sweet spot balancing reliability, performance in rough conditions, fuel economy, and price. That's why you tend to see a lot of them in areas that combine snow and lots of curvy roads.

There's a fairly simple reason for this, by the way. Unlike most car companies that design their cars with Americans in mind, Subaru actually designs its models for its Japanese home market first. Subaru tends to have a fairly small part of the American market, but they're huge in Japan. Japan, of course, is a nation of mountains and winter snow, and the Japanese favor the Subaru's with their AWD systems, fairly small sizes, and handling specifically designed for that terrain. They tend to be fairly popular with people in the U.S. who either live or play in areas where those same conditions are popular.

Still, I don't know if I'd consider it "loyalty". Subaru's are very "practical" cars, and they're usually bought by people like me who put practicality ahead of style and pizzazz. If some other car company made something equally as practical, I'd consider it too.

[Art_from_Ark]

40. I don't know if you could really say that Subaru is "big" here in Japan

It's probably the Number 5 company here, after Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Suzuki. So far this year, only two of its models have made it into the Top 30 in new sales-- Impressa, and Legacy.

http://www.jada.or.jp/contents/data/ranking/index.php

And Suzuki definitely designs its models for the Japanese market-- nearly all of them would be considered "subcompacts" in the US, and most of them have an engine displacement of less than 1 liter, which qualifies them for the special "yellow license plate" in Japan that gets discounts for taxes, inspections, and highway tolls (not to mention better gas mileage). And the smaller size of Suzukis makes them easier to park in small spaces, and navigate narrow streets that are so common over here.

[Xithras]

42. Interesting.

A friends son is a nature photographer and recently spent a month on Hokkaido exploring and photographing the various national parks for a German travel mag. I picked him up at SFO in my Forester when he got back, and he was telling me that he'd been driving a rented Subaru Eziga (sp?) while he was there, and that there were Subarus all over the place. He did mention that you don't see many in the large cities because of their size, but they're relatively popular in more rural areas.

That does make a bit of sense. People living in Japanese cities probably don't have any more need for the AWD systems than people in American cities do. Doesn't change my basic point though...Subaru designs their AWD cars to handle well on the narrow, curvy, and potentially snowy roadways that cross the islands. The design process is very different from that employed by most car companies, who primarily design their cars for mass appeal by focusing on urban and high speed freeway usage. Over the decades, this has earned Subaru a very loyal following from people who are simply looking for a practical, reliable car that will handle well in nearly all conditions. The only cars I can think of that really compete with it are the AWD Volvo's.

[Art_from_Ark]

43. Well, Hokkaido is Japan's snow country

as is much of the Sea of Japan coast, so I could see where a company that makes AWD vehicles would sell more in those areas. Even so, neither the Impreza nor the Legacy is an AWD. And while I try to avoid snowy roads at all costs, my current subcompact is much better at navigating the local narrow, curvy roads than my previous sedan.


By the way, the name of the model you rode in in Hokkaido is Exiga, I think.

[emilyg]

41. Toyoto - forever esp. Camry