Yes, again, though, quality is not the issue. When deciding between a Ford and a Chevy or even a Dodge, yes, it's an issue, but for the most people buying new trucks, they don't care how good quality Toyota has, they're not going to be accepted in the full size truck market.

 

After riding in a maverick,86 f-150,2 lincolns,a 93 bronco, and my 94 f-150 in my life I'm 100% ford 4-life had a honda for 2 months but it turned into crap after 4 months

 

I think more highly of chevy now and think myself much more likely of buying one. Now that I know they are of above average quality. Because quality is a highly motivating factor for me.

 

So where do you get the idea that they are of higher quality. I would have to disagree with you there.

 

I'm hoping you're right, 'cause we're really feeling the heat in the compact truck segment. Right now, in the Pacific Nwst, the Ranger owns the "price leader" segment, and Toyota owns the high-end of the price schema. That puts the Chevy Colorado and the Dodge Dakota out in no-mans land- not cheap enough to compete with the Ranger, not percieved as "good enough" to compete with the Tacoma. The good news, for the consumer, is statistically it's hard to buy anything that's a lemon anymore

 

You have to understand that this quality rating is mearly that, a rating.
It does not mean the car will be able to do 500000 miles trouble free.

All it means is that after the customer purchased the car they thought it was well put together.

It is a set survey, with a set of constraints, subsequently you are not going to know if that car broke down 2 times in the first 3 months of ownership, or that the dealer had no spark plugs when they needed replacing, or you had difficulty finding a mechanic (outside of the dealership) able to work on the vehicle due to its crazy technology, and when you went to the dealership they charged you $200 an hour etc. etc.

These surveys are all well and good, but they RARELY describe the full customer picture.

 

Me too. Good thing my Titan was made in Mississippi.

My Accord that I had in college was made in Ohio.

The BMW that I bought for my ex wife was made in South Carolina.

My Nissan Pickup that I had when I was 16 was made in Tennessee.

and so on.

People may complain about profits being sent to other countries. But these are all publically held companies, so if you want a piece of the action, buy some stock in them.

 

That's not what the last JD power survey I saw said. For trucks anyways. It went Ford, Dodge, Chevy.

 

Miller got bought out by a South African company. D'oh!

I like my Shiner Bock beer, hand brewed in Shiner, Texas. Texas' oldest independent brewery

 

Did you ever stop to think maybe it is something that you are doing? I'm not trying to be rude about it, but that is a lot of problems to have with a lot of different cars.

 

OK I guess it's time to type a more substantive response to this question.

I have had the following cars in my household, some of them were my ex-wife's but I drove and maintained them.

BMW-3, 1 85 325e, 1 89 325is, 1 98 328Cis
Dodge-1, 2000 Ram Quad Cab 4x4
Ford-1, 1 2000 F150 SuperCab XL
GMC-1, 1 84 S15 Jimmy 4x4 (junk)
Honda Products-2, 1 86 Honda Accord LX, 1 91 Acura Legend
Nissan-4, 1 plain 85 Nissan PU, 1 96 Pathfinder, 1 98 Fronter, 1 2004 Titan

Next I could try arranging them chronologically by ownership period ;-) j/k.

I don't really have much brand loyalty. I drove my Honda Accord the most of any vehicle on this list. I have always liked Hondas, but they are not terribly exciting to drive. As a 6'7" person, I've decided that I really like full size pickups. Just bought a Titan two days ago. I really liked my first F150 and was convinced that there would be a 2nd, a 2004 SuperCrew. I was about ready to put down my money. But something strange happened along the way. I test drove the Titan and decided that I liked it better in some ways. The price and equipment levels were about the same. So I bought it. I really thought I would continue to be a Ford owner, but I just had to have the Titan.

That being said, from my ownership of my F150 I would definitely consider owning one again in the future, it had a very positive impression on me. The same can not be said about any GM products. All my friends who have them have major problems with them. Especially on the cars with leaky intake manifolds (coolant). No thanks.

One thing that bears mentioning about reliability though. Everything breaks eventually. With the premium brands, parts are 3-4x what they would cost for a domestic. BMW parts are so expensive, the cost of doing it yourself on a BMW is similar to what it would cost you to just take a Ford to the dealer. Acura is pretty much the same way. And I know Acura is very reliable, but when parts cost 3-4x, does it really cost you less to own when it does break? For example my plastic radiator on my Legend came apart at 86,000 miles. Well, the plastic top separated from the aluminum core. That was a $700 dollar part from the dealer. I finally bought a cheap knockoff radiator that fit for $140. But you get the picture. I can tell you from my F150 that Ford parts are cheap and plentiful. A genuine Motorcraft filter is $2.87 at WalMart. A genuine Acura filter is about $11 at the stealership. And so on.

We'll see how it goes with my Nissan. I suspect the Titan will be statistically more reliable than the F150 over time. I also expect routine maintenance will cost at least 20-40% more than on the Ford. I already noticed that it says under the hood that "Only NissanMatic J fluid may be used, not NissanMatic D". What in the world is NissanMatic J, and how much is it going to cost me?

 

That's a fair question - any ideas what I might have been doing?

Let's see:

I change my oil every 3k miles
Drive my vehicles VERY easy
keep them as clean as new
keep up maintenance on them...

Honestly...the things that went wrong with these vehicles - I had ABSOLUTELY NO control over - sensors going bad, ticking/knocking inside engines, electrical parts going bad...defective ball joints....

Nope...pretty sure they were just LEMONS!

But thanks for asking

Scott

 

Maybe you need to rag them out a bit more then! lol....

Redline right off the dealer lot!!

 

The second data set I posted comes from the number of problems/1000 vehicles after three years of ownership, so it's probably as good a sample as any of reliability. Of course, durability is a separate issue

 

Go back and reread post 62.

Different ways of measuring quality. What Im concerned about is solely long term quality. How many repairs per 100 units per year on average. Older chevy pickups rate quite well.
For initial quality. Even dodge has had the top ranking now and again. I give a poop less about initial quality. I want long term. I drive 50k miles a year. I want to know what the vehicle is going to be doing at 150k and 200k miles.