BrewSwillis

O.K. Agreed.....but you originally said: "Any car with stock tires that aren't meant to handle snow is likely going to have problems." All-season tires are meant to handle snow. The Prius is just showing another one of it's compromises to obtain it's meager increase in fuel economy. It's basically another way to trick the consumer. Yeah, your Prius has better mileage, but you have crappy tires that don't work in the snow, and probably don't handle all that well on dry pavement. Toyota: "You can change them, but you will lose mileage and probably get less then a regular CiviD or Cobalt. Maybe you should have gotten a VW TDI."

Most non-performance vehicles have "all-season" tires. They should be adequate in the winter for all but the snowiest parts of the country.

Just saw this on a deals forum that I frequent. Thought I would share it here because you probably won't hear about it anywhere else. Cut & Paste or go to the thread link: hxxp://i.slickdeals.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=11449&d=1140553277 It appears there is a problem with the OBD (On Board Dianostics) system that causes these Hondas not to comply with the California emissions regulations. So much for Honda's greenie image. They are paying to replace faulty emissions equipment, and any you may have already replaced. Check out the main forum thread and see how many people have had problems: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.ph...04&t=202836 Seems like alot of problems to me. A ton of people on there have gotten parts replaced, and they still think their Hondas are great .....and it's not even a car forum. It is a pretty cool forum to discuss good deals though. I like the "Freebies" section.

Like not paying the US government more than the Japanese did to allow the unfair competition?

Wow!!! I just put out the Toyota humper call, and look how quick a reply came!!

I will guarantee you that more than 2000 lost Big 3 jobs are directly due to Toyota. Even the hardest Toyota humpers on this board wouldn't dispute that.

Wow, a software flash. Could have been worse. Will probably be top news on the local news tomorrow. I think Chrysler is doing pretty well in the recall department against other auto manufacturers and especially Toyota.

People just repeat what they hear. The reviews say that the interior is cheap, but on par and acceptable for this class and price range. I would trade a hard dash that I will never feel the need to rub while driving, for the sweet off-road ability that no other vehicle in this class can touch for the price! It's priorities. Do you want a nice feeling dash that you can stroke all day.....or do you want something with style that can really go off-road??

Another video: The Patriot is just bad ass!!

Toyota makes 3.5 BILLION every four months. Big deal that they invest a sliver of it back into the US just so they can claim more heartland Americanness. They plan on hiring 2000 employees??......How many employees have the Big 3 released in the past year??.......directly due to Toyota??

It really is more complex than that. My son in-law was going to lease a Dodge Dakota for my eldest of 9 grand kids, but the advertised price was for mid-Westerners only. So it isn't so much that you people have stronger principles than us Hollywood types as much as you get a better deal. That said Southern California is Chevy's biggest sales area. So not only do we lefties have a better tan, but obviously better values too. Japanese automakers topple Big Three market share in Calif. For the first time ever, Californians bought more cars and trucks from Japanese automakers than domestic ones in 2006, according to the California Motor Car Dealers Association. By the end of the week, state residents will have bought 938,839 Japanese brand vehicles and 859,206 from the Big Three. That gives Japanese automakers a 44.8 percent share of the California market, compared with 41.0 percent for the American nameplates. Nationally GM, Ford and Chrysler have a 53.9 percent share of the U.S. market, while Japanese brands have a 34.8 percent share. http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/12/27/jap...share-in-calif/

Check the standard safety features, extra gears on the transmission, expensive engine technology, etc. Toyota will still offer more for your money, due to unlevel competition. Just ask the car magazines.

They did not do that! That's the misconception. Toyota, and all the other Asians, started out with dirt cheap alternatives.....and Americans can't resist things that are dirt cheap, no matter where they are made. The only "appeal" to customers was the price. Toyota and Honda did not start making quality products till the mid to late 80's......and alot of their 80's models would rust out in like 4 years. Toyota has an undeserved long time reputation for quality. They may have passed the Big 3 in the 90's, but the Big 3 are back on par, and will never be forgiven for slipping under Toyota for that short period of time. Toyota still sells cars due to lower price, although not as much as they used to (due to their quality "free pass" in the media), by loading their cars with standard options and pricing them against more stripped down Detroit competition......which is due to their unfair business practices allowed by the US government.

http://www.expeditionswest.com/equipment/r...triot/index.htm and video:

There is no way GM buys Chrysler. There would be no point. GM already has everything Chrysler has (including over capacity), and more....assuming they are adding RWD/AWD sedans soon. They wouldn't buy Chrysler just to get Jeep.......and any company that does will be brought down by the curse: http://jalopnik.com/cars/commentary/what-k...yway-238259.php GM does not need more clones of each version of their vehicles.....and there's no way they could resist sharing platforms/engines/transmissions even if they would claim to keep brands separate. It's just flat out not gonna happen!

I called the media backlash against hybrids over a year ago.......and I also said that the backlash would come just as the Big 3 came out with the mainstream hybrids they were SHAMED into creating. The Big 3 will never win in the media. It's too late.

Yeah, the one that comes over from Japan and cheats at Monopoly!

If the styling is so bad then why: 300 - Copied = Ford Interceptor Concept & chopped greenhouses of new Toyotas PT Cruiser - Copied = Chevy HHR Dodge Ram - Copied = New Toyota Tundra Chrysler Minivans - Copied = Everyone else that has a successful minivan Jeep - Copied = Hummer It's no secret that Chrysler is employing "love it or hate it" styling to many of their vehicles. This is done so that people who love the vehicle will want to buy one, and the people that hate it wouldn't want one anyway. They don't have the resources (money) of Toyota who can just buy the top notch of everything to sell a ton of bland vanilla cars. Chrysler has to compete on style. Most of you people that hate the designs wouldn't even consider buying a Chrysler anyway.

Solid post!

It's also been noted that health care and pensions for retirees adds $1200 to each domestic vehicle sold. So, that's about $5200. Yeah, some stuff is Chrysler's fault....obviously everyone makes some mistakes......but what does that have to do with Japanese automakers having an unfair advantage? What are you going to say that is Chrysler's fault that can't be fixed with a bunch of money, or more market share?? The prices are in line with the domestics, but then the Japanese brag about having more standard features.....the features the Big 3 had to offer as options just to stay competitive with the cheating Asians. DCX already brought this issue to the White House, and guess what......they did nothing. It's another shady thing they do. They keep the prices similar, so that the Big 3 can't accuse them of undercutting, then they load up the options so the comparos and magazines can tell you to buy the Japanese whatever because it has more standard features.

Toyota started cheating way back when they entered the NASCAR Truck Series, and they stole Dodge's engine design. Nothing new. :AH-HA_wink:

Sales do not equal profits. They have pleanty of sales, profits come when you have very little overhead and labor costs, like the Japanese. Chrysler sold over 2 million vehicles this past year: Even the universally ridiculed Compass is on target to sell 60K units/year. The PT Cruiser sold 138,000 units, up 4% over last year. They sold 364,000 Rams. I know that you can't argue that Toyota has unfair advantages is the US market (right?), even if it's is the government who should be making sure that competition is fair.....but just for a second, think if Toyota (or any other unfair Asian mfgs.) didn't exist, or all of their vehicle were $5,000.00 more (bringing them inline with price disadvantage the Big 3 are saddled with).....then Chrysler would have a much greater market, as would the rest of the Big 3. Their profits would be up, and the factories would not be underutilized. So, yeah......Toyota's fault.

I do blame the government......but don't pretend that Toyota doesn't spend a ton of money lobbying the politicians, so that policies are not created to level the playing field. Why do you think we still don't have any alternative fuels? The oil companies have alot of money for "campaign contributions".