We have mostly been a GM family, as a whole.
Let's see ... where to begin concerning the few non-GM products my dad and mom have owned and where they ended up. I know my dad once owned a Ford Maverick, which was a horribly unreliable car that would break down on a frequent periodic basis, that luckily was totaled by a drunk coal truck driver. Then he would later give the Blue Oval Boys another chance with a red full-sized Ford pickup with the Ranger package. That was just as unreliable and horrible as the first Ford he owned, and I think he told me that he got rid of it for a full-sized, short-wheelbase Chevrolet pickup. He also owned a first-generation Dodge Magnum XE coupe, and got rid of that for a Pontiac LeMans. He would also later own one of those Mitsubishi FauxPars, a blue Ram 50, that would be totaled in a bad winter accident where he slid on a patch of black ice and went over an embankment. With the insurance money from the little blue Ram 50, he would buy the first GM product I would ever come in contact with: a black '88 GMC S15 4x4 with the High Sierra trim package. That truck had actually been wrecked about 1500 miles or so after being driven new off of the dealer's lot and was fixed back perfect. It lasted to see around 250,000 miles before it was traded in for another Dodge, our first Dakota, which would be traded in for a GMC Jimmy. That Jimmy, ironically, would be traded in for another Dakota, which we own now. I know my dad likes the Dakota over the comparable GM compact pickup because of the styling and the V8 option, and I can't exactly argue with his reasoning. He almost got rid of that truck for a GMC Canyon crew cab, however, due to some early reliability issues that were eventually fixed, but thought that he couldn't fully trust the Atlas I-5. Now that the Dakota is payed off, he is considering either buying a classic car (a '76 Monte Carlo) or a brand new GMC Sierra pickup.
Now my mom's first car was a 1976 Chevrolet Nova, which she wholly regrets trading in for an '85 Nissan Pulsar, which was then traded in for a 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier. After my dad decided that he wanted a decent work truck, he gave mom the Jimmy to drive, and then the Cavalier would be traded in for a 1998 Chevrolet S10, which would eventually be my first car. Then, somehow in an incident which I forget, the Jimmy was traded in for the Dakota during my spring break in 2003. So mom made due with driving the big black MoTruck for two years, from 2003 to 2005, when she decided she was sick of driving around the truck all of the time. So then she set out to get a family car, which would be a 2004 Chevrolet Impala. That car wound up having a nasty slip in the transmission at around 40,000 miles, so, my dad fearing an ugly repair bill, convinced mom to trade it in for a 2006 Pontiac G6. That car was a bigger problem child than the Impala: it was in the shop for brake issues, or problems with the electric steering, or problems with odd noises coming out from under hood. And when it came time to trade it in for our Aura, we come to find out that it had mysteriously been repainted. Hmmm ... Anyway, after the warranty on the G6 was up, dad convinced mom to trade cars again, which is why we now have a 2007 Saturn Aura XE V6. Built by sewing machine salesmen or not, it has proven to be a reliable, sound car with decent handling for a front-drive car. I do send my respect to Mr. Forster and company.
Okay, I am finished with the biography here. You can see when my parents strayed from the straight and narrow path, they didn't exactly have the best of luck, came to realize a major flaw, or had to really make them work out to save them from a used car lot. And, because of their pretty negative experience with the Pulsar, they still aren't too hot about Japanese cars. So they come back to GM anymore when it comes time to buy a car.
As for me, there isn't much to my ownership history. It's been 100 percent GM so far, though, haha. I had a 1998 Chevrolet S10, which I mentioned earlier, that was unfortunately totaled back in September. Then I got a 1998 GMC Sonoma, which I own now. I am also patiently awaiting the vehicle which will become my next and first new car purchase, the '10 Camaro V6. I plan on staying within the GM family for my lifetime, given my childhood experiences with the company and the good luck I have had out of the two GM products that I can say are mine thus far.
