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Sparred4Life t1_jaerdrz wrote

The Japanese believe that if they make good cars, people will buy their cars again when they need to buy a car. American automakers believe that if people have to replace their cars more often, they'll make more money.

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MattR9590 OP t1_jaerkso wrote

Yeah that seems about right. It just seems a little shortsighted on the US manufacturers side though.

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Sparred4Life t1_jaev0hs wrote

When you run a business by quarterly reports that can happen.

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RSwordsman t1_jaewyr7 wrote

My FIL had a '98 Honda CR-V that had almost 200k miles until it racked up too much in repairs to keep. I told myself when I was in the market, I was definitely going for a Honda.

The time came and I got a used 2012 Civic with 35k miles. Now the car's 11 years old, around 160k miles and still going strong. Building to less than exceptional reliability seems like a terrible business decision unless you go strictly for the customers for whom money is no object, and/or the ones with more dollars than sense.

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Sparred4Life t1_jaexdfa wrote

You mean like the ones who will only buy Chevy because their daddy drove a Chevy, and his daddy drove a chevy...? :)

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RSwordsman t1_jaexlgd wrote

Either that or people who don't care about having constant car payments and just lease new ones all the time I guess hehe.

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Sparred4Life t1_jaey0s4 wrote

Yeah! If that's the approach a new American car will last that long for sure, that's a good point!

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a_seventh_knot t1_jaerbpn wrote

then why would people buy new cars every 5 years?

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Flair_Helper t1_jaerco9 wrote

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