The other thread seems to have drifted into this conversation, so we should have a separate thread to debate the pros and cons of both. I’ve had the pleasure(?) of owning/driving domestic, japanese, and european cars over the years, further I owned/operated a high volume tire/repair shop for over 10 years, been in that line of work for a little over 13 and have generally been surrounded by cars my whole life. This has given me the opportunity to drive every kind of car imaginable, from Aston Martin to Yugo, I’ve driven and worked on, in some fashion or another, everything in between. This has also created strong sentiments towards certain makes, be it good or bad; for the sake of this thread I will keep these thoughts to myself and try to remain as un-bias as a possible. This turned out to be a lot longer then I was anticipating, there are cliffnotes at the bottom.
Broad outlines of domestic vs. import:
Domestic: typically cheaper then it import competitor, not only in price but in overall quality. They feed on the old school mentality of buying American, when a lot of the domestic vehicles are made outside of the US and a lot of the imports are made in the US, facts like that are ignored when arguing that mentality. They also focus on the numbers, be it price, fuel economy, speed or number of cup holders they are quick to brag about any or all of those areas that the car excels. In recent years they use gimicky marketing ploys, most notably tempting old rock stars to sell them the rights to their old songs, in an effort to make gen x’ers and baby boomers “relate” to the brand from a time when life was better, simpler. They are ahead of the curve in terms of price and brand loyalty. Their sports cars are, up until recently, primarily good at going fast in a straight line, and much cheaper then any of the competition, they still hold the gold medal in this arena. Recently there have been a number of American sports cars that can hang with foreign sports cars around tracks with turns in them, in many cases outperforming(from a numbers standpoint) the competition at a significantly lower price. These cars typically lack the “feel” of the foreign competition and while are capable of producing biblical performance numbers aren’t as rewarding to drive - a very American trait, if you can’t beat them, muscle your way to the finish line. The heritage of muscle cars has been imbedded in our DNA, Mustangs and Camaros have been cool since most of our parents have been cruising the boulevards. In an era when, foreign sports cars were some what of a joke around town. The entry level domestic sports cars of recent years are easy to tune, with huge gains potential from minimal mods, which subsequently are inexpensive in relation to the gains they offer. As you move up the food chain, the parts get more expensive and the gains are reduced, the law of diminishing returns starts to play a factor. However, when you compare the gains and cost to the foreign competition they are larger gains for less money, typically. If you want to get the job done, domestic cars are fantastic at it these days, but most are still not referred to as a “drivers car” and in the quarter mile arena they are king, in particular when on a budget. The main problem is quality and engineering, domestics, across the board are known for having poor finished and fitting interiors. With very few exceptions are not engineering pioneers, they typically find something that works and stick with it. The Corvette Z06 for example is capable of astonishing performance yet still uses leaf springs in its suspension, a technology that was shared over 2000 years ago with Roman Chariots.
Imports: Typically cost more then the domestic competition, they unquestionably had a tougher infancy due to a prejudice American mind. However, they not only overcame this but managed to excel, something domestics can’t manage to do abroad. They targeted reliability and innovation to sell there cars and initially had to cut some corners to make this so affordable that it was accepted by a proud America. Slowly they gained market share and were fierce competition for domestic made vehicles, so fierce in fact the government had to step and and start taxing the imports to allow the domestics to compete in all too important feature, price. In general terms the imports could offer more reliable, advanced vehicles for less money, and took their earnings and wisely reinvested in their companies. This gave them a huge financial advantage over domestics, which allowed them to have more efficient fuel injection, suspensions and produce more power from smaller engines, the displacement days were over and a new day of performance and finesse was formed. Due to brilliant marketing, companies like Lexus sprouted over night and with in a few years were a major player in the highly lucrative luxury car market. Proving that reliability and the dealership experience are things luxury car purchasers were not only willing to pay for, but wanted. These innovations and huge profit centers allowed the import companies to pour more money into R&D and continually better themselves, in particular through out the 80’s domestics across the board just stagnated, offered very little over the foreign competition and this forged the path for imports to really take over. By the time rolled into the 90’s consumers started to become more aware, paying closer attention to driving, and the experience as a whole, and the import market was just full of highly rewarding cars to drive in this period of time, from the M3, to the 300Z and the NSX - domestics just couldn’t keep up and were focusing on price, which turned out to be the wrong card to play. By this time the reliability of foreign cars was well documented, and the buzz around the globe was this thing called the internet. At first a luxury only the wealthy had to in a short period of time becoming a necessity to be competitive anywhere in the globe. People began talking, people who never would have met before were able to combine ideas and share experiences and in the human spirit wanted to improve things. At this time a mustang was still a pricey car for a kid to buy, but a civic or VW was not. Further a mustang would need 2 headers, these cars only needed one, which inherently made the prices cheaper, and so the history of the tuning market was created for imports. It started out as a few extremists and slowly became the mainstream. More reliable, cheaper cars to not only purchase, but drive and maintain were the new fad. They became the new affordable muscle cars of our era. Slowly the domestics were catching up, but they had a huge disadvantage from the start, still focusing on price and antiquated technology and more importantly they just can’t deliver the driving experience and feel an import is capable of. That is not to say an Accord or Camry is more exciting then a Taurus or Malibu, but it will offer a more pleasurable owner experience and ultimately be cheaper. As with all generations the Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers were getting older and they can’t keep up with change as well as they once did, so they talk to their kids about what cars are worth buying and of course the pride of ownership plays a factor and they recommend a honda because their civic is great or a VW because they love their GTI, etc…As technology continued to develop the foreign companies clearly followed the lead tuner companies started, which is why you see so many highly tuned foreign vehicles from the factory, that there isn’t much for easy or “free” horsepower available - and as quickly as the tuner bubble was formed it popped. With people sharing information and wanting to see hard proof of gains, and when none were available it began the decline of a short lived era that forever changed the direction of the car world.
While I am not that old, I remember when imports weren’t allowed at car shows, now they are welcomed and respected.
Cliffnotes:
Domestics: Typically cheaper to buy, cheaper interiors, lack the finesse, but are the king of the quarter mile and are getting better at tracks with turns despite using old technology. Modding is typically cheaper across the board, in particular when you factor in the gains you get, which is an indication the vehicles are not tuned well from the factory. Some modern sports cars are capable of great performance but still can’t capture the thrill of driving the way imports can.
Imports: Had a tough start but were slowly accepted and proved to be more reliable and rewarding to drive(at that it became a factor in deciding what car to buy). During the 80’s they gained a lot of ground on the domestics due to the domestics being of poor quality across the board, the import companies focused on innovation and features while not compromising reliability. Slowly people realized the tricks that worked on domestics can give more performance to smaller imports, though this was short lived because the manufacturers started to incorporate these items into the new vehicles they designed making the tuning companies a redundancy. By pushing the technological envelope they found what savvy consumers want and can get a fair price for it.
Speed is like a drug(coincidentally there is a drug called speed, how ironic) no matter how fast you go, you’ll always want more to satisfy you. Humans can become very numb to speed, when you drive a “fast” car for long enough you start to get bored with it and need it to be faster to excite you. Its a sickness, thats not to say a car shouldn’t have a certain level of acceleration, but there is a lot more to a car then just going fast.
