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Some families have automotive traditions and only choose one or two specific nameplates. Some buy cars with the styling they like most. Some go with whatever is the most reilable and gets the best gas milage. Some go with whatever the best deal is on the used car lot. Some go for performance cars, whether they be big torquey V8s or little 4-cylinder turbo-charged high revving machines. Different manufacturers offer many different products. Whatever you want, it's probably available.

So... which car company do you prefer, and is it because of one of the above reasons? Something else maybe? Well well well, let's just see then shall we? OK.

Smart vehicles are already in the UK (right?) but they will also most likely be available in the US in 2007! First there will be a small SUV to compete with the Toyota RAV4, but more interestingly the next generation of this car will be available (Image from answers.com). This rear wheel drive beast has a 60HP 0.7 Liter turbo-charged 3-cylinder engine (well the one in Car & Driver did)... perfect for personal transportation. Just watch out for those Chevy Suburbans and Ford Expeditions.

As appealing as the little Smart is, I would rather drive something that offers a chance of survival in the event of a crash. Scions are fantastic cars, as are all Toyotas. Right now I drive a Chevy Cavalier which is only a decent looking car because of some modification (though it's still mechanically poor). My next car will be a decent car straight from the factory at a good price, a Scion. The tC looks great (GM noticed this and made the Pontiac G6 look just like it , or at least it seems that way), but there's something very appealing with the xB. It's a brilliant concept in space efficiency as Consumer Reports puts it. Plus it gets 30 MPG in the city! I won't be buying a new car for 4 years probably so there may be a new Scion model out by then that's better than the current offerings.

Ford and GM make ugly cars that are poorly built in my opinion. I never liked the styling on most European cars either.

EDIT: I forgot Mitsubishi. That company is part of DaimlerChrysler.

This post has been edited by i90east on 25th March 2005 15:43

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

I have a 97' Jeep Wrangler, black exterior with tan ragtop w/ tinted windows all around. I would not exchange this vehicle for ANY other car, save maybe a nice new Liberty. (the extra kid on the way will kinda demand more than two doors)

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

I've never owned anything but a Toyota. No real reason for the first one, except for the fact that it was an extremely cool car that I could actually afford used. I wish I still had it. After that I had my Lexus, until it was totalled, and now my daily driver is my '04 Corolla, first car I ever bought new.

I'm not married to Toyota, and in fact I doubt my next car will be one (more on that later). But they are reliable, inexpensive cars that still can be styled very well. For an economy sedan, I think my Corolla is pretty nice looking, a lot more attractive than a Civic, for instance. Plus it gets 39MPG highway. Note that I didn't get at tC myself because they weren't out yet when I needed a car.They came out two months later.

The Lexus became Angie's car when I got the Corolla, because my commute was longer, so more benefit in the great gas mileage. When the Lexus was wrecked, we replaced it with a car that I'd wanted for five years - a VW GTI. There are still a lot of Americans who think VW has no style, but for someone like me who respects Northern European design a lot more than American, in virtually every category of design, the VW line is about as attractive as cars can get. The GTI is a fast little bugger, too, especially for only having a stock 2.0L four-cylinder in it.

We're planning on keeping those two cars for another few years at least. The GTI has under 50k miles on it, and the Corolla only 12k, so why rush? By the time we're looking again, my wife will have her masters' degree and I'll probably be making around twice what I am now, so we may step up. I'm considering a Volkswagen R32 for me, and an Audi A4/S4 for Angie (or maybe an Allroad if we have a family by then). Or, if Toyota can get production to match demand, we might just get matching Priuses - we both wanted one instead of the Corolla and were willing to pay to get it, but we couldn't wait a year.

But I digress a bit - for my money, the car companies I prefer most remain Toyota and Volkswagen. In ten years, when I expect to be a bit better off than I am now, having paid all student loans, credit, etc. off, I'll still like Toyota and VW but will probably have moved on to something more luxurious and likely German - I still want to end up in an M3 at some point. I think Angie will want another Lexus by then, probably another ES because she loved that car to death.

It's hard to come up with an overall answer. In terms of being a smart purchase, I don't think anything trumps Toyota. In terms of having a quirky sense of humor and total personality, VW takes the cake, even over the Mini brand. In terms of sheer design, I think Nissan edges out Daimler's American cars by a nose. The Infiniti G and FX, and Nissan's new Maxima and Altima are absolutely gorgeous; however, the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum are also really well-designed cars. I think Ford is rebounding on the design end, now, though. If you don't think the new Mustang is a piece of art, something is wrong with your sense of style. The new Five Hundred looks a lot like a VW Passat, and the Focus is clearly Euro-inspired. They're taking the right path.

At the end of the day, I vote Toyota, but I hate polls like this.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I currently have a Buick which is alright but my dad has a Cadillac and when I get a chance to drive it, it is like a dream. So hopefully one day I can get a Caddy, otherwise I would probably stick with GM cars like Buicks and Saturns.

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War is for the participants a test of character; it makes bad men worse and good men better. - Joshua Chamberlain

U sir R a n00b >:-( - Cactuar

Not so long ago, I remember your "leaving the CoN, BGrugby. Nice to see you've come back.

I don't feel fanatic about Jeeps, but I do really, really love mine.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

I prefer any car that doesn't take alot of gas to make it go a long distance.
17 year olds are like that. So probably a Honda Civic. Or some Toyota
Edit-
I didn't see Honda initially. So I voted Toyota

This post has been edited by MogMaster on 25th March 2005 20:17

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

Any Porsche fans here? If it's dream cars we're talking about, give me a gunmetal grey 911 Carrera Turbo. Absolute beauty of a machine, and it's got some zip too.

I also love Jeeps, any Jeep really. Thinking about getting a Liberty when my current car falls apart. I drive a 97 Isuzu Rodeo now and absolutely love it. They changed the body style a few years ago and I hate the new look. I wish I could turn back the dial and get a new one from 97, cause mine's topping 100,000 miles now and stuff breaks every month.

Toyotas are pretty good too, reliable, cheap, and pretty good styling. I've always like the 4Runner.

This post has been edited by imperialstooge on 26th March 2005 00:10

This one was a difficult one to answer for me, trying to decide between Toyota and Honda, though different models than mentioned. The only two types of cars I have ever really spent a lot of time driving are Honda Accord and Saturn SL2. The comparison between the two isn't really fair, however, because the Accord was an '85 and the Saturn is a '97. I do like Toyota and have my eye on some Toyota models but I really would like to get a silver Honda civic, so I put my vote in for Honda.

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Elena Indurain

Currently Playing: Suikoden II

Probably Toyota. Good gas mileage, not to shabby looks, and it's not that stupid volkswagon that my parents loved.

I'm not a real car-guy. If it works and is drivable, it's perfect for me. I prefer small compact cars, so I woul prefer Honda, Nissan, or VW Beetle.

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"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

When my brother got his first car, it was "hidden" at our aunt-and-uncle's until his birthday. It was a (especially fruity-looking) Dodge Neon. We hitched it up to my dad's Bronco to bring over to the house. On the way, my uncle and cousin (each in their own trucks) saw us go by and started to follow us to the birthday party. I looked out the side-view mirror and saw the line of cars fairly evenly-spaced. I said, "Heh. Looks like we've got a convoy going," to which my dad said, "Of Dodges, with a Ford leading the pack!"

So my dad's a Ford man, even though inexplicably, my first car was a Honda and my brother's is a Dodge. My current car is a Mercury, though.

I don't really care about cars a whole lot, so I trust my dad's advice, seeing as how he works in a body shop.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

I prefer Dodge and/or Crysler..... I don't know why prbably the Viper.....Oh yeah, gotta love the Viper.

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Money is no good unspent.
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