This Christian Life

I think I worry too much. But these are the things I think about.

you and i have the same curse, brother :)

i think you can get a car that is both cool and God-honoring (i.e. environmentally friendly and family friendly). for example, a small-engine sport wagon is, in my mind, very cool. for example, some Subaru Outback models are great. the Accord has had some great wagon models. i would just stay away from American cars and go with something that is both conscience friendly and has a bit of a fun factor.

there is no sin in wanting something fun to drive. after all, you gotta live with this thing every day of your life. i'm reminded of one theologian's definition of Puritanism (you can read it as a definition of Extreme Dutch CRCism if you want), "Puritanism is the horrifying belief that someone, somewhere, is having a good time." :)

i don't know what your price range is, but this is the car i would get if i were on the market today. maybe not some people's idea of a car with a "coolness factor," but i sure like 'em.

Well, unlike Nate, I actually don't see much difference between American and foreign cars anymore. Most are made with a combination of labor from all over the world.

I actually have had decent luck with Saturns. The LW300 (which I don't own) is a nice mid-sized wagon with decent fuel effeciency. I also know some people who've had really good luck with the Ford Focus line too.

the parts and assembly are definitely a global effort on most car lines, but the engineering is still pretty much divided by country. companies which now own many brands are doing a lot of platform sharing. for just one example, the Jaguar S-Type and the Lincoln LS share the same chassis.

so, by "American cars" i mean the cars which are engineered in the US. i would recommend a car with an American brand name which was engineered in Japan, Germany, or Koreal, but not Detroit or California.

incidentally, the new Ford Focus will share a platform with the Mazda 3 and the Volvo S40. Ford owns a majority of the shares of both companies.

That's cool. I knew Ford was a global company now, but I didn't know how they were sharing across borders.

I wonder how long it will be before the engineering divide gets broken down and American engineering is no longer a scourge

i always make the decision on the engineering angle as well. i trust the japs and germans much more than the americans. seems like we just can't make a middle-of-the-road car that's good for the same price as the others.

Well I hope Robert & Shawn Wade, Gary Kronenberg & Chris Winegarden don't read this post! Don't you have faith in your ME buddies from Tech? I think they're doing a fine job at Ford and GM. My '95 Saturn SL1 has been very reliable, and so has our '98 SW2. You end up paying a premium for a Honda or Toyota, but in the end is it worth it? Maybe you spend $15k on a used Accord, and I spend $10k on a used Saturn. After 10 years, if my repair bills were only $2k (and yours were $0), I would still come out ahead.

it's interesting that Saturn keeps coming up in this discussion. i've been reading the car magazines since i was about 10, and back then i remember all these articles about this newfangled car company that GM was starting called Saturn. they started it to combat the fact that their customers were flocking to the Japanese cars in droves. so they hired a bunch of Japanese and American engineers, who then bought an Accord and a Camry, stripped them down to the very marrow of their bones, and constructed the Saturn based on what they learned during the dissection. so really the only US automobile that can compete with the Accord (although i'd argue it really can't) is the car that was engineered to be just like it.

Saturns have some serious flaws that make them worth their lower price, in my estimation. road and wind noise are much much louder in a Saturn due to the plastic paneling and poor door design, and the materials used in the interiors are of lesser quality than the other cars in its class, for examples.

the Toyotas do have a price premium, but i know of a family who currently owns 3 toyotas and has owned a total of 7, and they don't have a single complaint about the company. not one.

scroll down on this link and check out where the US engineered cars rank in customer satisfaction.

if i had to give an answer to Why this is the case, i would not say that US engineers are less intelligent or less capable of creating quality automobiles. as with any industry in our society, it is motivated by money. auto manufacturers make a LOT of money on service and parts distributors. engineers know perfectly well that the material they choose for a muffler has a lower price during production and a higher yield during maintenance. it's win-win for the car company and the, uh, car company. if i had to guess, i'd say that's why a 2004 Chevy Malibu sucks next to a 2004 Honda Accord.

aw crap. that's not the link i intended.