Hyundai and Kia vs Toyota and Honda also Mazda

[gregmp]

Honda... please... 1980's look interiors, drum brakes, beam rear axles... where do I sign up.

Toyota... 0 fun cars, old designs, borring, hybrids, reliable after tons of huge recalls?

Madza... fun right out of the box, great engineering balance and high fun to drive ratio... very reliable. Model evolution not revolution.

USA brands (GM, ford, Chrysler)... Way more reliable than just a decade ago. Interesiting designs. High tech options. Good pricing. Quality, performance and materials improvements over previos models.

Kia/Hyundai... good value, new model long term quality unknown, fun to drive. The design leader of the far east.

 

[cchase]

Originally Posted By: gregmp
The design leader of the far east.


Except that most of their designs in this country originated in California and are largely close copies of previous designs by other carmakers.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: gregmp
Honda... please... 1980's look interiors, drum brakes, beam rear axles... where do I sign up.

Toyota... 0 fun cars, old designs, boring, hybrids, reliable after tons of huge recalls?

Madza... fun right out of the box, great engineering balance and high fun to drive ratio... very reliable. Model evolution not revolution.

USA brands (GM, ford, Chrysler)... Way more reliable than just a decade ago. Interesting designs. High tech options. Good pricing. Quality, performance and materials improvements over previos models.

Kia/Hyundai... good value, new model long term quality unknown, fun to drive. The design leader of the far east.


Wow!

I agree with 90% of that.
Chrysler had some really interesting designs in the '90s. I mean if you look at the '93 Intrepid, it was WAY ahead of the Taurus and Lumina in design. The '94 Ram really stirred up the domestic truck market. Forced big changes in Ford and GM. And the PT Cruiser and Prowler brought brilliantly conceived concept cars to the showroom floor. The (unfortunately named) 300M was as close as you could get to a 4DSC Maxima or even a FWD N/A V6 Audi A6 in any domestic dealership. But unfortunately, it seems like for every outstanding thing they did, they did two things badly. Like again the Prowler. They made a turn-key ready to drive hot-rod with (then) modern safety features, and put a V6 in it. A good V6, but it still didn't belong in there. The 2.7....whatever the [heck] that was supposed to be. You have a 2.5 that does everything that the 2.7 does except sludge badly. Why didn't they use the 3.2 OHC or 3.3 OHV? I don't know. And the cloud cars. I remember the automotive press proclaiming how much the Stratus and Sebring drove like an Accord. The interior was made out of complete garbage but it "drove like an Accord". Unfortunately, it's repair record was not even close to an Accord and they dumbed them down. By 2005 they weren't driving like a 1995 Accord anymore much less a 2005 Accord.

It's just refreshing to see the USA brands today. So much better.