Thread: A dearth of good entry American cars?

Its actually way exaggerated. Someone told me that chevy trucks are made in mexico, so I looked when I was shopping, I couldn't find any that the vin number didn't start with a 1. Then I asked and found out the plant in mexico makes trucks for export to other countries. As far as the Hondas and Toyotas that are made in the usa, they are assembled from imported parts. Back after 9/11 the local Honda plant practically closed because parts were not coming in. Even though the gov let plane fly within the next couple days, it was a month before some international flights were back on schedule. The Honda plant couldn't get parts.
As far as entry level cars, that is a hard market. There are a lot of cheap cars out there so you have to be able to biuld an entry level car for very low cost and very low profit and then have some marketing technique to sell a bunch in a saturated market. The equivalent entry level to the Grand Am I think is the Chevy Malibu and then on the Ford side is the Tarus or Contor. Smaller than those are the Cavilear and sunfire and on the ford side the focus (though I have heard the focus is actually a mazda, just madza doesn't sell its version in the us).
Since you already have a car/know how to drive, why an entry level? To me thats like buying a second PC and buying another entry level PC. I know poeple complain all the time about Americans and their big cars and trucks/suv's, but the fit our lifestyles better. I drive a truck because I want to, I can't stand little cars and have no use for them. My hobbies have me stopping a hardware stores weekly at times and have seen people try to lash lumber on a Honda and laughed at them. My parents had a Caviler and bought a 17" monitor and it wouldn't fit in the trunk and a caviler while a small car is not the smallest out there. If your worried about gas milage (don't new WV's get in the 40's) even big cars can get decent gas milage, my wife's Impala got 37 on highways in KY hills, would probablly get better on level ground. My old 4x4 S-10 got 27 on the highway with a cap on the back and some tools and parts inside. I prefer to keep my vehicles a long time and am handy chnage my own oil/etc so the American cars fit better there too. I can get under either of mine to change the oil without having to jack it up and my brake jobs do not cost $600 like Toyota Camry owners at my office.
Anyway my $.03

You could do like I did and get a non entry level car slightly used for an entry level car price. Since you know it will last a long time stretch the payments out and anytime you have extra cash pay extra on the loan. We picked up a 9 month old non smoking rental car that way.