should i buy some GM stock

[04silverz 10+ year member]

Build quality of north european cars are incredibly superior. it is simply due to engineering and more specifically the tolerances allowed in the manufacturing process.
expensive as hell to fix here. i must admit.

i can compare from a more than average point of view, and this may seem silly.

While living in sweden for 6 years i had a couple of cars. First was a '90 BMW.

aside from this i had a 1996 Ford Mondeo. JEEZE!!! it was sooo expensive to fix but i was relatively happy with it. Most of my friends asked me "why the hell would you drive a shitty car like a ford that is so expensive to fix when you could get a saab, volvo, or bmw??

when i moved back to the states 6 months ago, I bought a 2005 Saab 93 linear turbo.. One of the nicest cars i have ever driven much less owned.

friends here,,, why would you drive a car that the parts are so expensive for..

Big difference between the day to day cars here and those made in northern europe is extreme attention to detail and overall engineering quality.

granted,, cars like toyota have a better average of lower cost of ownership, especially regarding maintence, they are just not as fun to drive..

I would always be willing to pay a bit more in the long run, even if the original purchase price is the same for a car that i actually have fun driving and feel proud to own, versus buying some for completely utilitarian reasons.

hmmm... couple things

first off you mentioned driving a domestic car in a foreign country and then vice versa. doesnt that stand to reason as the prime reason fo rbeing expensive to fix in said country. i mean thats why mercedes' are all over germany and europe. theyre pretty much local. in my hometown ifyou had a mercedes you would have to drive a couple hrs out of town to even get a dealer to look at it.

but again, alot is onthe experiece you have. my tahoe has had a starter go out that took me a couple hrs to replace and a vibe i cnat track down but doesnt seem to affect anyhting. meanwhile alot of people ive read on the net have bad experience with tahoes.

but i still hold my opinoin that i would never buy a kia!

also, isnt saab owned by GM? and i would love to have a volvo s60r.