WRXB215

This project is worth keeping an eye on it. Still not ready for prime time but it's getting closer.
https://reactos.org/#
And if you're thinking about dumping Windows for Linux but still need to run Windows software then this project might be of interest to you.
https://www.winehq.org/

I was unable to pass them. 

What some people do for fun…..

What?  Hopefully none.
Now if you intended to ask:
Are there any repeaters in ME? (Maine)
We might be able to show you how to find them on the repeater pages of this site. 

I was once at the same place when I started with GMRS, i.e. thinking about getting a mobile.  A wise non-sad H.A.M. advised I start with the antenna: "Forget the mobile radio for now, just plug your HT in to a mag mount on the roof and see what happens.  When you go with the mobile you'll need the antenna anyway."  A few bucks later I had a newfound respect for antennae.  I drove that sucker to the top of a hill and everything lit up.  Height is might, indeed.
I'll leave the radio comparisons to those here who are more knowledgeable.

The 935G actually isn't. But I think that further illustrates your point. Half the price of an Icom, with a better front end.

One can't always got by the name on a radio either. I have an Icom IC-T10 hand held and it is not much better than my Baofeng hand held radios when it comes to picking up noise/RFI. The IC-T10 is a SOC radio. Granted the IC-T10 is Icom's entry level hand held.
Where the IC-T10 does better is on RX/TX and rejection of adjacent signals.  Plus the IC-T10 feels like a real radio versus a child's walkie talkie from the 1980's.
My Wouxun hand held radios are both superheterodyne and do better than my Baofeng and Icom hand held radios. Neither one picked up the RFI like my Icom or Baofeng radios. The front ends also do not get overloaded like the IC-T10 or GT-5r/UV-5R GMRS radios do. The Wouxun hand helds I own are the KG-935G and KG-Q10H.
The Explorer QRZ-1 fall in between the Icom/Baofeng and the Wouxun radios. The QRZ-1 is a rebranded TYT UV-88 hand held with a custom firmware.
My testing for RFI was far from scientific. What I did was walk around the house with all of my hand held radios tuned to both VHF and UHF frequencies. Every radio except for the two Wouxun's picked up RFI on UHF inside the house. The biggest culprits of the RFI source is my computer monitors and TVs.
Sorry for being long winded here. This goes to show that you can't always go by the brand name either.
As far as mobile radios go, the Wouxun and Midland GMRS radios are hard to beat. Neither brand is perfect but they perform better than the cheaper brands. One can always go with Kenwood or Motorola radios if they can afford them or find used radios at a decent price. In the end, go with what you can afford and has the features you like.

I can see this both ways. Both as a "does it matter if I spend the least possible" and "does it matter if I spend hundreds". The real answer is spend what you are comfortable spending, as long as it has all the features for your situation. And remember, GMRS is BYOC (bring your own contacts), so you pretty much have to be ok with buying at least 2 of everything to talk to your wife/kids/granchildren/etc. 
That being said, ignition sense in the commercial radios is a huge advantage. My wife's car, it just comes on when it's started, and turns off 10 minutes after the car turns off. With the right settings, she hears nothing but me when needed. I don't have to instruct her or get her to remember anything. Grab the mic and respond is it. Worth spending the few extra bucks for the setup in her car.

The title of this thread could be interpreted another way.
One could ask does the user care a lot about how much they spend on a radio? I know some on this forum have likely spent well past 4 figures on a portable radio. If I spent that much on a portable radio I would be reluctant to even take it out of the house.
I have only purchased a few radios new over the years. The majority are clean used radios showing few signs of use. Even then I've spent maybe $200 to $250 at most on a used commercial grade radio. The more expensive used commercial ones tend to be FM/Digital types. Out of the later the FM/P25 radios seem to be noticeably more expensive than the other FM/digital types, especially the VHF models. 
Ham gear is a different story. Before the new TH-D75A was released the older discontinued TH-D74A was selling for a huge price premium above what they sold for new. I saw a few selling for above $1000+ on eBay.  When the TH-D74A's were available one could buy it new for around $650.

That video is for the UV-5R which is a H.A.M. radio. Look for a video showing how to setup a repeater on a GMRS radio because the process is very different (MUCH easier on GMRS).
Basic steps are:
ID what repeater channel to use based on the frequency of the repeater enter the transmit tone (receive tone is optional) there is no 3.. you're done - the whole thing should take about 30 seconds.  

It's not about popularity, it's about technical correctness. It's the same way with Stackoverflow. Answers are "peer reviewed" and the OP can get a better idea of which answers to trust.

I don't have access to a Bird monitor.  I tested with a couple of different SWR/power meters into a good dummy load and also with the antenna inline. I am using a tuned Comet CA-712EFC with a 32 foot run of LMR400 Ultraflex coax with Amphenol connectors. There was a slight difference between my Surecom meter and my more expensive meter. But the Midland was still only putting out 38 watts on high into the dummy load and connected to the antenna. The two Wouxon KG-1000G radios were a steady 46 to 50 watts and the KG-XS20G was 25 watts. The only differences in my tests were the radios, everything else was the same in each test.
While I did not use high end testing equipment, I did make sure to keep everything as consistent as possible.

I know a few people in different industries that deal with Chinese manufacturers. Most Chinese manufacturers will make what ever you want and to the specifications you require. You can't always go by the country of origin to determine the quality. It is what specifications the customer wants and how much they want to pay per item.
And Midland radios are made in China also. Even some Japanese companies are having radios made in China now days, this includes some Yaesu models and some Alinco models.
Like most people, I did my research before buying any radio. First hand reviews by actual end users are important. I take most reviews on Amazon with a grain of salt and look for more independent reviews.
I had a Midlands MXT500 for a while. But I was not happy that my particular radio was not putting out anything close to the 50 watts maximum (35 watts on high). Otherwise it was a nice radio and easy to program through the radio itself.
The Wouxun KG-1000G radios I have do put out between 46 and 50 watts as advertised. And the KG-XS20G actually puts out 25 watts versus the advertised 20 watts.

The US auto manufactures made that mistake decades ago. They still haven't recovered.

It is true for anything, but unfortunately many people don’t understand it and compare the price of American made goods to Chinese made goods and use the price comparison alone as proof of comparative value. That’s a trap that people should steer clear of. There absolutely is a difference in quality between some things made in America and some things made overseas, and that can result in an even greater price difference, but the  myth about all Chinese radios coming out of the same factory, of universally poor quality, with only the label differing, is nonsense.  Sixty years ago Americans felt the same about Japanese products and became complacent about quality and innovation. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake.

It wasn’t “starting to sound” like anything but crickets.  You’re trying to stir up a thread that was dead almost exactly two years.  

The main difference I've been able to actually notice in real life use...
...is that the GMRS antenna is ~2" shorter, which means I can store them in 1 of my cases with the antennas on, but can't with the ham antennas 🤣
 
I'm sure there is some difference at the very edges of the performance envelope, but the ham antennas seem to do fine on GMRS for me. They can talk on the same repeater at 50 miles as the GMRS antenna, with similar signal reports, and can talk simplex to my family at 4 miles (we're up on a hill, which obviously helps).
In my use, I've not been able to tell any difference.

I wouldn't have put a single dollar on them being different for a $35 radio, but I bought a pair of GMRS, then needed a couple more and liked them enough and accidentally bought a pair of Ham. They are indeed different.
 
GMRS top, Ham bottom:

GMRS:

 
Ham:

This is true for anything. Some engineers here feel a bit too smug. Same goes for what school they graduate from as well.

Unfortunately, price isn’t always a great determiner of value.  A highly skilled engineer working in a country where wages are a fraction of another country is capable of designing a high quality radio for much less than an equally skilled engineer in one of the countries where engineers are highly paid.  American engineers don’t have a monopoly on scientific knowledge.
Statistically speaking, taking two competing products, both designed in the same economic area, the one that has a greater dedication of resources (for design, manufacturing, QC, and support) will generally reflect a higher customer satisfaction and have a higher price.
Sales price for mass produced items will be largely dependent on the cost of production and after sales support, once the sunk cost of design has been covered. Despite our national pride, very high quality items can and are produced in countries with low labor costs. 
So, unfortunately, price isn’t an easy predictor of quality. A company’s (recent) reputation is a more reliable predictor.
 

No, but he has only 8 toes left.

Welcome earthlings.

Antennas are funny things. I completely agree with @tweiss3 that what you're suggesting with running a ground wire wouldn't be the same as a ground plane. He's absolutely correct. But I'm not 100% certain that your bike rack wouldn't satisfy the need for a ground plane. There are many ways to satisfy the need, with a counterpoise, radials, or a sheet of RF conductive material.  I would at least try it if you already have the parts.  If you don't have the parts already then I would go with what's tried and true, which is what he suggested.
But understand that I am a ham and I like trying different things with antennas even if they waste many hours. 🕜

No, RF ground and voltage ground are two different things. 
You can still use the mount, but use a 1/2 wave antenna, it will be about 12" in length. I am currently using this antenna on my car https://www.arcantenna.com/products/bmwu4002s

Two weeks ago I discovered that my RTS software corrupts memory when using the features that RTS built into the software.  I was editing a DMR codeplug and I used the built-in editing functions to edit the order of channels. To its credit, when the corruption cause the editor to throw an error it offered to send in the stack dump. The next day I received an email that basically said they could see what I did that caused the error:  I used the functionality in the editor. 
I truly appreciate the responsiveness of their customer support.  I like their editors (I have six of them) when they work, but I lost a lot of confidence in using their editors for DMR.