ORIGINAL: brentmannrt09
Sorry about the urban venacular, I'm only reporting what is being talked about on the news TODAY, It is a real possibility, and of course they would keep the name (i hope). I diagree that the Japanese make better vehicles I have driven and owned many vehicles from just about all the major US manufacturers and put on thousands upon thousands of miles with very little trouble. The people that say US auto quality is not equal to the Japanese are usually the same that think the Modern Harleys still dont run and leak oil-its OLD NEWS and it perpetuates the stigma concerning US car quality> But again maybe I just had better luck than most.
That's okay, your learning the ropes yet around here. When I looked at the news earlier I heard nothing about this, now that I've read this, I understand what you are referring to. My advice is call your senators to speak against the forced merger that they are talking about doing.
Well the thing is it matters what you are talking about. Each manufacturer has their flaws including the Japanese despite what some outlets want to say. The issue is the Big Three have messed up on a few models and the mess up isn't necessarily reliability. Take for an example the Ford Taurus. My Aunt has 220K on her 1998 Taurus and has little to no problems in the period in which she owned it, the problem with these cars is they were uncomfortable, badly styled, and got horrible gas mileage for what they were. The competition from Toyota, the Camry from the same period which took the market lead from the Taurus was more comfortable, less controversial in its styling, and more fuel efficient; however, both the I4 and V6 engines had oil sludge problems. My other aunt had one of these models and it happened to her at around 80K. Therefore, there are aspects besides reliability that determines popularity and how well it will sell.
There are segments that the Big Three are superior at no matter what the moronic magazines will say. The Big Three make superior trucks, SUVs, large cars, and sports cars. The Japanese for the last ten years have made better economy, mid-sized cars, minivans (comparing as a whole you have to admit that offerings from GM & Ford were pretty lame in comparison to Toyota and Honda, plus Dodge has lost some of their edge though I believe they are still the best) and jacked up station wagons (excuse me "crossovers"[:'(]). The fact is that although the Neon was a good offering when it first came out, it did have some quality issues that they took too long to resolve and they didn't update it to keep it competitive. The Cavalier was never competitive and I will never understand how anyone could stand those models. The Escort was okay, but the Focus with the initial quality issues damaged the reputation. The Contour was a total flop and it did have some quality issues. The Stratus was a decent car in the first generation in comparison to its competition, but the Germans put little to nothing in it to keep it competitive and was being beaten in the performance category by almost everyone. The Taurus became more an old dog in 2000 with no real engine updates and no performance. The GM N platform cars were severely flawed. The GM 60 degree engines had a lot of problems with blowing intake gaskets, fuel system issues, and electrical problems. They had wheel bearing problems as well. The I4s had either head gasket problems or breaking timing chains depending on the engine. That was one of the biggest mistakes they made. The W-body cars shared some of the problem with the intake gaskets and they also had steering rack issues. The Chrysler 2.7L was a very flawed design with the oil sludge issue.
I'm not saying that the Japanese don't have some of the same problems in the same segments, it's just that at times the Japanese did better because their models in a certain segment were better, but also the Big Three are superior in other segments as well.