ORIGINAL: awsure
Loyalty only goes so far. Unless you constantly try to get better, innovate, and produce what people want you do not deserve loyalty. Unfortunately, that's where the big three find themselves. When I worked at Alamo (~15 yrs ago) we rented the Camry and Maxima alongside the Oldsmobile Ciera and Buick Century. Hopefully it's not too late for them to right the ship but they have a difficult task ahead. I appreciate & value loyalty but it must be earned and re-earned every day in the marketplace.
I know where your coming from. The Olds Ciera is one of the biggest tasteless, uglyest, most boring, undesirable pieces of junk I have ever had the displeasure to drive. Don't get me started I still have a lot of hatred built up against that stupid maroon Junkmobile Ciera. The difference is I won't drive junk.
The Big Three during that time had plenty of cars that were more desireable than those two pieces of... okay I'll move on. You just avoid the cheaper, inferior models and get the ones that are actually worth having. For example, I would never buy any of the Stratus sedans due to I question the reliability, that is why I have an Intrepid instead. The Intrepid is a much better vehicle than the Stratus is. The W-body cars are better than the Ciera and Century. The Taurus used to be somewhat good before they benchmarked the design against a catfish.
The thing is overall domestic cars are getting better all the time. The Fusion (even though I think it looks too much like the Tempo) is a big improvement over the Taurus. The G6 is a huge improvement over the Grand Am. The Grand Prix is getting faster and has nicer interior everytime you turn around. The upcoming Avenger sedan and new Sebring sedan is a huge improvement over the previous models, so much better that I might consider getting one as a beater, it is getting to be as nice as the Intrepid. The Charger sedan (despite the fact that I wish it was a coupe) is really a nice car. I still have it on my list. The interior of the new Caliber is way better than the Neon (but I hate everything else about it). The new Saturn Aura is a huge improvement over the shotty L-series. The Caravan is way better than the earily 90s model.
Also the Japanese are not all they are made out to be. The 97-2001 or 2002 Camry's and many other cars from their line-up have oil sludge problems. The new Camry's had to have their transmissions recalled due to reliability problems and I have read the Avalon has had its share of transmission issues as well. According to msn, the mid-90s Camrys had problems with just about every system. Honda has had its share of transmission problems and A/C issues, and their engines haven't beeen exactly flawless. Nissan has had issues with their I4 line in their cars, as well as electrical, transmission, and drive-train issues with some of their SUVs and trucks.
The European manufactures have huge quality issues these days. Also the interior that they are offering is pathetic. Chrysler's leather in the Pacifica, 300C, and several other models is nicer than the junk they are putting in their Mercedes models. It feels rough and stiff, something I would expect from Pontiac. The fit and finish of some of these cars that I sat in at the St. Louis autoshow was just disgraceful, even for Chevrolet standards and that isn't saying much.