ORIGINAL: awsure
You are exactly right. I worked in the rental car industry in the early 90's and we had Nissan Maxima's and Toyota Camry's up against the Oldsmobile Cutlass and the Buick Century. Mid size cars like the Altima up against a Chevy Corsica. C'mon...hands down they looked better & were more comfortable. We are catching up but momentum takes a long time to recapture in a business where it takes several years to go from concept to production. I won't even mention trade inequities, labor difficulties, etc... I think the quality perception mentioned in the article is a valid perception. Foreign car makers like Toyota & Honda built a reputation of quality because they built quality. While the gap may be more narrow the momentum will remain until U.S. automakers have several years in a row of dominating them in that category. I think they can & will do that.
It will take time but I think DCX is a perfect example of a company that is headed the right direction. I sincerely hope Ford & GM right their ships as well. We will never return to 3-4 car companies though. I think you'll see the market split amongst at least 12-25 majors and then sprinkle in some high-end and specialty logos.
GM has come a long way from the Buick Century, Chevy Corsica, and Olds Cutlass Ciera. Believe me, I had a P.O.C. Olds Ciera before my Intrepid (I'm still filled with rage just hearing that car's name 5 years after I got rid of it[sm=icon_flaming.gif]). GM's most recent offerings at least compete against the Japanese. The G6 and Aura are very nice offerings. They are on par in terms of being updated. The interior is a lot better. The engines are both more fuel efficient, higher tech, and more powerful. They finally have something to offer than that awful 4T40-4T45.
Ford is still in trouble. The Fusion should have been made back in 1996 because it isn't competitive in today's world. Ford needs to ditch the Duratech. Why didn't Ford just buy Yamaha, instead of pointless purchases such as Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Aston Martin, etc? They need a competitive V6 that is both powerful and fuel efficient (also reliability couldn't hurt). They also need to readjust the axle ratio for the I4 so then it can get 34 mpg instead of 31. Let Mazda be the division about low-speed axle ratios.
Dodge needs to quite using Gen. George B. McClellan strategies. They have made engines that are best in class, then they don't use them in the appropriate situations. They start to go full force, then for no reason they pull back. The 3.5L would have made the Stratus among the fastest in its class, but they didn't offer it. Then when they finally decide to offer the engine in the appropriate car, they pull back. Now that they are finally going to offer the 3.5L in the mid-sized models, they detune it to 232hp & 235 ft-lbs of tq. They need to be making them more powerful, not weaker. They need to stop using strategies and technology that doesn't work. They won't stop using the 2.7L despite the fact that it is undesireable in everyway (unreliable, inefficient, powerless). They won't use the appropriate transmission with the right engine. They need to stop detuning the minivan engines, they need to instead add VVT to them to catch up.