To respond to a couple of the posters on here. I don't like American car's because they suck. I have always been a Honda guy and it's for a reason. The cars are reliable and hold up extremely well.

I don't think that American's have a negative view of ALL American products. I believe that many American motorcycles and other products outside of the automotive inductry are actually high quality.

In fact, I will step out on a limb and say that the only product that I actually shy away from because of the fact that it's American are cars. Nothing else in life applies for this but cars.

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nastinupe,

There are a lot of American cars out there that don't suck. Malibu, CTS, G8, Cobalt SS/TC, Challenger R/T, etc. I have a 1990 Accord with 200k+ miles that has been an awesome car, but making a blanket statement like that in the year 2008 is wrong and makes you seem very uneducated.

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@ JF

Before you start trying to say someone is ignorant maybe you had better do your research. First of all the G8 is not an american product. It is a product of Australia with american body panels. Also how many people just looking for a car to get them to point A to B will even consider a Challenger or a supercharged Cobalt, that alone can afford a Cadillac CTS? You might but it's certainly not the majority of the population who are mostly looking for an average commuter car. Try compiling a list of cars you see on a busy highway if you refuse to believe that fact. How many Corvettes, Challengers, G8's, or SUPERCHARGED Cobalts do you see compared to the Camrys, Accords, Corollas, Civics, Altimas, Maximas, Elantras, Accents, Sonatas, Rios, Spectras, Passats, and Jettas? Lastly, about the Malibu, although being the best Malibu that GM has ever developed, still is not a sales stealing knockout against top sellers such as the Accord, Camry, and Altima. It is at most on par with the Fusion and far better then the Sebring but it's no knockout. To be competitive in this field means you NEED to have a knockout product, not just something that is marginally better at some things, equivalent, cheaper, or even an exact clone with a different badge and body panels.

Also what blind domestic loyalist fail to see is that the big issue with most domestic companies is strictly very poor management, not perception that "Japanese or imports are better". The big 2.5 seem to come out with 1 or 2 vehicles that are winners and then sit on top of them for many years until it grows stale instead of reinnovating their entire lineup. Then they start seeing their profits falling. Once that happens they all rush at the last minute to come up with something that usually has a "slapped together" like quality to them. Now to most people who buy a car based on carefully weighing every option, most would see right through this and sometimes some may feel if they are being insulted by the end product the domestic companies put out, regardless if a pro domestic supporter says it's a really good car and has a 5 star crash test rating. This does not apply to fanboys, haters, or pro import or pro domestic supporters.

One product that I do know that Americans will still make better are full sized medium and heavy duty trucks. Unfortunately companies like Ford and GM seem to think that's all they need to keep the company running and be very profitable. Luckily the recent hike in fuel made them all realize that they should have been working on their entire lineup, not just their Trucks and halo cars. The more that consumers and employees of the domestic automakers get over the "people are not buying our products because they think imports are better" mentality and realize the stated issues & problems, the sooner these problems can be rectified and bring the big 2.5 back. All I know is they better act fast because even the Koreans have gotten their acts together in the early 2000's and are seriously kicking the domestic companies, and some import companies in the keester when it comes to technology, innovation, and end products.

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DITTO !!!!!

damn my job that pays my mortgage and my bmw payment lol

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And he probably burned crosses in front of his competitors' homes.

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I laughed at that

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I agree with him when he said "I'm sick of what's going on with our Government". I'm sure no one can disagree with that. But I also can't seem to find the racist issue with this. Everybody knows (or should know) he doesn't mean actual rice. I'd be angry, too because there are plenty of American products that are competitive with the foreign competition, but many people fail to realize that because they just hate American cars by default.

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i agree with torrent

there are a lot of good products from america but people believe in a logo as it where a religion.

look at toyota how green it is with the prius but look at their line up? there are a really bad mpg on trucks . but they keep being "green"

in the other hand we have hummer that looks good but in my opinion its a luxury brand and people who buy them shouldnt be bitching around about mpgs. cuz what part of luxury u dont understand?

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There are just as much domestic car worshipers as their are import worshipers. If just depends on where you are. Like in Texas I would reckon there be much more hatred towards imports. Over here in Cali though it seems 3/5 of the cars are imports. I live in Sienna and RX350 land. But is this the domestic auto manufactures fault? Hell yes it is. It takes a long time to build up a brand and its very painful to see the big 3 lose its image. Before my parents would always tell me that Japanese cars are unsafe and American steel is better. Was it ignorant? some what, but there was some truth to it. Same as it is now, the domestics are starting to make more competitive cars, but after years of tarnishing their name its going to take a while to fix it. This takes better marketing and of course better products and some time.

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To Torrent / abisairomero:

When I bought my current car (Scion tC) there was no "American" equivalent. The Cobalt had rear drums and no hatchback, and same with the Focus (although did have a hatch), and both had less powerful engines, and far less equipment than was standard on the tC. The *closest* I could get would be the Mazda3, but whether that's even a "US car" is debatable.

Now I'm looking for a small, premium, turbo hatchback. I can get one from Mazda, MINI, VW, Subaru, Ford (Europe), and I'll lump Honda into it since although the Si engine isn't turbo'd it's still 200hp out of a 2.0l block. The *only* product from the "big 3" that would satisfy those requirements would be the Volvo C30 and it's made in Belgium, and more costly than some of its competitors. Ford doesn't even make hatchbacks, the Saturn doesn't bring their turbo Astra over, the Cobalt SS isn't a hatchback, etc.

Sorry Detroit, I'll support you if you build the style of car I want to buy. If not, I'll go elsewhere.

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No HHR?

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conner - you're right, I did forget the HHR and it's partner in ugliness the PT Cruiser, along with the Caliber, but I think of these as mini-SUVs as opposed to actual hatchbacks or even 3/5-doors. The HHR and the PT are so ungodly ugly in my mind that I couldn't even bear to sit in one, as they're "retro" harking back to a time that I have ZERO interest in visiting (good ole "small town America", to quote Palin). The Caliber *could* have been a good vehicle, but it was designed to look like a small version of the SUVs that were so popular rolling off of the lots: big, chunky, heavy. but I do stand corrected: the big 2.5 *do* make something for me to at least look at.

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Hahaha, exactly what I was thinking, "All you Walmart shopper, all you import buyers, when are you going to wake up and do something for America" haha, thats awesome. All this guy needs now is a video with him, standing in front the Stars and Bars and the stereotype of the South will be complete!!! Not trying to offend any southerners out there... but I know that plenty of you have a certain stereotype of us from San Francisco... so I believe its even.

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Autoblog should make an Ignoramus Leader Board...

You will come it at #2, right after that O.C. Welch moron :)

The other people in the top 8 are:
- JDMLover
- BigMcTiny dude
- Top Gear Australia hosts
- the moron that still hasn't brought Euro Fords to US

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