Poll: more Americans now believe US makes better-quality cars than Asia

[Retroit]

Make sure you guys don't forget to thank President Bush and President Obama for saving the Big 3.

Ironically, the problems that are destroying our economy were the same problems that plagued the automakers, namely:

• They grew too large to efficiently manage themselves.
• They grew too bureaucratic.
• They became managed by incompetent Harvard bureaucrats instead of people who knew how to build cars [[engineers).
• They became more concerned with perceived image than proven quality.
• They became too involved in social welfare [[pensions, health care, etc.) at the expense of manufacturing.
• They had to devote more money to labor and environmental concerns than their foreign counterparts.
• etc.

[kryptonite]

Yaaay Toyota! Keep on lying, covering up, evading, denying, bluffing and being arrogant and belligerent. There's nothing like taking a survivable problem and turning it into a media failure. Their f-ups can't hurt Detroit automakers. You would think they would have learned from decades of the Big Three being taken to task for quality issues by the Feds. but apparently Toyota management knows everything which includes how to tell the US government to go to hell, when in reality our government is showing them that they have no option but to comply and react positively to such issues. Duh, Mr. Toyoda, you do business in a foreign country THEIR way. I'm pleased that our government is forcing them to comply. US companies have been demanded to be sensitized to doing business in foreign countries for over 30 years, now it's nice to see our government demanding cooperation.

[kryptonite]

Wow, Toyotas can even fly:

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-435235?hpt=Sbin

[Danny]

YAY Finally at last! American cars are getting better than foreign cars. This comes after the FEAR of Toyota brake acclerator recall. Let's tell the world that American cars are the best and longer lasting than foreign cars. More money and jobs for us.

[Fury13]

Wow Fury,

I didn't realize you had such contempt for the Focus wagon. I think I even mentioned it to you not long ago.

I don't have contempt for the Focus wagon at all. It excels at being basic transportation, as do many other cars [[mine included). I was making the point that it will never be a collector car [[replying to a post from MPF), that's all, compared to a Mustang.

[Fury13]

Speaking of balance, waiting to hear more positive from you on something other than Asian cars...

Please see my repeated, laudatory comments about rising Ford quality, which are all over this forum by now. Sheesh.

[East Detroit]

One part of Toyota's cars are "horrible" [[the gas pedal). True, it is a critical part, but there are thousands of other parts on their cars that may actually be of better quality than their American counterparts. [[I'm not saying they are, just that they may be.)

I am saying they aren't.

And it is more than one part. The gas pedal [[maybe) and carpet mats [[right), the electronics interference [[more likely), the steering, the engine sludge issues, the rusting pickup frames, the rollover Lexus SUV fiasco... and the list goes on.

Yet the worst part of it is/was their intentional deception, Consumer Reports giving them a free pass for years, and so-called Detroiters who by guilt or other measure [[perhaps TM ownership) will not admit that Toyota did anything wrong but are more than willing to slam domestics and ignore their successes.

[kryptonite]

There are more complaints currently about Toyotas than just the disastrous accelerator problem, there are also complaints about brakes in the Prius and maybe other Toyota models, and there are the stabilization problems in the Lexus SUV that was big news recently.

[artds]

I have a 1996 Honda Accord which has only needed maintenance and replacement of a couple parts. We also have a 2003 Mustang which we have sunk at least $3K in repairs to including a new clutch and transmission parts on top of maintenance. Maybe there are some good American-made
cars, but I have never owned one.

All your experience is evidence of is that Honda built good cars in 1996 and Ford built poor cars in 2003. Neither assertion is in dispute [[or even addressed) in the poll.