"Ice" <NOSPAM@NOSPAM.com> wrote in message

IMO, driving fun has a place even for the "common Joe" driver.  I spend a
fair amount of time in my vehicle and while reliability and practicality are
important, it should be a place I want to be.  I think you just have to read
between the lines a bit.  C & D will downgrade a care that does not have the
extreme capabilities they look for, but not everyone can use a Porsche as a
family car.

The Japanese cars have been reliable, but the US are not far (if at all)
behind.  One a scale of 1 to 10, it may have been a 4 - 8 comparison twenty
years ago, today it is more of an 8.5 - 9 comparison.

I look at these reviews as well, but have not seen Ford, GM, or Chrysler get
many kudos.

When these magazines start talking about 2006 and 2007 cars, it is
impossible
for them to have good figures for reliability.  It takes a while to record
the
failures.  So to some extent they grade the cars on subjective values.

You need to drive the cars yourself and see which ones appeal to you.  It is
seldom that you really get a lemon anymore.

Even with my complaints about the GM engine failures, our cars have not
been BAD cars.  They have been pretty good.  My irritation is that GM and
others have purposely or coincidentally allowed flaws to continue in some
areas, and they have neither improved the breed nor taken responsibility for
the problems.

Some of the Ford minivans of the past have been absolutely shitteaux.  Bad
engines, failing transmissions, etc.  So have some Chrysler..

So until the American manufacturers get off the heated windshield water kick
and improve the basic platform, a lot of people will continue to complain
and
buy foreign.

There was a story recently that was being played up by GM where a number of
their cars (recent designs) scored very well against the highly regarded
Japanese models. Older designs that GM has spent no real money on like the
mini-vans sucked and the GM spokesman admitted that. I recall that a CR
spokesman was quoted in the story stating that off and on the domestics do
make quite reliable cars, but they are not consistent about it. Good one
year, not so good the next (BMW does this, too). The Japanese, on the other
hand, are VERY consistent in terms of good reliability. You can look for
this story with Google. The good GM models included Impala and Malibu.

Unfortunately, these models are as boring as any Camry and without the
resale of a Camry, so they are a tough sell reliable or not. GM tries to add
excitement to their FWD offerings, but it just does not work. Car and Driver
just tested the Impala SS. A nice vanilla sedan that some dolt at GM decided
to put a 5.3 L V8 in. A very bad idea with a FWD car that screwed the car
up. GM saw it worked for Chrysler with the Hemi in the RWD Magnum and 300,
so why not with the FWD Impala. Duh! Makes one wonder if anyone at GM
actually likes cars.

A ray of hope is that supposedly Opels will now be sold as Saturns. Opels
are good cars that someone who enjoys driving would actually buy.

There is hope.

GM DESPERATELY needs to get some excellent RWD designs that have some
passion in them out there.