I lived in Ann Arbor, MI for 16 years and Mount Pleasant, MI for 2 years. I worked in the car industry (suppliers) on and off. Here is my personal experience and feeling about it. I'm talking about 1997-2008 time frame.
American car companies used to make shitty cars saved for the luxury brands. I don't know what it is. I think the bean counters who decided to get the cheapest parts and put it in the car. Plastic pieces come off in about 1 year time. Mechanical components failed too early. The design was hideous for low end cars.
In the late 90s, American car companies started catching up with the Japanese in term of quality.
I grew up a couple hundred miles south of that location along I-75, so you can guess where. A GM town. I'm familiar with stories about auto workers in Michigan who made the mistake of driving a rice burner to work being ordered to park remotely rather than in assigned spaces, as punishment/stigmatization. Also in my town I worked with a guy whose shiny new Honda Prelude in 1978 that he parked outside at night was badly "keyed".
That Neon didn't last long. 5 years in and it started having problem with head gaskets. It costed me thousands to fix overheated engine. After that I said no more shitty American car for me.
Every GM car I owned or drove fell apart or was not worth keeping after about 4-5 years. I completely discounted GM and American cars as a result.
I know that American cars are as good as Japanese cars are but Honda never fucked me over on a new car while Ford and GM both have multiple times. I would find it very difficult to walk into an American dealership these days.
Phil, these statements seem a little mutually contradictory - US cars as good
but the manufacturers fucked you over. I understand you're differentiating service from the good itself.
My position is that post-sale service is a BIG component of vehicle quality.
I bought a Ford Taurus in its first model year. It was OK until I sold it three years later. The only things being: all of the coolant hoses were internally ripped at the factory, so each coolant hose would blow out because the mesh liner was damaged (the rubber looked OK but couldn't hold coolant pressure back by itself.) I had several events where I was out running errands and I'd start to smell strong antifreeze odor inside the car. I'd have to go immediately home and patch the hose.
The Ford dealer I bought the Taurus from was pure shit. They gave me the run around on several issues. I started to neglect the (new) car because getting basic stuff taken care of was a total hassle.
My wife's Ford truck had a parasitic voltage leak that drained the battery after a couple of days. The Ford stealership charged her $100 for a electrical search that was fruitless. The guy tried to sell her a new battery to "fix" this for $200 (she had a 3 mo old battery in the vehicle.) A friend found the source of the leak, a shorted light bulb. Ford dealers are scumbags.
On the other hand, my wife's Altima had a major rust-out of the floor pan after about 8 years of ownership. We complained bitterly to the dealership. Eventually Nissan fixed the floor and undercoated it to reduce the chance of rust again.
Nissan was a PITA to get this out of but at least they did it. I can see the big three saying "FU, we have your money now! Ha ha!"
