Nate Nagel wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news4.newsguy.com:
You are right. The bean counters (dudes with spreadsheets on their laptops) have taken over and have managed to extract much of the quality out of the cars. They're short sighted. They're focused on saving a buck or 2 NOW instead of building quality cars that people will want to buy now and in the future. Long sighted planning means building quality products to ensure a future customer base and repeat customers and new customers. And having better products means they can charge more for them and actually get more for them. If the Japanese and Germans can build quality cars and make money and sell them for retail, then the Americans can. If auto makers use crappy materials/engineering, then they are forced to sell for less money and with heavy rebates, so they then have less money for better materials/engineering, then they HAVE to use cheaper materials/engineering. Viscious cycle. Downward spiral. But I do think the domestics have improved somewhat.