It might surprise you to know that he must have a very unusual car - GM has actually got (consistently) much better in dependability surveys during the last several years.
FWIW - The latest JDPower dependability survey (not the initial quality one, which is another issue all together - it is not as important as the dependability one) shows that GM's American brands are mostly above average in dependability - Buick and Cadillac are doing really good, GMC, Chevy and Saturn are all above average. The only below average GM brands (American, not Suzuki/Isuzu/Daewoo) are Oldsmobile (which does better than Mazda) and Pontiac (which is just one place below Mazda).
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If you use their consumer site for the Impala you will see that it's Overall Quality is "among the best" for it's class.
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Crap in design or crap in reliability?
I would agree with the design part for the older vehicles - but they are about the same as Mazda in reliability statistics. I suspect that the newer ones will be a big improvement in design.
I am sure you are right. When you tell people that Buick is among the 3 most reliable brands you can buy for the last 3 years or so (better than Acura, Toyota, Honda, BMW, MB, right behind Lexus and Infinity) they are surprised - but it took the Japanese manufacurers a lot of time to overcome the cheap image they had in the 70's before people noticed that the consistent reliability surveys results they got reflected their true quality. On the other hand - there are still people that belive that Mercedes makes the best cars out there despite their awful reliability problems over the last years.
I suspect that it will take people a lot of time to realise that GM makes good quality cars. Unfortunately, most of them are boring designs - but if/when they start making interesting cars with this quality - they might become a real force again.
Ron.