Don't tell me, "American-made cars suck." Just don't.

EVENT

I'm getting really tired of people, friends, indiscriminately ragging on the quality of American made vehicles.

Now I have to qualify this, because in objecting to a generalized smear, I don't want to be guilty of one myself.

• I don't mind when people complain about the mileage (in general) of GM vehicles, because this is an area in which GM has generally suffered for many years, or rather, is an area in which GM has declined to compete.


• I don't mind when people object to the sticker shock of many domestic vehicles, although no vehicle is really cheap by today's standards... I could buy a house in Flint for something comparable to many vehicles, domestic or imported.


• Along a similar line, I also disapprove of the U.S. auto industry's overreliance on the SUV as the source of profit, not only because it's putting too many eggs in one basket or for environmental concerns (though these have been overstated; SUVs are more culpable for their low mileage than unfavorable emmisions standards) but also because they promote a lifestyle of unnecessary consumption among many customers.

I don't know a lot about cars... I can check my oil and give a jump, but that's about the extent of it. That said, it makes me angry that many people who unquestionably know as little or less about cars as I do love to make generalizing statements about how poorly built, how unsafe, how weakly designed domestic vehicles are.

Don't make such statements unless you're ready to back them up.

With many generations of family in this industry (my father inspected engines and designs and repairs tools, my aunt worked with computer systems for EDS, my grandfathers on both sides made spark plugs, and my grandmother was a secretary for GMI), it's not only laughably ignorant but is downright insulting to declare without justification that a whole class (not even a whole company, but a whole nation worth of companies) is involved in the design and execution of an inferior product. Such statements imply that my family has either knowingly participated for decades in a building products they knew to be inferior, or that they were somehow unaware of the fact (which seems particularly audacious given, again, the decades of experience involved).

I think that 99% of the time people tend to defend the vehicles their parents bought and drove. The fact is that I have more reason than almost anyone I know to actively promote GM vehicles, but I still try not to talk smack about things I don't know about: I won't belabor the point that Suzukis were known as years as death traps, and I won't delve into the tariff irregularities under the Reagan administration that so unfaily favored imports in the first place. The fact is I haven't done enough homework to make a convincing argument, and until I do I'm obliged to let the issue lie.

I don't care if you or your parents drive Mazdas, Toyotas, Hondas, Volvos, BMWs, Volkswagens, whatever... I don't even care if you object to the kind of vehicles domestic automakers are making. If you've got something to say about the way Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Buicks, Saturns, GMCs, or Cadillacs are designed and built, do us both a favor and do a little research first.

Here are some handy places to start out:
The Detroit Free-Press: GM's quality quandary: Some General Motors vehicles outrank Toyota's, but a few troubled models reinforce a bad reputation GM fights to change.
Consumer Reports, Cars makes/models A to Z.
J.D. Power Consumer Center.

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