Good story.

I feel confiednt that the American auto industry has and continues to make great strides with reliablity, quality and competativeness in its vehicles. A prime example would be General Motor's 2008 Chevolet Malibu. The previous model wasn't much of a competitor in the mid-size market, but the new model is getting more praise than the new Honda Accord, winning the 2008 North American Car of the Year; a second for GM with the Saturn Aura winning the year prior. I'm a current owner of a Toyotavehbicle and am seriously considering American to be my next choice.

When will the American automakers wake up to the realization that the only way they can compete is to quit the race and start a new one. Create an entire line of fuel-efficient or alternative fuel cars. Retool the factories and help Americans break away from the choking grip of foreign oil.

I think that the recent Consumer Reports data helps perpetuate a self fulfilling prophecy during the last several years that draws a certain type of person concerned with taking care of their car to foreign manufacturers.

Thank you Consumer Reports for going out of your way to try and kill the American auto industry.  Obviously, none of your testing staff has driven an American made vehicle in quite a number of years.  I have never owned a "foreign" made vehicle, but others in my family have, and they always come back to American vehicles following the multiple repairs that they have had to endure in the Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans that they have purchased.  I personally owned a 1990 Ford Escort SE that I drove for 15 years and over 200,000 miles with under $1000 dollars in repairs during that time.  On the other hand, my daughter owns a Honda Accord EX, which we have spent over $4000.00 dollars on the the last 2 years.  Give me the reliability of a Ford or Chevrolet anytime!

The US manufacturers have never been all that smart. They have always tried to make every auto all things to all people, rather than build a particular car for a particular interest. Look at the 1990's Impala SS. Corvette running gear provided in a car with column shifter and bench seats. Anyone with common sense could see that was a stupid combo. If a person wants a sedan with the high performance engine and transmission, they want the entire package. Then there is the poor training in the service departments --- they suck!

Honda and Toyota did not gain this overnight they started out in the 70s making cheap realible cars that many of us drove until they would not go any more. If you did not buy another one you may have bought a big 3 car and if it did not hold up as well would you not return to that now larger Honda or Toyota? Hope the big 3 has 30+ years to regain what they should not have lost. Stop worrying about cars wihout gas caps and cars that drive themselves and make a good car. Great job letting the Government tell you to increase gas mileage on new cars.  

  I have all ways bought G M cars and trucks two GMC Trucks Two chevy blazers and A chevy Impala that I like so well i am thinking of buying when the lease ends in june.My impala has gotten me 35 mpg on the hwy and steady 20s in town,pulls my boat with ease and best of all I know I'm not putting Americans out of work

I'm not surprised. Up until 2001 we bought Japanese cars only. In 2001 we purchased a Chevy Malibu and have had an extreme numbers of repairs. Everyone I've talked to that has the same vehicle say they have very few problems. At 160,000 miles it seems to be settling down. If we hadn't bought insurance to cover the vehicle for 100,000 miles we probably would have lost it.

Take this from a former united autoworker on the quality of the big 3 automakers.
I worked at the # 1 quality Ford plant in the world until Ford shut the plant down in 07.
Ford has always told our Norfolk , VA plant was the best of the best in the Ford motor company on quality.
But as of june of 07 Ford had better ideas with the  " way forward program " so as you can see quality is gone the Big 3 cannot compete. The unions are in total control.
Fact find a automaker with a non union labor work force and you find quality!

Regarding Jamie's comments: he's right on, particularly naming the Chevy Malibu and the Saturn Aura. I drove the Aura (as a rental) and was very impressed. On digging deeper it appears that both cars are, in fact, heavily based on Opel, the German company owned by GM. It is the Epsilon platform which is under the Saab 9-3, and the Malibu. The Aura, along with most of the rest of the Saturn line-up, are essentially Opels, which is good because they are well engineered and built German cars but is bad because we still can't seem to get it right!

We purchased a new 2006 GMC Sierra truck. Before it had 500 miles, there were check engine light problems that are still undiagnosed and unresolved. It has been at the dealer 7 times for a total of 89 days. There have been 8 new gas caps. GMC will not replace the truck. The manufacturer won't acknowledge responsibilty for the performance problem. This is the last GM vehicle I will buy.

This is a quality issue. It is a manufacturer's refusal to stand replace a defective vehicle.

Never had a problem with Mercedes or Nissan or BMW.

More of the same old stuff from Consumer Reports. Their auto issue should be renamed the Toyoto/Japanese Gazette. I've had 13 new Chevys since 1964 with no major problems in any of them. Anything CR says about automobiles...take with a large grain of salt. They're in somebody's hip pocket...and it sure ain't Detroit's.

Dear NBC,

Why the anti-American bias?  Have you seen a real dependability study (vice the readers poll from Consumer Reports)?  If not, the check out http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/pressrelease.aspx?id=2007130

You will see that Buick is the most dependable make in the world!!!!!  You will see the Buick, Cadillac, and Mercury comprise 3 out of the top 5 makes in the world!  You will see that the worst cars in almost every category are imports.

Why don't you EVER mention that Toyota recalled more cars in the last year than they built?  Or that Toyota has been dropped from the infamous Consumer Reports "automatic recommend" list?  I've had people swear to me that Consumer Reports never recommends a car based on nameplate, and then they admitted it when they said they took Toyota off the list.

Of course, you media guys NEVER report on the success of an American auto company.  God forbid you tell the truth about one of America's largest, and most patriotic, manufacturing industries.

Why do you lend so much credence to Consumer Reports anyway?  They give import brands a pass on everything in their magazine articles, and then they survey their subscribers, who are going to parrot back what they read in the magazine.  

For instance, years ago I read a Consumer Reports article that stated that a Honda model was reliable for 1, and only 1, reason.  It was deemed reliable because it had a Japanese nameplate.  They didn't do a survey, they didn't extensively test the model, they didn't do ANYTHING EXCEPT LOOK AT THE NAMEPLATE!!!

Another example is the Pontiac Vibe vs Toyota Matrix.  The Toyota Matrix always gets better reviews than the Pontiac Vibe from the "auto experts", yet, mechanically they are the exact same vehicle!  They are designed, developed and build by a joint GM-Toyota called NUMMI.

The same was true in the 1980's with the Chevrolet Nova and the Toyota Corolla.  Same exact car, but with different reviews from the media.  I call that the placebo effect.  Consumer Reports doesn't like hard working Americans getting decent wages and benefits, so the automatically do the American brand, giving biased praise towards the import brand even if they are the SAME EXACT CAR!

Funny how you can go to any cruise-in  and ALL you will see are older, American branded vehicles that have withstood the test of time.  Heck, just go to a low income neighborhood, and look at all the old American cars.  They drive early model American cars because they can't afford the maintenance on import brands.  

Why all the hatred towards American auto manufacturers and American autoworkers?  Don't you remember how decisive they were in turning the tide in WWII when the Japanese nearly eliminated our Pacific Fleet (using Mitsibushi built planes and weaponry no less)?

BTW, I am not an American autoworker, so don't think I'm biased because my job depends on it.  And don't get me wrong, there are some low quality American brands cars, and there are some very high quality import branded cars.  As a proud American, I just can't stand all the anti-American bias I see.

Actually, segment on the huge yearly trade deficit ($850B), and how our largest export is money.  Being that money is power, why not report how Americans are destroying the U.S. from the inside out with their spending habits.

Anyway, I happily own 3 GM cars that you should know about.  

       1.  1987 Buick Grand National - 73k miles.  Only the muffler, tailpipes, battery, tires and brakes have been replaced in 21 yrs!

       2.  2002 Pontiac Grand Prix - 80k miles.  Very few problems at all in 6 yrs (supercharger belt and ac fan fuse).  Only reason it is so new is because my 1997 GP was totalled when a women ran a red light in a Jeep Cherokee and T-boned me. I was not hurt in the accident.  Try that in a Honda or Toyota.

       3. 2005 GMC Envoy - 32k miles.  Wife's car.  No problems at all.

Ron, with all due respect, all of the cars you just named have well under 100k miles.  In my opinion, that is not an indication of reliablity.  If a vehicle cannot reach 100k without any problems under city/highway conditions, it isn't even worth its weight.  

My dad bought be a corolla for 4k$ at 100k miles.  It now has 220k miles, and admitedly, has a transmission problem that just arose recently.  Specifically, the automatic went out, but on the upside it can still be shifted manually.  

Question: If american cars are so great and american manufacturers are so earnest, then why are they doing so poorly?  This isn't something that happened over night either.  It's happened over the course of 30+ years as mentioned before.  Americans can be slow, but that plenty of time for them to come around.

It's also strange that the american manufacturers started pumping out gas hogs at the same time that the gas prices were increasing.  But wait, not only are they gas hogs but they are HUGE!  This is in effect a double edged sword.  Not only does it drive up the demand for gas and subsequintly it's price, something I'm sure makes the poor OPEC executives frown, but it also keeps the smaller, more vulnerable fuel efficient cars off the road.  Which would you rather be driving in the event of an accident, a gas guzzling ford behemoth or a mini cooper?  It's definately something to consider when your pregnant wife is driving around along with your 3 year old daughter!

By the way, what is so patriotic about selling american families cheap, unreliable money pits?

ok its this simple every car company has there great products and lemons....i have no problem with foreign cars but, You all are Americans and for god sakes you need to act like it! do research and get a quality American Product, you all are the reason tht America is loosing power!!! in everything not just cars! U.S. CArs have gotten a lot btr and will continue its tht simple!! Go buy a Cobalt or A vibe or Aveo they All r vey decent and r GM!!! imagine tht I hate Fords to hard to wrk on go try a Good o'l GM product!!!!!

Hey Jared, I think you have forgoton about the certain vehicles when you mentioned "GAS HOGS".  I believe TOYOTA jumped on the GAS HOG bandwagon when it brought out a bigger and FUEL SUCKING PIG like the new SEQUOIA and LEXUS LX 570.  Both of these vehicles get less than 12 MPG avg.  How about the NISSAN ARMADA?  That HUGE PIG gets about 11 MPG.  What about those?  How about that UGLY stepchild HONDA RIDGELINE and PILOT (15 MPG).  I guess HONDA has Jumped on the bandwagon too with GAS GUZZLERS.  Call a spade a spade here.  You probably are a Consumers Reports lifetime subscriber and have never had an American branded vehicle in the last 20 years.

All the car companies have improved their respective products but the American car companies,outside of the pickups and the Corvette contiue to make cars that most people are unwilling to buy.The prices are way too high for all the vehicles but the US car companies in particular.Ford makes the best American cars and trucks bar none but still are not the par of the Japanese vehicles.All companies can improve the fuel economy easily if they would just do it.The Feds mandated the new diesel emissions and that has killed the diesel mileage that even lerge trucks were getting.I own a 2002 F250 Super Duty and will gladly continue to drive it rather than get a new one that gets 9 miles to the gallon,Thanks EPA.Let all the companies compete on a fair market field.Get rid of the govenrment bailouts,union labor contracts and outrageous salaries of the UAW and let the consumers buy what they want.Car companies take note-Build what we want and we will buy it.This is America and we love our cars!

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):