American cars may very well have improved their reliability over the level they were at in the seventies. The fact is, it would be pretty hard to NOT improve over cars like the Pinto, Vega, AMC Pacer and Gremlin. I cannot give Detroit any points for improvement over some of the very worst cars ever designed.

Even after "improvement", they still did not meet the quality level of Japanese cars and what's worse, the quality level is even today, erratic and unpredictable. This is why Detroit has such an ingrained reputation for building crap. It is VERY well deserved, isolated examples of good cars being no absolution for prior and continuing sins.

I traded my 1999 Ford Taurus in for my current Prius. My Taurus was a full size sedan and Ford can't even built THOSE correctly. Mine had crappy brakes which could NOT be made right. It was explained to me that this was a DESIGN flaw. For crying out loud, disc brake technology is only one hundred year old technology and Ford's engineers can't even get THAT right. A friend of mine who purchased a 2000 Taurus has had the exact same problems.

I can't tell you how many former American car owners have sworn off of Detroit products for good. This is a topic which has been discussed and researched to death on other forums among hard core car enthusiasts, not to mention just about everyone I know personally.

I agree with you, however, on the German cars like the VWs.