[libertylover]

To improve their market shares, IMHO, they need to give people the impression that they can make a good small car. Maybe they can already, but for so many years the American-made 4-cylinder engines and their mating transmissions were a joke compared to those from the Japanese.

[PCBMan]

Exactly. The Ford Focus is a great improvement over the Escort, but already Europe has a newer version, and who knows how long it will take to get here. The Chevy Cobalt is an immense improvement over the Cavalier, but still not close enough to its overseas competition. Both cases show two things - one, great improvement over their predecessors, and two, how far behind we still are in the small car arena due to years of neglect. Even if we catch up or come close technologically, we may never be able to shake the public perception problem.