[Dixie Yooper]

U.S. Automakers Battle Public Bias

They lost this war back in the early 80's.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

I assert that American cars hit the wall in 1973 when all the air pollution devices were hung on them. V8s typically went from about 300hp down to less that 200 with a commensurate loss in performance and mileage.

It took Detroit about 20+ years to learn how to build new cars with performance and low defects. The Japanese learned very quickly, and here we are.

Detroit also had some problems with styling. I am not sure what happened, but they built some dogs for many years. They also must have thought that no one had families any more when they dropped the station wagons.

[gogeo]

They lost this war back in the early 80's.

Exactly...perception lags reality. The domestics could be just as good as the imports, and the perception would lag.

Of course, this was a benefit to the Big 3 in the '70's, 80's and '90's, because the perception lagged the reality...and the reality was the Chevy Vega, the cobbled together Detroit Diesel, the Pinto, any given Chrysler product, etc.