It’s not that U.S. auto makers are turning out crap....the government is tying the hands of the U.S. car companies with those stupid CAFE standards that are harder and harder for the automakers to meet. These same CAFE standards interfere with consumer choice.
The American automakers are enjoying booming sales in South America and China.....no CAFE standards there!
One of the automakers would like to manufacture a car here in the U.S. that gets 65 miles per gallon. They can’t build the vehicle here....it runs on diesel.
Another automaker had a car with lots of grill work; they were convinced the vehicle would be a real moneymaker for them, but the car didn’t meet the CAFE standards, so it never entered production.
Back in 1955, there were no CAFE standards. Detroit was king. The government should back off and let the consumers decide what kind of vehicles they want to buy, and then let the automakers satisfy the demand.
And yet the id 19 still got great MPG.
I grew up in research, that's the source of my anger, there's plenty that could and could have been done.
The simplest would be High Pressure Fuel Injection.
That would have rocketed MPG and burned so clean cat. converters wouldn't have been needed.