“Great, car prices are gonna keep going up.”
The Japanese may keep them at bay. What will happen is that ‘savings’ will have to be found elsewhere, as in even crappier parts and materials.
The crappy reliability of domestic makes can be traced to a combo of the UAW's greed and competition from foreign makes. To keep the price competitive with imports, domestic marques have to water down component specs until they hit the dollar amounts necessary to sell their cars at some benchmark price. That is why many original Japanese car components (typically high-dollar parts) outlast those of domestic makes *and* one set of replacement parts.
Ding ding ding.......we have a winner.
Having worked in that industry for a few years earlier in my career......I can ABSOLUTELY corroborate your statement.