Could GM, Ford, Chrysler Bankruptcy Expose Volkswagen's Low Quality Products?

We find these people to be very short-sighted at best. A major issue that these anti-Big Three harp on is that the cars that General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are making are not good cars. Thus they conclude that  problems that the Big Three find themselves in is due to their own bad decisions and their improper response to the demands of the market.

Wait a minute. Let’s take a look at the facts. Mixed into these criticisms of the domestic auto industry is the implication that they don’t make quality cars. Not so. Surveys performed by all sorts of auto related consulting firms show that the quality of the American built car is equal to that of the Japanese. And that impression that cars made by German companies have much better quality? Nope. Surveys find that the Volkswagen and other European cars are at the bottom of the quality lists.

The anti-auto industry crowd seems to challenge the pro-auto industry people to identify models that the Big Three are making that can be seen as evidence that they are making good cars again. Okay, how about the Chevrolet Malibu and the Ford Flex? Well, argue the anti-Detroit Three crowd, where's the innovation from GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Witness the Chevrolet Volt which is coming in 2011 and the Ford Fusion which will be in dealerships in 2010.

American automakers have come up with a decent bunch of new models and a strategy on how to sell them. They just need time to win the consumer over.

Oh, one last thing regarding Volkswagen and its European cousins. They should fear a shuttering of any one, two or all the Detroit automakers. Once they are gone, car consumers can concentrate on the true quality of these foreign manufacturers and discover how wrong they were on the quality issue.

via Automobile Magazine