[Mr 5 0]

Price drives the market of course but the vaunted reliability of the Japanese brands also accounts for the big market share the imports take out of the American auto industry and as already mentioned, most of the Hondas and Toyotas sold here are made in America. The emergence of the 'ricer' phenomena among todays younger car owners will almost guarantee the same people will stay with an import later in life and this will also factor into the reality of Japanese/import cars taking an even bigger bite out of the domestic manufacturers bottom lines in the coming years.

While 'niche' cars like the V-8 Mustang will probably survive for some time, the imports have American manufacturers on the run in many segments of the automobile sales market and now the imports are gaining on Ford in the light-truck market, long a solid base of income for Ford as well as for Chevy. Not good.

Very high union wages and benefits have hurt Detroit as well as their too-well-known shoddy workmanship and lack of new ideas. Today, new car buyers expect their new car to last well over 100,000 miles with no serious mechanical problems. Most Japanese cars deliver that on that expectation but some domestics don't. People only remember the ones that don't, then go buy a 'bulletproof' Japanese car because their relative, friend or neighbor has one that went 150,000 with no real hassles...and they got $1,000. for it at trade-in time. The resale value is important to many car buyers, as well as the reliability of the car - and American cars are not meeting expectations on either front too much of the time, so this slowly but steadily erodes the American automobile manufacturers sales.

Look at what a Ford Taurus is worth after 3 years and compare it to a Honda Accord. Big difference. People have caught on to this and they buy imports, as much for the resale value as for the reliability and the price, which is generally competitive with domestic vehicles. I know a guy who just bought a 2004 Honda Civic LX (auto) with no extras for $15,800. plus tax and title. I saw the bill of sale so it wasn't BS on his part. Hard to beat that kind of deal on a car with great gas mileage, excellent reliability and very high resale value.

Mustang owners, like us, have specific wants in our cars; mainly lots of power and handling performance along with the Mustang cachet. We don't usually even consider an import. Unfortunately, we are becoming a minority and even those who 'buy American' out of loyality (which is great) are getting a car with lots of parts made elsewhere than America. I doubt American auto manufacturers will be going out of business anytime soon, but they will shrink in size, I'm certain. A lot of that is their own fault, as we all know. Look, when I want to buy a new (brand name) TV or other appliance, I check all the store's prices and if Wal-Mart is cheaper than the rest, I buy it at Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart was run by a Japanese company, I might think twice and buy at the local appliance store but if the local appliance store charged 20% more for the same item, I'm buying at Wal-Mart. I only have so much money to spend on an appliance - or a car. Unless the appliance - or the car - is something very specific that I can only get at one place (like a Mustang), I'm buying where the price is lowest, in most cases. Everyone does this.

One more thing: most car buyers don't care much about performance: they just want to get from point A to point B with no car hassles, good gas mileage and some degree of comfort. Japanese manufacturers understand this and make cars that fit the bill perfectly, and Americans buy them by the hundreds of thousands (400,000 Honda Accords sold last year). That will continue as long as American manufacturers continue to cut quality corners to keep their pricing competitive with the imports and fail to excite potential buyers with new, innovative models and designs. Impersonating the Japanese cars won't cut it for Detroit anymore...if it ever did.