The sad thing for me is, I would LOVE to be able to get excited about product offerings from Ford, GM, or Chrysler, but compared to the European imports, I can't. Sadly, I am in the minority, and I believe that this is why American cars continue to lag behind in quality and style. Why invest any more money in the American market if they don't have to?
Of all the US companies it seems to me that Chrysler is making the greatest effort to improve the quality and appeal of their new cars, probably because they're technically a German company now. What makes me the most angry about this issue is the fact that Ford especially has great cars that are at the top of their catagories in Europe, and they don't feel the need to bring them to their home market. Case in point, when Europe got a nice fully re-styled Focus recently, they changed the front end on the US one and called it good. Why? Because we as a country are stupid and cheap, and will buy crap if it doesn't cost much. Even though Ford spent millions in development cost to make a new Focus for the European market, they didn't feel the need to further test and certify the car for the US because they didn't have to. The Mondeo and RS series of Focus are two more car lines that would be nice to see in the US, and GM has some nice products under the Opel namesake.
The point of my rant, until the majority of Americans start to care that their interior is made of cheap shiny plastic, their new car rattles over bumps, has an engine designed in 1962, and looks like a rental car, nothing will change. We must all be idiots for a sale, GM has greatly improved sales with this emplyoee pricing, and the others are now following suit.
A Taurus is still dull and unimpressive, no matter what the price.