[yellowline]

Originally posted by Superman
And GM is caught with its pants down pursuing the quick buck and I kinda hope the judges allow it to die.

The clout of unions in general would go downhill with the demise of GM. Nobody else in the manufacturing sector employs union workers on the scale that the Big Two do. With no jobs, against what business will people organize?

The world regards German cars and German engineering to be at the top of the heap for a reason.

And the Titanic was touted never to sink, with people believing the hype. Just because a majority believes something doesn't necessarily make it true.

Germany has their share of stinkers. A common acceptance is that the BMW X3 is an SUV with the ride of a sports car...the worst of both worlds. Doesn't help that Bangle hit it with the ugly stick.

It's also strange that the Chevy receives much higher reliability rankings than VW, which traditionally has been bottom of the barrel. I also rarely see economy cars of any make that are older than 10 years old. A cheap car is a cheap car, no matter where it comes from. The factor of cost prevents a company from building a car with 911 quality and soundness and selling it for $20k. The fact that US companies have health car and other obligations forcing them to compete with one hand tied behind their back doesn't help.

'Course, if your German car experience is limited to the 944, then that explains much of the disconnect we seem to be having.

I don't recall Car and Driver having electrical failures after managing to stall an American car in reverse. They had problems after they did that with an automatic BMW 7 with iDrive. I don't recall exactly, but I think something significant quit working, like the instruments or something. All I know is it happened.

Don't forget the 996 RMS, or the premise that many feel shaky about the 997 RMS.

Americans are fat, stupid and lazy. Unless you have some pill that will cure that, well, we are out of luck.

Funny you mention that. My high school was 1/4 boarding students, mainly from Korea. Some were extremely intelligent, locking themselves in their dorm rooms to work, doing independent studies in calculus, or competing on a national level in an art competition. Others wasted the night playing videogames and sleeping through class. We also had a fair percentage of American students who showed the same aptitude for math and science.

Judging how they can handle math, I think they have a better primary education system in place. Or discipline and family values are more ingrained in their cultures. The Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese aren't necessarily machines or natural geniuses, they merely have a head start.