[cairns]

"I don't normally drive American cars - but recently rented a Chevy Malibu for a week in California, and well, I was pleasantly surprised. Everything fit and was screwed together well. Nothing rattled. Handled fine for the roads we were on. Did everything it was supposed to.

Anyway I certainly couldn't call it "crap". Not a lot of character - but it certainly did the job well, and was almost fun in a gumboat sort of way.

Certainly no comparison to the junk that came out of Eastern Europe."

I kind of felt the same way. Then I drove my Mother's two year old Camry with 25,000 miles on it. It reeked of quality and competence- not just getting by on chrome coated plastic and the cheapest tires, brakes and other components available.

A real shame- the company that produced some of the most distinctive cars on the planet and entered the sixties with the Corvair, a compact lightweight Tempest/Skylark with IRS and an aluminum V-8 that Rover still uses is reduced to Azteks, Trail Blazers and a "new" GTO that's really a five year old Holden Monaro.

Let's face it, their weedy ball-less "Impala" is a far cry from it's glory days- and is nowhere near a two year old Camry or Accord.