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Small cars are also usually very short on profits vs. big cars—never mind high-tech small cars—another reason cash poor companies like GM don't want to focus on them.
WARNING: VW RANT BELOW
Those American car design features you list are all over 30 years ago. The VW with the very popular obviously bad oil pickup design on the 1.8T is about 10 years old (they finally stopped making the POS engine for a 2.0T a couple years ago. I've known personally 5 that have lunched between 20-60k miles. The issue is the poor positioning and size of the oil pickup tube which clogs easily and starves the engine, often after an oil change). VW tried to screw the 20k mile guy as well, claiming infrequent oil changes (which wasn't true, but also a dodge on their part). I beat my cars and change my oil every 10k and my 2.2 Subaru looked almost new with 250k miles. Also the 2.0 N/A of the same era had major issues, the wiring is circuit-board gauge and attached to substandard material unable to take underhood heat (2 year old cars with headlight connectors that crumble in the hand—big surprise I don't think I've ever seen a 6 month or older one with all its lights working), every other kind of electrical issue, cooling systems are undersized, and the engineering a joke (try just changing a taillight on a New Beetle). They also purposely make them so that they are as time consuming as possible to fix. 10 hours labor for an alternator (that died at an unacceptable 55k miles—250k in the Subaru and a 15 minute job) located top front on an engine? Yes, because a special "superior German engineered" fastener is used (vs. a simple hex bolt or even an Allen or Torx) and located such that the radiator, shrouding, headlights, etc. need to be removed (and I think some other things). How about a timing belt on an Audi A6 (S6, whichever garbage it was) that requires the entire front end to be removed—the bumper beam actually has a friggin' hinge on one side to swing it away for access to the front of the engine!). I refuse to even look at them anymore (thank God I don't work on cars for money anymore), but I'm sure they've gotten no better in the last 4 years. Believe me, I could go on.
I've also worked on American cars and, while they seem slapped together at the last minute and generally built to a price, there is nothing to compare to the outright sadism of VW (who save their only quality components for the interior). Hitler's revenge. Their diesels could be mechanically reliable as I never worked on one, but they'd still be handicapped by their cheap electrical systems and evil engineers. We chased out the French makes, the only Italians left are exotics, and the British are a selection of premium makes (unless you count the German-British Mini). What I wouldn't give for VW to be gone (or now that I don't have to work on them for money, at least to have friends who listen to me and don't have to learn the hard way).
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