[Big Dave]

We'll have to agree to disagree. The Hondas and Toyotas rusted out even faster than Pintos and Gremlins. I remember early Hondas with that incredibly complex carburetor, that could not be counted on to start at all in the winter. Even today, Honda and Toyota have planned obsolescence down to a science. Everything goes at once. When they wear out, there is no saving them. This isvery smart policy. Nobody ever remembers them as a hunk of junk, just as a seamless little appliance working perfectly until it died. US cars fail one part at a time and you can keep them going in a reduced state for quite a while, but you always remember that dying junker.

US carmaker did pretty give up on fuel efficient cars because they could not make money on low-cost cars. Their union labor, legacy costs, regulatory compliance costs, and litigation cost made their economy cars too expensive to compete so they didn't put any effort into them. Why put a lot of money in money-losers?

This is really off the topic, though. US safety regulations eventually force cars to be heavy and environmental regs preclude the very efficient diesel engine. With a substantial part of theUS market forclosed to diesels (California) and with Tier II making them inefficient and hideously expensive, fuel efficient cars will be the exclusive domain of the grassroots ecomodders.

If you can't eco-mod, you are stuck with a gas hog.