How much reality is perception.

This from Edmunds Insideline....

Perception is reality in the car business. And it takes a long time to change perceptions.
Witness the tale of two companies — Toyota and General Motors. Despite recalls and public relations woes, Toyota's image of bulletproof quality persists, and sales and market share rise. Despite concrete evidence to the contrary, GM's reputation for inferior quality remains, while sales and market share decline.

No words could ring so true,but this is the biggest challenge that

the domestic automakers face, this is a bigger hurdle than any

engineering challenge or corporate restructuring, the perception

that the Japanese and European manufacturers simply make better cars than are designed and made domestically.

This wasn't always the case, in fact if you are old enough to go back and remember the seventies, Americans generally looked upon foreign cars..especially those from Japan with distrust.

The European Brands where already expensive in relation to everything else and where viewed differently.

But the Japanese came in with cars that where priced right in the ball park as the local offerings, with the kind of wacky styling that could only really be appreciated initially in California, the land where almost all trends seem to begin. In the long run many different factors would come into play that would help switch the perception, the biggest one being the seemingly never ending recalls from the big three themselves.

Unfortunately for the most part, this wound is mostly self inflicted.

J.