I stand by what I said. Ford and GM especially have proven their business model to be mediocre vehicles. Not all, that's for sure, but the bread and butter of their business has been just that, mediocre cars. It's their profit base. If they build more into the cars it moves them out of their market plan. We know that without a doubt, any one of these auto giants can built any kind of car they want. Quality in design and build is not an exclusive attribute of Japan or Germany or anywhere else. The cars that these companies build are the ones they choose to build. The Ford Taurus was a pet project of three or four people within Ford and they had to fight management to get the car built and on the market. They had to hide many of the development steps by charging work to the wrong budgets and passing faked paperwork through the system. When the Taurus started becoming a success there was a rush by upper management to take credit for the car that put them back in the black. The business of Ford was to make money for shareholders and that took building the Taurus. It had to stay in its market position. To make it one bit better would be to move it out of its place. The fact that the Taurus is a car is not very important. The only thing that matters is next quarter's profit. Making a better widget may have no effect on next quarter. Quality does not translate directly into sales, never has, never will. Ford management, or GM's for that matter, could care less about such details. The upper management that really runs the company couldn't tell the difference from one model to the next while walking through the showroom. It's not something that interests them. The Taurus stayed right on target, and now its time for a new model. And the new model will stay right on target too, what ever target that might be, but don't hold your breath waiting for improvements. Go look at a different model.