Part of the problem with north american companies is they're hit and miss with their advertising and they don't seem to pay attention to what people want and will change a popular model to something that no-body wants or they let it drag on too long and then make something no-body wants. When I was growing up we always had a mix of imports and domestic and other then a lemon (which was a GM) they were all pretty equal as far as reliability and drivability went.

Part of the problem dropping cars is that pretty soon it can affect their truck sales too. If you have someone who's used to driving import cars if they go truck shopping that's usually where they'll look first too because that's what they're used to. Or they'll go from driving an import car to driving a domestic truck and if it has problems they'll ditch it and go look at imports again.