I sure didn't , I grew up in an time when we would eagerly drive to all the dealers in the fall to see new and revised models. GM,Ford,and Chrysler seemed like giant america icons that would roll on forever building cars.
Obviously they still produce vehicles at least for now but for how much longer. GM now sells domestically Chevy: Corvette, Camaro to be discontinued , Malibu to be discontinued in 2022 and the Sonic production stopped. Buick has stopped selling all cars in the US. They only sell re-branded SUV's now . Cadillac is down to the CT5 and CT6 to be discontinued. Ford only sells the Mustang. Fusion production has stopped. Chrysler is down to the 300 with Dodge soldiering on with the Charger/Challenger. They say the market has shifted away from cars but Toyota still sells 300 K Camry's a year. Do they really think the kids riding around in the back of Toyotas are going to drive a Buick SUV' or even keep buying Ford trucks when they get older? I guess its just sad to see. Will the Corvette and Mustang be the only two soul surviving American cars 10 years from now. Time will tell! Hold on to your old cars as they truly are getting more special every day.

For some reason, American car makers haven’t been able to build small cars profitably. The make bank on SUVs and trucks. I guess they are giving up on cars and focusing on SUVs and trucks. Time will tell if they made a smart move, or if they will come to regret giving up on cars.
I bought a Dart in 2014 and it’s been a great car. It has close to 100K miles and still has no rust even in this climate. I was laughing a few weeks ago when I saw news stories and videos about new Ford trucks that have rusty hardware and axles already. My Dart still is nice and clean underneath after many salty winters.
But my car gets no respect, American car makers built enough dogs over the years everyone assumes that any car they build will be a POS I guess.
I traded a 2008 Focus on the Dart, that car was the most trouble free car I’ve ever owned. The next generation Focuses had a terrible transmission though, so Ford apparently ruined that car’s reputation with that transmission.
For general driving around chores and commuting, I like a small economical car. I hope my Dart lasts forever because otherwise I may have to break down someday and do something I swore I’d never do, buy a Toyleta or Hyundai.

I think the reason they "can't make money on cars" is just a new twist on the old planned obsolescence scheme, they build crap cars so nobody will want them so they can make more money selling SUVs that are allegedly better quality.

I agree. Trucks and SUVs with problems have replaced cars with problems.

When I was ordering a new Ram a few months ago, I mentioned my Dart to the veteran CDJR salesman I’m working with, and he said when the Darts were out, they were hard to sell because FCA never offered incentives on them to help sell them. It sounded like they invested a lot in designing them but put no effort into helping dealers sell them.
My “mini Charger” parks outside, gets driven year round all weather, yet after a wash still looks brand new. Drives tight with no rattles. Seems like a very well designed well built car, they should have sold a million of them, but they didn’t ....

I have a friend that wanted one new for his daughter but he was afraid the company wouldn't support it long. Boy was he right. She ended up with a Civic. I just think they are in big trouble. As I wrench on my old Plymouth's my son and his friends all drive import tuner stuff. They think the old stuff is cool like in an old car way, Have never heard of Plymouth, and have no intention of ever buying an american anything ever in the future.

LOL...I used to be in the same boat. Truthfully, once I bought a Toyleta, I will never go back to the other brands for daily drivers. 280K and still not a squeak or a rattle. None, zippo. I get that they are not all perfect, but when I see my buddies dealing with their GM garbage with virtually no miles (in comparison) I just laugh.

I've got a 16 Dart with almost 90k miles. It's my daily driver. I replaced the DS front wheel bearing last year. I also had it re-aligned because of some rear tire wear. The dealer put some kind of insulating tape in the overhead console to fix a rattle under warranty. It's been a good car. My only complaint is the power. It's light but the 160hp 2.0L isn't going to win any races. I think Dodge might have turned it around with an SRT4 version but they killed it before that could happen. The black GLH concept looked really cool.

After I had a toyota yaris go almost 300,000 miles and then I still sold it for $1400 I kinda saw the handwriting on the wall for American cars.Our Beetle has about 250,000 and has been a good car also.

I've had a couple toyotas through the years, and while dependable, they rusted much faster than anything else and were the most boring vehicles I've ever owned.

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.

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. [/quote]




Bingo, how is it we see this stuff but the product planners and management of these companies never seem to get it. I guess its all short term profits and Money. I hear Robert Eaton has a great home in Florida.

LOL. If by 'boring' you mean that you do not get to personally know the service department manager and the entire staff at the dealership, then yes, boring. I finally went to the dealer at about 250K miles and asked the service manager if there was anything that I really needed to do on the car to keep it going. He laughed and said keep driving it and no. I will take 'boring' all day long for my DD

I still will always walk instead of owning a Japanese, Italian, Korean, or German car, and my heritage is German. Of course I do not drive cars, no use for them. My wife has a 2015 Chrysler 200 and before that an 04 Sebring convertible. Zero issues with the 200, and the only problem with the Sebring was the aluminum strut pucks in the rear that turned to dust with 200K miles on it about a year before we sold it. I have no idea what she will own after the 200 is done, hopefully it will last another 20 years...LOL.

Dont change the tranny fluid, new fluid (with all the detergent) will clean the clutches bare. I am leaving mine, even with "only" 150,000. They're not serviceable for a reason, goes for all vehicles.

Most of the smaller CUV's they replaced the cars with are just jacked up cars with a different name and body, for example the Cherokee is the same chassis as the dart/ 200. They all do it. Same car with a better view of the road

As trucks and SUVs get bigger and bigger people in cars may feel vulnerable and no longer safe driving them as well. Hard to see if your in a car surrounded by lifted quad cab trucks.

Exactly what I went through, I couldn't see anything as I was one of the lone cars in a sea of larger vehicles. I noticed it ALL the time and now I have a jacked up 4x4 lol, its refreshing being able to see again! And not just for that reason, its also extremely nice being able to use my vehicle now. I go camping in the back country with it, can tow with it, go off roading in 4-low, lots of room for the dog and gear, good in all weather conditions, roof racks, I've used all the room with the seats down as a rolling storage unit before - versus, a car, to get groceries with and go back and forth to work.

Possibly a profit issue. Ford was selling 200k fusions when they stopped making them. You can't make a profit on 200k units???? BS. Take a look at the prices of new vehicles. Ford was making 15% on cars and 35%+ on the trucks. Ergo, stop making cars. Oddly enough I was sitting at the light this morning and noted 1/2 the vehicles going past me were still cars. That said, There must be a market. I only own 1 truck but have 4 cars not including the hotrods.

America's car companies have lost the plot. I can only imagine this is what it must've been like in the mid-50's when great marks that survived even the depression began to fall one by one.

Hudson.... Nash.... Packard.... Kaiser.... Willys.... Studebaker.... even claiming DeSoto.

In my time, I've seen Plymouth, Oldsmobile and Pontiac die.

I've seen the birth and death of the "Sport Compact" range of cars. We're on the precipice of seeing American-made 2-door cars disappear!! That just blows my mind.

But, American car makers have forgotten two things that would draw people to a car: Style and Substance.

I'm sure we can all agree that cars today are not.... pleasing to look at. There are very, VERY few exceptions. I thought the Dart and 200 were cute - I was waiting for a sportier, 2-door version to come out.
The 2015 Mustang is pretty darn good looking, dare I say it's one of, if not THE most attractive car to come out of Detroit in a long, long time. But with every update, they're just taking a hatchet to the poor thing.
Not all of us, but I'm sure some of us have sat in the garage, with or without compadres and just sat and admired your vintage car. My AMC Javelin is gorgeous and beautifully sculpted. E-body Challengers and Cudas with their simple yet aggressive style. A Charger with it's full-width tail lights and flying buttress roof panels.... I mean, these are damn-near pieces of ART in comparison to modern gobbledy-[censored]!

Nothing seems to stir people any more. Or if it does, it costs an ever-loving fortune!!! Detroit tells us "Nobody buys 2-door sport coupes anymore." Huh. Well, somebody better tell BMW that because they've damn-near cornered the market there. Honda, too.

Or how about a small, sporty car that's cute, fun and affordable? Oh crap. I had to throw that word in there. A few years back, I went and looked at one of those little BRZ/FR-S/GT-86 that Subaru/Toyota had come up with. Fantastic Premise, great little car, sexy styling but oh mylanta..... I dunno about the USA, but up here in Canada I spec'd one out that couldn't quite match up to the STANDARD EQUIPMENT of a Mustang, and the FR-S was $33,000 plus tax. I had to pay extra for an f****** ARMREST. I was about $5000 shy of a Mustang GT that came with more features as standard and more than double the power.

I don't think there is a single car today for sale for under $20,000 in either Canada or the USA. Hyundai used to have their Accent for $9,999.99 and that wasn't that long ago!!

Personally, I'm disgusted by the absolute useless garbage they ladle into cars today. Automatic Braking; Radar-Guided Cruise Control; One-button parallel parking..... Those are all the things a person should learn when driving. If they can't do those things: they shouldn't be driving!!! I refuse to pay money for something I'll never use.

I almost think we need something revolutionary. A modern Model T. Something that provides good, reliable, comfortable transportation at a reasonable price. It's no wonder there are fewer and fewer younger drivers: A) we've practically priced them OUT of the market. Anything older and *cool* is a small fortune; and anything modern and reliable is..... a small fortune. The average kid making minimum wage would have to save every penny he earned for 2-3 years to buy a used chunk of $hit.

I think we need to go back to crank windows; manual adjusted seats, manual steering. Hell, my first car was an '82 Honda Civic! It had all those things, a snippy little motor, 5 speed gearbox and ran for 2 weeks on $12 worth of gas. I think the federal regulations on cars too has choked them out of the market. Making something small and fuel efficient isn't going to be 5-star crash rated; hence the gigantic bro-dozers people drive today.

We need to get back to basics. Could you imagine the fuel economy of something like an '82 Civic with a MODERN, fuel-injected engine??? But some Ralph Nader / Karen type would complain "it's unsafe" and destroy any chance it had.