Quality (or lack thereof) of U.S. Automobiles

About two weeks ago Bluedog got his 2009 Consumer Reports "Buying Guide" and since the CEO's of the "Big Three" have been in Washington with their hats out to Congress I thought I'd check on the overall reliability of U.S. branded vehicles versus their Japanese competitors. Consumer Reports rates all products as follows: Much Better than Average, Better than Average, Average, Worse than Average, Much Worse than Average. Here's how the brands rated:

U.S. Vehicles (Ford, Cadillac, Chevy, Dodge, Chrysler, GMC, Hummer)

1. Much Better - 0
2. Better - 9 (15%)
3. Average - 26 (43%)
4. Worse - 12 (20%)
5. Much Worse - 9 (15%)

Japanese Vehicles (Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru)

1. Much Better - 11 (22%)
2. Better - 22 (43%)
3. Average - 9 (18%)
4. Worse - 2 (4%)
5. Much Worse - 5 (10%)

The best U.S. brand was Ford and the best Japanese brand was Honda (with Subaru close behind). European vehicles, surprisingly, were not as reliable as you'd think. Mercedes had 9 vehicles rated and 6 were Much Worse and 3 were Worse. Volkswagen wasn't much better.

Here's my point; 65% of Japanese brands fell into the Much Better or Better categories while U.S. brands had only 15% in that category. While average reliability was higher for U.S. brands 35% of U.S. brands were in the Worse or Much Worse category. Given these statistics why should tax dollars be invested in U.S. car companies? I think Ford should buy the Volt brand from General Motors and then GM, Dodge, Chrysler and the other should be allowed to die.