8th Jul 2009, 16:33

Let me add, the vaunted days have BEEN OVER for several years for Japanese reliability. Ford and GM especially are now building the most reliable cars on Earth and aren't afraid to offer a better warranty to prove it.

I got a laugh out of the "nothing falls off" remark. In 2003, while test driving several SUV's we test drove a fully loaded V-6 Toyota Highlander. We thought we were secretly being filmed for "Scare Tactics"!! First off, a piece of interior trim fell in the floor at my feet. Then, while merging into traffic, I urged my wife to floor it because it was accelerating so slowly we were about to get squished by a semi. Her strained response was "HONEY, I'm BENDING THE FLOOR BOARD!! THIS IS ALL IT'S GOT!!" After getting back on the city streets it became obvious that the brakes jerked violently to the left. We got it back to the lot and drove (in our very reliable Ford Explorer) as fast as we could to a GM dealer and bought a GM SUV. It is far more powerful than the Highlander, gets better mileage, rides much better, handles better, and is much safer and cost thousands less. It now has over 70,000 miles and never a single problem. It even has the original brake pads (and it DOES NOT veer violently out of control when braking!!)

As for people being too lazy or uninformed to access the well-placed and easy to remove battery in the Cobalt, that is NOT a design issue. It's a case of a lazy or uninformed owner. Those can come with ANY brand of car.