by Patrick Sills

Created on: February 11, 2009   Last Updated: October 16, 2009

Several decades ago, American cars were arguably among the best the world had to offer. However, this began to change as far back as the early 1950's. One must remember that in those days, any car showing 100,000 miles on the odometer was a rare sight. From the ashes of a bombed-out factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, a rather odd-looking and unconventional car known as the Volkswagen Beetle was introduced into this country. It didn't take long before people realized just how reliable and durable this "Bug" really was. This iconic car slowly gained popularity among those who wished to set themselves apart from the crowd. Moreover, the Beetle routinely exceeded this seemingly impossible 100,000 mile barrier time and time again. In the 1960's and 1970's, Volkswagen was the undisputed leader among imported automotive brands in the United States. The decline in domestic automakers' market share was thus put into motion.

When it was realized how successful Volkswagen had become, the Japanese wanted to get a piece of the action. By the late 1950's, the first Toyotas began to arrive stateside. However, the workmanship was subpar when compared to Detroit's offerings, and as a consequence, they were largely ignored. In the meantime, other European makes slowly ate into the Motor City's market share.

By the mid-1970's, the U.S. experienced its first fuel crisis. Suddenly, the large, gas-guzzling models from General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler lost their appeal. Japanese cars had improved dramatically by this time, and sales began to soar. Toyota, Honda, and Datsun (now Nissan) had in fact knocked Volkswagen from its long-occupied throne of domination among the imported makes. Domestic automakers frantically attempted to build smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, but they were no match for the Japanese offerings. By the 1980's, the Japanese had become the undisputed leaders in automotive quality, and remain so today. For nearly 30 years, American consumers have been made aware of this, and therefore the decline in domestic market share has continued. Moreover, while European cars have had a few more problems than the Asian makes, they, too, are argualbly still far superior to American brands.

Finally, in the early days of Barack Obama's Administration. this country was in the midst of its worst economic turndown since the Great Depression of the 1930's. General Motors had to get a government bailout to avoid bankruptcy. Even with these loans, the automaker decided to kill the

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