Since my grand dad and dad worked at a Chrysler plant for many years I was raised on the idea that American cars rule. And rule they did for a long time HOWEVER......in the past 12 or so years I have had 6 different new cars(ok....I am spoiled and get a new one roughly every 2 years). I had a Ford Windstar in which the transmission went after 19,000 Kilometers which is about 12,000 miles!!! Ok...that was a fluke I thought, and I traded it in for another Windstar. Well....after 3 different recalls during the first year,I was driving down a busy road and the whole thing simply stopped on me! Yep...stalled right out. Took it in and they found nothing. Two weeks or so later I was driving downtown in the rain and I heard a thunk and looked over and my window on the passenger side opened for no reason and I could not get it to work at all. Took it in the next day and they said they have never heard about that defect before and I must have had a fuse problem. Hmmmm...ok.....until it happened again two weeks later after being fixed and once again they said it might be a fuse problem and they fixed it again. About a month later the car stalled again in the middle of traffic. Needless to say I took it to a dealer and traded it in and bought a Toyota. I had that Toyota for 3 years before I sold it to a friend who just got finished putting over 125,000 miles on it's 4 cylinders. Bought a Chrysler PT Cruiser and loved it when the Germans had something to do with it. Loved t so much that I actually bought another newer one(upgrade) and kept that for two years as well with no problems. Only got rid of it because we wanted to do more travelling and needed something bigger and also because the Germans pulled out of Chrysler,which brings me to my present vehicle...a Honda Odyssey. Love it. Two years later and not even one small issue. Handles like a car and you can see the better workmanship in every piece.
I would gladly buy American but won't until they make a better vehicle and this is coming from a guy whose whole family was raised with American autos.