They can pay at least part of it off, IMO, by giving us better vehicles today than much of the junk we saw from them during the last 30 years or so. And, with a number of their latest products, they seem to be well on the way.

 

The fit/finish, refinement, and general build-quality of the latest Chrysler products has improved enormously in the last two years or so, but, of course, it is too early to gauge long-term reliability, and to see if there will be improvement there, too. And, yes, I agree that, at least with many of the older models, reliability has been a major problem.

 

My experience has been that Ford is much better than GM.....with Dodge being last(although our 98 Town & Country was markedly better than the prior Dodge products we owned).

 

thats what people have been saying for past 15 years :-).

Camry sales are excellent... not sure what data are you looking at. In December, with still limited availability of hybrid model, it sold 33.5k.

It outsold its closest competitor by 50%.

Lets not rewrite the history.

 

p.s. Lets not be too enthusiastic about GM sales. First of all, only american media accepts GM as #1 because they include numbers from their Chinese JV which they dont actually have majority share in.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...PY01/301209839

2nd - Large number of their sales come from their purchase of Daewoo, not natural growth.

Toyota is only manufacturer that has not purchased others to pump their numbers up. I am pretty sure they are also #1 in brand sales, Toyota is #1 brand worldwide. Both GM and VW have affiliates that sold significant parts of their numbers. Both VW and Chevy sell less than 5 million their own branded cars world wide, while Toyota sells 6.8 million Toyotas.

 

I think there are a lot more important automotive rankings other than sales volume. #1 in unit sales seems to be a quality curse.

 

I think it's good thing that GM is back on top, even though I don't like that they are. This will push Toyota to improve , and re-claim the title in the coming future.

 

As a former corvette owner several times over, I'm glad to see them back and think their quality is improving not quite as good as Ford but getting better.

I would not have wanted to see what the demise of GM would have done to an economy in free fall in 2008.