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Having owned domestic cars and truck, as well as foreign car, van & SUV, I can tell you from experience, not perception, my VW has been the best car I have owned. Vehicles I have experience with:
1998 Z71 K1500 - The truck was very good for what it was. I loved it. Good quality. Fit and finish was better than average, not far superior.
1999 Z28 - Favorite car - fit and finish and quality were sub - sub standard. With out the horsepower - this car was rubbish! I still loved it and it is still my top 2. (until I can get a 5th gen Camaro)
2001 Passat - Bullet proof. This car has been driven like a race car, and has taken everything I have thrown at it. Its only issue has been headlights; the bulbs burn out at an astounding rate. You can talk about VW's reputation, I will talk about my VW experience. Fit and finish on this car is the best of anything I have owned. Everything feels as it should in a car. I know there are at least a few on here that loathe VW, but again, MY experience has been superior. Brakes lasted 200K clutch still looks new (original).
2003 Xterra - loved the 4x4. this car was worse than the Z28. Air would leak in through the door panel, it was loud inside, the fit and finish was a joke. None of the interior panels fit right, the overall quality of the car was terrible. However, it was one of 2 SUV's you could get in a manual.
2006 Honda Odyssey - Van's suck! they are very practical, but they suck. This is the stage we are in now. The wife and I desperately wanted an Acadia, however the "trunk" space was less than we wanted/needed. The fit and finish is not up to the perception. It is good but not superior. Domestics and certainly the Acadia is as good or better. Honda finally figured out what a telescoping steering wheel was for the 2007 year. The materials are of good quality, but the interior panels don't fit as well as they could. It sounds like the body panels are made of the thinnest steel possible and still hold a shape. You hear a lot of wind noise, door handles are awkward and don't work smoothly. This mechanical superiority comes from incessant maintenance. You have change timing BELTS, and seeming every fluid every 30,000 miles.
My dad's corvettes 2001 & 2007 and Lucerne - I have not lived with these cars day to day, however, his '01 vette was good but not great. The fit and finish of the interior was way below average, it is much improved on the '07 however it is still below average for a car costing $50,000. again with out the horsepower this car would be average at best. The rest of the car is fairly good. The exterior fit and finish / materials is very good. The 07 drives really well for its performance. I have not sampled higher end performance cars on drive-ability, but perceive the Corvette to be very good. The Lucerne on the other hand has been very good. Fit and finish in this car appears very good, above average. I would say it has been the best car he has owned.
All that to say: Yes there is an unfair perception that the Japanese cars are FAR superior to the domestics, however I think it stems from the 80's and 90's when the domestics were inferior on quality, not necessarily reliability. I guess my struggle is with the people who say domestics are THE best and foreign makes are the worst, no questions and no exceptions. I also struggle with the people who say the opposite, foreign makes are far superior, and no domestic car can compare. There are foreign cars I would buy and there are domestics I would buy, but it is based on the vehicle not the make.
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