Consumer Reports congratulates Ford on making 2 good cars

My roommate is currently driving a Dodge Charger rental while her beloved Hyundai is in the shop.  She hates it.

Go figure. Consumer Reports put out their most recent reliability ratings, and Asian brands continued to dominate the best ratings; 36 of the 48 cars that received the highest reliability ratings were Asian makes (18 of those were Toyota.)

On the bright side for American brands, Ford had several highly rated models, and some of GM's models did well too.  Consumer Reports was able to recommend one Chrysler model, the Dodge Ram 1500 pickup, after recommending no Chrysler vehicles last year.

In worse news for the American auto industry, GMAC  (GM's finance arm) is reportedly in talks for a 3rd government bailout.

The improvements in Ford and GM's ratings in Consumer Reports have been widely reported, but they are baby steps relative to the leaps and bounds the American brands will have to make to be on par with Asian automakers. 

One thing important to remember about the auto industry: much of the production of "foreign" cars is done on American soil, while a lot of the production of "domestic" cars is done in Mexico or Canada.  The dire situation of domestic auto companies is bad news for Detroit, where domestic auto production was concentrated, but Toyota factories in California are cranking out Priuses (or is it Pri-i, like cacti?) and providing Americans with jobs.