As much as I am a Chevy and as a matter of fact GM fan, I love and respect the Horn-dawg.
Agreed they build FWD and four bangers, but you will not disagree that they are probably the best FWD and four bangers in the world.
My best friend works for a company which produces Catalytic Converters for DC, Ford, Toy and Horn-dawg among the others. He was telling me the company which is difficult to meet specs of is no other than Honda, they have a great precedence for immaculate quality, and here is the shocker, the company who is dilly-dally about quality is---> the TOY.
Hondas interior may not be the best, but they are well thought of. I think TSX has the best steering and the stick shift anything south of $50k and that includes the overly bloated 3-er.
They have their own philosophy of FWD, and no V-8's, it may be wrong in some of our eyes, but by sticking to it, they have made most of the engineering involved in the FWD, four bangers and the V-6. Can you imagine any 2.4l, producing 200 hp and giving 35mpg at cruise on the highway? Yes, my TSX gets that.
As far as coming close to the Detroit 3's. I still believe that GM is on the path of recovery and will not be touched by any other Japanese co's and that includes the TOY. Ford will come out from their rut, they came up with Taurus when they were looking in the barrel in the 80's. As far as DC is concerned it is always a short term Pheonix, rises from ashes for a while and they gets charred again.
All we need is some faith in the 3 manufacturers and help in improving people's perception about them.