It’s not just corporate offshoring that thinks American car companies produce inferior products: just about every independent auto rating organization in the world rates them that way.

Everything from re-sale value to mean-time-to-failure shows that the cars just don’t hold up against the foreign ones.

That’s not to say that all American cars are junk. Your experience Scarlet is great. I wish I would have had the same experience with the American cars I owned. But I didn’t. And based on my experiences and what I research on my own when shopping for an automobile, the U.S. cars are eliminated almost immediately.

And for me, that is what it means to “Buy American”. The American ideal is about freedom. Being able to discern the best value for your own dollar and personal taste makes one more of an American than making a decision based on faith or placing your trust into the dogma of a simple motto.