[lincpimp]

"Look honey, we are approaching the 100k mile service for the ferrari!"

"Ok dear, do you remember where the dealership is?"

"No, remember we have not been back since we bought it new."

This is is a conversation that would never occur between a ferrari owner and his wife. Possibly a japanese vehicle could do this, and many american pickup trucks go for a while without anything but oil changes. In order to get that kind of power, tolerances must be tighter and that causes accelerated wear. No way to get around that, except to use much higher tech materials and thta drives the price up. America has lagged behind the rest of the world due to the fact tthe big 3 have had each other to compete with. It did not take much for ford to build a better vehicle than the chrysler k car, and anything drove better than a late 80s early 90s GM front wheel drive product (caddilac cavalier, anyone remember that little gem?).

All the japanese had to do was bring in a better made car and it was easy then, the big 3 were rolling in cash due to selling their crap to the unwashed masses. Now they have to face the reality that they were not keeping up with the times, and they have soiled their names. Is a camry any better than a taurus? It was in the early ninety, but not now. However the damage is done and the general public is fixed on the fact that the japanese cars are better, truth or not.

Plus the european mfgs have sold a bunch of high performance cars to the US, especially when all you could get was a crap 84 vette that a big block truck could outrun. Now they have a performance image that the US cars do not. Do they last as long? Are replacement parts cheap? No, but who cares as they are all lease vehicles anyway.