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Agreed... I've always been an import fanboy, but let's face it.
The Japanese manufacturers are becoming super complacent, they are now relying on brand cachet and perceptions of reliability to sell cars rather than simply making "good" cars. Minus the 370Z, Miata, and FRS/BRZ, the Japanese don't really have any real sports cars in their lineups available in US/Canada. Not to mention that cars that were once somewhat sporty - Honda Civic, I'm looking at you - are really gutless, insulated, and boring. The Civic Si is less boring but I'd rather take an '00 EM1 SiR any day. In fact if you look at road tests comparing the two, the EM1 hold its own against the new Si, and even beating it in certain performance benchmarks.
Contrast this to the 1990s-2000s, when every manufacturer had one or more "performance" car. The Integra, Prelude, Civic Si, Supra, Celica, MR2, Miata, RX7, 240SX, 300ZX, etc. And cars that weren't performance cars were still fun to drive, easy to work on, and super reliable. Compare this to now... don't even get me started on "current" Evos and STIs that are simply bastardized, bloated versions of what they used to be - stripped-down rally cars for the street.
IMO car manufacturers only do well when they have something to prove, in contrast look at how far Hyundai and Kia have come in the past 10 years. They went from selling the $7,000 Hyundai Accent POS to the Genesis/Equus, which is basically a BMW 5/7 series for almost half the price. Ditto for the Americans, they finally realized that their pre-recession cars were all crap, in terms of technology, interior, fit/finish, engine choices, etc. and now they are working overtime to change the public perception of that... they are doing what Honda/Toyota did in the 80s-90s and are giving a relatively high-value car for a low price.
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