Americans rushing to buy an American car?

If you've turned on a TV in the past few weeks, chances are you've seen an ad for the new Chevy Malibu, the "car you can't ignore". While the mid size sedan market has long been dominated by the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord, the Malibu is GM's latest attempt to change Americans' perceptions of American cars. Not only has the Malibu garnered rave reviews, it's apparently selling so fast that GM is struggling to meet demand. It has certainly been a while since GM has had problems meeting demand with a mid size sedan. But the Malibu's new design, along with a massive advertising campaign, has apparently convinced many Americans to take another look at American cars.

Still, many consumers (44% of them, according to an AOL-AP Autos poll) think that Japan makes the best cars, this despite recent improvements in GM's dependability ratings. So GM is putting out cars like the Malibu, and hoping that in time, it can recapture some of the market that it lost to Toyota and Honda. It's likely that GM's turnaround will take years: many consumers, especially younger ones, are highly skeptical of American cars.

In the end, this will be an uphill battle for GM and the Detroit three. But it would seem that GM is at least headed in the right direction. A billboard outside of Detroit featuring the Malibu contains these words: "We're tired of being a foreign car in our own country". I think that says it all.

-"Too many buyers for Malibu", Detroit News, January 3rd 2007
-www.jdpower.com
-"Americans still favor foreign cars" (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16524038/)