Read other letters about this article
if you need a big truck, ford trucks are damn good. dodge and chevy/gmc big trucks have their fans as well, but i think the nod goes to ford. jeeps are still pretty well regarded for offroading.
then there's the american cars that gm actually gets from abroad; pontiac g8 from holden in australia and various cadillacs from opel and saab. quite well regarded.
but good small middle-of-the-road cars from america? scarce.
even though the manufacturers make and market them in other countries, apparently they are dedicated to the proposition that americans will only buy crappy small cars, so we don't get the well regarded european ford focus, for example, we get a homegrown pale imitation.