Pat's also laboring under the neo-communist delusion that car companies are all the same ... and that their products are interchangeable.
Unfortunately, Mr. Buchanan fails to notice that the free market is at work here, and the market clearly does not treat all car companies as being equal.
The Big 3 are being kicked to the curb by consumers who choose to buy from other manufacturers. There are a lot of reasons for this, of which two are by far the most important:
1. There is a very strong (and fairly earned) perception that American cars are unreliable, especially as compared to Japanese cars.
2. American cars are seen as being overpriced, both in terms of the initial purchase price, and also in the cost of repairs (which, from 1, above, are expected to occur more frequently).
Mr. Buchanan ignores these factors ... and thus, as usual, misses the point.
My belief is that Japanese companies do a better job of managing the press than American companies, and that there is a bias against American companies in the general consumer press, though not the Automotive journals. A glaring example of this, is that in 2007 Toyota recalled more cars than it sold. Yet that news was not on the front page of local newspapers. Toyota did a great job of managing the recalls, masking them as service updates and the like.
There are also Japanese manufacturers whose reliability and initial quality has often been an issue, such as Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Mazda. Yet they don't seem to drag down the perception of Japanese cars.
In the midsize segment, where American cars compete effectively, the most reliable car (JD Powers results of 3 years of ownership) is the Buick Century. Yet everyone assumes it's the Camry or the Accord. The Accord finished behind the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable, and the Buick Century and LaCrosse. The Camry was tied with them.
Now having said this, there are many issues with the American car industry. Some problems are self inflicted, many are not.