My advice to Leno: lose weight and learn to be funny again.

Yeah, I don’t want an American car because I’m too stupid to take the key out when I get out of the car and the “Idiot you left your key in the ignition” alarm goes off. I also get INFURIATED by the turn signals everytime I signal to turn. Damn American cars!

HRR, it’s an example designed to illustrate cheap fit/finish in general. I agree with him. Been in a Civic recently? It’s damn near perfect inside.

Dude, my ROAD RUNNER does that with the turn signals, but it’s a 38 year old car. I don’t know what kind of new car he’s describing, but it isn’t new obviously. He doesn’t mention how the shifter (5 speed) on my ‘04 Civic I bought NEW would vibrate and rattle on the interstate in 5th gear, or the door panels would rattle, or that absolute CHEAP fit and finish on the car especially on the molding around the roof. I see all kinds of new American cars that have PERFECT fit and finish, awesome drivetrains etc. where’s the praise in them. Oh, they’re American so SOMETHING about them must be wrong.

I checked out a new Civic coupe, Deanster. The dash is cheap hard plastic and the seat fabris felt cheap also. I was far less than impressed.

It is hilarious: Jay Leno is authority on nightly comedy show. The guy has a passion for cars and owns great collection. Few good mechanics are working on those cars restoration and keeping them in running order. Did he finished high school or college to be ASKED about state of automotive affairs? The guy is a comedian! It’s like asking Whoopy Goldberg about brain surgery by Lancet or Robin Williams interviewed by Science magazine on space exploration.

HemiRoadRunner, Keep the Flame alive man or No replacement for displacement to the end right? Dinosaur……. Look Man American car companies can build a car just as reliable as a Japanese car and just as elegant as a European car. However, even you have got to see that we need a different way to go about this. We are getting better Like the Pontiac G8 even though we still have that huge power plant. This is proof that we can come up with something that the American public will want even though it is Australian. So again I would say lets go forward into the new century with our cars instead of trying to revive the past. Pay attention the past just don’t make the same mistakes again.

LOL, I wonder when Leno last rented an american sedan? And maybe I never noticed… What does a jap car do when you leave the key in it?

I think a man who has restored steam-powered cars and drives one of the first electric cars ever made (it dates from the 1800s) does know a bit more about cars than the average stand-up comedian or Joe/Jane on the street. And I know exactly the cars he is talking about: the crap fleet cars that US automakers sell to Hertz, Enterprise, etc. PT Cruiser, anyone? Malibu? Cavalier? Cobalt? Taurus? G6? All shameful, crappy, bland and poorly-built cars. mayer_ray_nagin, you were probably sitting in the stripped-out lowest-price option Civic; go sit in an American car at that exact same price point, and then come back. I was rented a G6 with 10,000 miles on it last year and the dash had a big gap on one side, the transmission was useless slush, the A/C cut in and out and the seat springs creaked (and I’m under 200lbs). The US is not competitive in that price segment.

Leno is utterly boring on so many fronts; the least being comedy.

It’s hard to pay much attention to a guy who’s worth $200 million and collects the finest cars in the world when he complains that a “cheap American car” feels cheap. What would he do if he ran Ford, make the Focus feel like a Bugatti?

Leno is absolutely right. I drive a different rental every month. I drove the Chevy Malibu thinking it would be a good car to rent and boy was I was wrong, that car is a pos. Same with the Chrysler Sebring and Ford Focus theyre all a terrible excuse for a car.

Leno does know alot about cars…….how to get cars for free.

Wow, there is actually a person on here that argue’s in a sensible way? Ok Renzogtr: I am all for becoming LESS dependant on oil, but there is NOTHING wrong with bringing back a few retro cars. These new age musclecars have NO IMPACT on : the economy, fuel prices or the environment, there isn’t enough built to make an impact. I agree the mainstream cars need to be an alternative fuel or more efficient, but not ALL cars, just the majority of cars that are soulness and have no thrill factor. If someone wants to make a supercar that runs on batteries, water, imagination whatever, I’m for that too. But the traditional high horsepower, no non-sense, all balls muscle car shoudln’t be destroyed completely just because a few tree huggers “don’t get it” I don’t get why they stand in circle’s, smoke pot and sing kuhmbaya either but if that’s what floats their boat than whatever. Cars like the Challenger R/T, Z28, whatever mustangs “musclecar” is now, need to remain true to their heritage, yeah they can be a little more efficient than the 8-13 mpg’s they used to get, but there isn’t enough of these made compared to the MILLIONS of other cars out there. I have no problem with the low performance versions of these carsrecieving alternative technology but not the one’s badged to represent a historic car like R/T, SS, Z28, GT, Boss, Cobra etc.

By the way, it isn’t our cars driving oil prices up, it’s a bunch of greedy POS’s like oil co. CEO’s, day traders etc.

Oh I agree HemiRoadRunner, I don’t want to see Detroit muscle killed off either I like Raw Horse power (That’s American)no one else on this planet was really Hot Roding before else. I am just worried that we concentrate too much on all that was instead of all that is. I hate that oil process are so high and I hate that American Car companies are doing so bad. I hate watching TV shows around the world saying are Cars are crap (TOP GEAR). I believe we have the technology do better things even with Muscle cars but it doesn’t seem like Detroit is heading the call. I was young with the Muscle car died the first time and now I am seeing it again…The funny thing is that the Retro Cars started in my opinion the turn around of public opinion on U.S Cars. It gave us pride again with the Viper, Ford GT, Mustang, Charger etc… But here we are again in the year 2008 and its 1979 all over again. I did grow up with imports but I do know where the core of Hot Roding came from I just wish that Gas prices weren’t killing it all over again. I want more economical options form the Big Three something that I know is dependable and rivals the MPG of other cars if not better with a little American style to go with it. So my fight isn’t with the old Muscle Heads it’s more with the Big Three not giving us more options. (Because were American and I know we could do it)

PS I hate hippies too

Well I’m glad I can finally agree with someone else other than the usual 4 or 5 guys on here. You’re a lucky mofo to have been around when those cars were new. All I remember new was early 90’s late 80’s crap.

Normally I would agree with people saying that “celebreties” have no place blabbing about politics or world events. They are no more experts than the average American. They just happen to be famous.

Leno however is a certified car nut and is very knowlegable about cars. It is his passion and what he spends basically every free moment persuing. I feel that he does have something to offer to the discussion.

Most of us here are not “experts”, but that doesn’t keep us from spouting off our opinions on just about everything automotive. Jay just happens to have a bigger audience when he gives his opinion.

How do you get certified to be a car nut?

I remember reading Jay Leno’s test of some car in the British Times (yep, he ocassionally replaces BBC Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson) in which he quted his father: Son, Cadillac is a Rolls Royce among cars. I think he does believe in American Car, whatever it may be. But he’s actually right. I assume he didn’t try to be particularly funny when talking about the grim outlook for the US manufacturers.

His remark on how Harley Davidson came out of crisis is correct, and, maybe he doesn’t know that, but to later, to preserve the high torque at the low rpms, HD turned to Porsche… They simply swallowed their pride. It worked and it saved the company.

just to add to my previous comment about Harley – the Porsche’s task was to keep the tourque high, the rpms low AND, most importantly, to push emission low.

He probably knows as much as Lutz does about American Iron.
As long as there are Civic and Corolla, why bet on a long shot?
DrFill

I will always have Chevy in my heart but I got an import because it was the better car hands down. The new Malibu is an impovement but still not as advanced. I test drove and rented almost every midsize before buying. I brought the rentals back with bald tires.

Jay is accurate in that he articulates the quality of the American product is far below the “feel” of imports in many ways. However, he’s not entirely correct in using Harley-Davidson’s quality as an example. HD is purely about retro style in a growing market of pseudo bad-boy baby boomers using two wheels as psychotherapy for their mid-life crisis. HD isn’t about quality as much as attitude and excellent marketing.

I agree with Leno on the turn on the chicken leg turn signal. On my Ford F-150 when I turn the lever it snaps like if you just snapped a chicken leg haha! And sometimes it doesn’t even want to stay in the position I selected it to. But I do see more efforts in improving the quality so I am confident the Big 3 U.S. automakers will be churning out better cars to compete with the likes of the JDM Euro markets

You really can’t use your experience with a rental car to judge a model. If it has more than 500 miles on it it probably is no longer representative. Same with government officials, after 6 months they aren’t your guy any more.

As for mileage. IF we just stopped requiring crap like a dozen and a half airbags and 6 foot crumple zones and electrical systems and their accompanying electronics that serve no purpose than to let people who can’t really drive in the first place get into more trouble on the road the vehicles would be cheaper, get better mileage and be simple enough in design and construction that reliability would improve. I don’t need all the crap they are REQUIRED to build into cars and 90% of what they get bullied into building cars by vocal idiots has no use for me either. We are killing ourselves off with convenience.

Automotive Darwinism. Cars should be cars, people who can’t drive a stick or survive without a cell phone or 19th cup holder should wrap their car around a tree and let the rest of us get our driving done.

hemiroadrunner- Just to let you know, he didn’t mention any models specifically, including the Civic. Not saying that your vehicle doesn’t have problems, but for the most part, Japanese cars are better built.

I think the biggest problem is domestics “concentrate” their finances on three or four models, and the rest of their lineup goes to crap. Ford has invested in the Explorer, Expedition, F-150, but for the most part, none of their other models. This is really evident with Chrysler.

HalGameGuru- Agreed.