Those who make excuses for the American car industry have a lot to do with the Big Three's complacency over that past several decades. Thus, they are accessories to the downfall of the American car. Detroit is as Detroit does.
To paraphrase Steve Harvey, "If I had to compare myself to a basketball player, it would be Blake Griffin. Both of us are very hard workers, and neither one of us is...THAT attractive."
Too soon to tell, but let's not usher Toyota out the door on a whim. Let's face it, the Lotus Elise was kept out of the US for years due to some BS about not being able to get the Rover K-series to meet emissions. Then they did what they should have done in the first place--pop in a Celica motor, and have a global product that performs better than the original. My gut is, why complicate matters?
The next time some smug European brags about their manual diesel wagon whatever, I'll say, "yeah, I wish we had that, but I'll stick with what we've got if the tradeoff is shit on the door handles."