I was listening to the Saturday morning or Sunday morning local NPR station about 3 months or so ago. They had experts on the issue and what not. Back then the entire panel had many diverging opinions, but the one thing they agreed on was that there were way too many American brand dealerships and that a bunch had to close. There was a Union guy, an old Corporate head honcho and a reporter...so I'm not surprised by this news and I'm not close to the industry at all. It sucks for the people at the dealerships, but if they paid any attention to the news about their industry, then they probably knew this was coming for a while now.
"They suck" is largely a perception that is left over from the 70s and 80s when the American cars universally DID suck. Since the mid 1990s, quality and design has improved greatly, but anybody over 30 remembers how unbelievably bad they were back in the day and do not want to even consider them.
It is interesting to consider that perception has really tarnished domestic automobiles. And I see Japanese cars actually decreasing in quality over the years... Weird.
