Profits at General Motors and Ford are up, the latter is enjoying phenomenal market share and both companies also boast an increasingly impressive product portfolio.

And despite the media scepticism, customers have noticed the improvements. Yes, fleet sales are creeping back up, but incentives are down, dealers are more profitable and Kelley Blue Book recently reported that Ford is the most considered marque for Americans. According to its Brand Watch study, 29 per cent of consumers shop Ford versus only 22 per cent for the perennial market leader Toyota. As well, for the first time in history, Ford and GM lead the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

Lincoln-Mercury tops the industry with an overall score of 89 (out of 100) with Buick following closely at 88. Nor is this an isolated trend. Though the overall satisfaction in the auto industry is down (largely as a result of the discontinuation of the “Cash for Clunkers” program according to ACSI), US car makers showed the smallest decline while satisfaction with the Japanese and Korean marques dropped the most.



In regards to the Volt's pricing, this is damned if you do; damned if you don’t. Had GM priced the Volt more competitively, people would have complained that the stimulus money was wasted because GM was still selling cars at a loss. But then again, most Japanese hybrids are still sold at a loss. The thing is your placing too much emphasis on the Volt, it's not like it's GM only project in the pipeline. If you want a more viable target, then you should focus on Chrysler. The Daimler rejectee is still losing money, market share continues to decline and, despite the successful introduction of a new Grand Cherokee, there’s not much new product in its pipeline.

It isn't all peaches and cream, but the fact that we're even having this conversation considering the state they were in a year ago, two years ago? Is in itself quite remarkable.