From a reader, apropos Mrs. D’s car purchase:

Derb, you know math, I know cars.
Actually, based on most published comparison tests, the class of the midsize field is either the Honda Accord or, gasp, the Chevy Malibu. The current Camry is regarded as a notch below those two, and Toyota has made some serious missteps in their quest for the title of the world’s biggest carmaker. They’ve been decontenting and using cheaper materials as GM & Ford focus on interior design. The Hyundai Sonata is probably the best value in that market segment, but then Korean cars are cheap. As a company, Hyundai has succeeded in North America despite truly chaotic micromanagement by the Korean overlords. The Nissan Altima is probably as good as the Camry. The Ford Fusion has many advocates — they get great mileage and people who appreciate performance say they are fairly quick and handle well.
It’s a competitive segment, the most competitive segment there is, the heart of the car market. The only thing that sells more are pickup trucks. The truth is that nobody makes a crappy car anymore.
You may be righteously pissed off at GM but I think you have to concede that how a company built a car more than a decade ago doesn’t have much bearing on the quality of their current products. Based on quality surveys Ford’s eliminated the gap with Toyonda and GM’s not far behind.The German companies, by the way, have notoriously bad reliability, at least among car folks and the stats back them up.
Ford, btw, has a very strong product lineup going forward over the next couple of years. Did your wife let you cross-shop a Fusion?

[Me] “Did my wife let me …?” Ha ha ha ha ha! Listen, pal: I am what readers of a certain blog will recognize as a beta provider. ‘Er Indoors got word of mouth from Chinese friends that Toyota was the way to go, and short of locking her in the basement & feeding her Kibbles’n’Bits for a couple of years, nothing I could do would counter that. Hey, it’s her car. I just have to pay for the damn thing.

When my ‘93 Mercury gives up the ghost, I’ll get one of those mean old big-wheel pickup trucks. If she lets me.