Thank you!!! I never understood rabid car brand fanboi-ism, they're not paying me, they're not going to the superbowl/nba finals/etc...I don't owe a single brand an ounce of loyalty, its supposed to be the other way around. You want to keep my business, don't make s---ty cars, make stuff that I can see myself putting $40-50K on. Don't approach car building the same way house flippers approach flipping houses, i.e. cutting corners in one area while trying to dazzle me w/ BS elsewhere (cough Carbon Bed).
I don't see any reason whatsoever to be a die hard, rabid fan for any brand anymore. It's not the 60's... back then I could absolutely see reason, when every division was truly different and you could tell in the fundamental designs of the cars. Like take apart a 68 Camaro versus a 68 Firebird, and aside from the shared platform, there is so much more engineering and detail in the Pontiac team, just in the front end and bumper structure alone. 67 GTO to 67 Chevelle, 68 Buick GS to 68 Chevelle, I have firsthand experience with all and they were so cool in their differences back then. Probably the biggest one was Buick. My dad is restoring a 65 Buick Riviera right now and I've been helping with that, it's pretty awesome really how much additional detail these factory showcars got. Back when you could tell a Buick, from a Chevy, to a Pontiac, to a Ford, to a Mopar... back when they were truly unique from one-another.
But I digress, sorry, I get a little passionate about my old cars. But on the flipside of that... I started to lose my love for GM like 15 years or so ago. Cool stuff like the formerly attainable fun cars like the SS's (heck, even the Monte and Impala SS's), the middle classed CTS-V, the bargain C5 Z06 just started to vanish. Then they killed Pontiac. The first new vehicle I wanted to buy was an Avalanche, but that died. Suddenly there wasn't much in the GM lineup that interested me, I had to try and find reasons why I was a "GM" guy, I couldn't come up with good ones. Then I notice the cost cutting on the average Joe vehicles, like the Silverado (along with being not as nicely styled IMO), everything being 3.6L FWD, and GM playing it way too conservative in their releases, I can't say I'm a GM diehard anymore.
So now I'm completely changed from who I was 15 years ago. I'll look at anything with an open mind, which is why I decided on a Ram after I saw a beautiful restyled black Sport in 2013. The look got me onto the dealer lot, which sold me. There are products from Ford I like, even Kia and Hyundai have been putting out good stuff. Heck, there are some Toyota's and Lexus's that I think look decent, and I can see why people buy them... that's something I NEVER thought I'd say.
At the end of the day, all car companies these days are just big corporations trying to please shareholders with profits. Some try to please their shareholders with huge ATP's and being "green", others try to show it by increasing marketshare by building awesome hotrods, and giving the consumer the best value, so it just comes down to which corporation builds the product you want to buy. FCA got my last car purchase, and if I were to buy something else in the future, they'd be my first. But that can change, the pendulum can swing back to GM, they just need to make something I feel is worthy of my hard earned money.
