Today's vehicles are more powerful, more efficient and safer than ever before. In fact, today's car buyer would be hard pressed to spend his or her money on a genuinely bad vehicle. But those overall improvements may have also led consumers to believe there are no real differences between the various products offered by the world's major automakers. According to the Consumer Reports 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey, Toyota, Ford, Honda and Chevrolet have all seen their scores drop by double digits compared to last year.

It's these companies (with the exception of Ford's small car offering (I'm looking at you, Fiesta) that are focusing on making their car designs as bland and inoffensive as possible in the quest for market share. They're targeting the masses who don't want to stand out and feel comfort in the herd.

It's these companies that I would NOT buy a car from for that reason alone.

I don't know what it is with BMW. They make some amazing cars. I know. I've owned 3. However, they seem to struggle with the 7 series. In my opinion, the front looks like a catfish.

Great first-hand account from someone who actually worked on FIATs back in the day.

Add to that the FIAT 500 took the top spot in JD Power's small car ranking in Germany (http://www.fiat500usa.com/2011/06/fiat-500-number-one-in-jd-power.html).>

As much as I refuse to endorse anything from Government Motors, I will have to applaud them for seeing the light regarding diesel in their cars. Diesels will often get better mileage than hybrids.

Now, can we have the VW Lupo in diesel over here (75 mpg)?

Never mind that it's made by cheese eating surrender monkeys. This thing is beautiful and fuel-thrifty.

Please bring this over here.

The Hyundai Genesis has got to be the greatest example of a car with a slapped-together design lacking any direction or in-house design ethos.

Take a Sachsenring P-240, a Mercedes Benz, a little Audi, and the ass-end of a BMW 5 series and you get this. It even seems as though the designers knew what an unoriginal hatchet job of Xeroxed sedan designs this is and decided not to tarnish their company's brand any further by putting the "H" logo on the hood. It's as though they want people looking at it head on to think it really is something other than Hyundai.

We have a FIAT 500. We love it. I'd like to see more models, including this beauty come state-side.

The 500 is a nice car. Now only if if my wife would let me drive it....

The result? A 725-horsepower twin-turbocharged Teutonic terror that runs from zero to Ludicrous Speed faster than Spaceball One.

Doesn't get any better than that.

I wouldn't mind having one of these in my driveway.

While "union only" parking rules are the exact sort of thing that has many Americans rolling their eyes at the UAW, Wayne State University labor professor David Reynolds suggests that the current economic recession actually makes the public a bit more sympathetic to the UAW's situation, adding "there seems to be a better understanding of buying products and supporting companies that benefit local communities.

Bull.

Just because you're nonunion, it doesn't mean you're not American or a member of your community.

Took Ford long enough. If there ever was a redundant brand, this was it.

This is what you get when you're focused on the spec list and not the user experience.

No further explaination needed.

Well, it's started. The drivel that'll be called "Top Gear" America and shown on the History Channel (huh?) is already in the works with filming being done in California. (oh, for the love of God, California is not the center of the damned universe, nor of this country).

In the line-up thus far: a Hyundai Genesis Coupe and a Ford Mustang.

Are you freakin' kidding me? These are already all over the place! They're already boring as it is because you can barely look around without seeing one of these things. How are cars you see in mass quantity as it is the least bit interesting?

I know it can't be super cars we can't afford all the time. I get that. How about highlighting the more obscure and dare I say, foreign? I've been begging for a while to see Fiats and Alfa Romeos over here. Yeah, according to AutoBlog, they're coming, but as Chryslers and Dodges. Taking good automotive design and beating it with an ugly stick is not the way to go. But I digress...

I guess what disappoints me the most about this whole Top Gear America is that the American auto market (the big 2.5 especially) is quite generic, dull, and uninteresting at the moment. Top Gear America will only highlight just how generic, dull, and uninteresting it is on this continent while trying to make itself and the cars they go on about interesting.