I cant agree more, I am all for AMERICAN, but I had an Elantra that I beat the living hell out of and it and kept coming back for more! On a side note, it was barney purple and I rocked the hell out of it!
One thing that they really need to fix is the tear away bumpers. Just trying to pull a side off can result in a torn tab that can render the covers useless. We used to replace probably 7 or 8 per week sometimes. The new Mustangs have similar issues but the front cover for the Mustang only cost $130 from what I remember.