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The kneejerk answer is "unions", but I would remind anyone who thinks so that no one held a gun to management's head and forced them to sign the contracts. No, I think the answer is a lot more complicated than that. But IMO, one big factor is that the US automakers, by and large, make boring, lousy cars. And here's an example of how it's done at Honda. The chief engineer for the popular, strikingly different Honda Ridgeline pickup tells about how it came to be.