In 47 years of buying and driving cars, I have had a LOT of GM vehicles and certainly been inclined to like them, but now I would NEVER get one, not even a pickup truck or SUV.

The last one I truly hoped to love was the '79 Cadillac Coupe de Ville which fullfilled a dream to actually be driving my own Cadillac before I was 40.

It was an awful experience to own, nothing but trouble, even though I'd had decent service from my '58 Pontiac Super Chief, 64 Chevy Chevelle, '72 Buick Skylark, and '77 Olds Delta Royale - though that last one had hints of trouble already.

When Roger Smith decided to take GM to front wheel drive cars around 1981, I knew that was the end of the line for me.

Moved to Ford, and owned 4 or 5 of the big rwd sedans, principally the Crown Victoria, and the Mercury Grand Marquis, and was extremely satisfied with them in all respects.

But now, they hold no allure for me, as I don't have a need for a pickup truck, or an SUV.

Going back and forth over the mountains between Nevada and California every week or two is fine now, but in the winter I am going to need an AWD for the snow.

My fiancée is wanting to pick up a Jaguar AWD - the 6 cylinder supercharged XF is her desire, as she has had two before, and liked them all, (certainly nobody does interior wood, chrome and leather more nicely than Bentley, Rolls Royce and Jaguar!) but my preference would be the refreshed 2015 Subaru Outback - I have owned three, a '95, '08 and an '11 so far, all 3 were bulletproof and got through snow quite easily.

I have ALWAYS been patriotic and wanted to buy American cars only, but what *IS* an American car now? A Buick Regal with a Mexican engine? A Subaru Outback built in Indiana? A BMW built in South Carolina? A Ford Fusion built in Mexico?

The lines are SO blurred nowadays....

I have read the ONLY truly 100% American built cars are the Ford F150 truck, the Mustang and the Corvette - and none of those I need or desire.

Too bad really. But I guess things change as time marches on.

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edit: I've just spent a few weeks and a couple of thousand miles in a 2014 Chevy Impala, and actually it was a pretty good car, drove it to Las Vegas and San Francisco and all over, around here. It was decent, comfortable and pretty economical, and was told it was a "Consumer Reports Best Buy" and probably it is, for normal use on American roads and interstates, especially for people that see cars only as "appliances" and don't care about them.

But I'd be VERY leery of trusting one for the long term, and I still despise front wheel drive - a couple of times I forgot, (when I went into a turn "too hot" in the Impala), and boy - was that ever a mistake.

Reminded me QUICKLY that buying the BMW 5er last year was a much better choice, even if it cost me over double what the Impala would have.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)