American Auto Industry

Okay, I am a car nut, let me come out and say that now. Not in the mechanical sense so much as the data and informational sense.
Now recently at work a coworker brought up Ford and its supposed plan to consolidate with another US manufacturer whose name slips my mind. Ford has been slowly dying for a few years now. As have GM and to a point DCX. Why?
Boring product, take a look at their product lines, what Ford product can compete feature for feature with an import product. IMO not one single model in the passenger car lineup is competitive, let alone interesting compared to its competitors. The only way Ford can make them competitive is to cut price and offer rebates... which then lowers transaction prices but also cuts into profits. I don't think I am alone in thinking this either, read any automotive magazine and you cannot find a Ford ranked #1 against an import competitor. They can even manage to take an intereting platform and turn it into a boring car. Take the 500 for example... boring look boring drive that shares many parts with Volvo's AWD cars.
Another problem for americans... too many brands/Divisions selling almost identical product:
how many versions of the same car can a company make for different divisons... and its not like they're good competitive cars to begin with.
GM has Chevy and GMC with GMC being basically the gussied up Chevy truck division. Gimme a break.....
Ford has 2-3 versions of everything, who need Mercury anyways, its too close to Lincoln.
( Explorer, Mountaineer, Aviator.... Escape Tribute, Mariner...Fusion, Milan, Zepyr I mean MKZ)
before all of that thins out they have to meet reliability standards set by import leaders.... heck even Hyundai has passed them by when it comes to reliability....
flame away...