Why can't the big three design beautiful cars anymore?

I'm going to step out of my pragmatic box, and tread on subjective waters for a little bit. Please bear with me. This is new to me.

Style wise, about the only thing that really moves me from any of the US manufacturers is the new Mustang (God, WHY did you not offer a real independent rear suspension! Optional even would have been nice!), the upcoming Dodge Challenger, the upcoming Chevrolet Camaro, and the Pontiac Solstice. The first three only because of nostalgia. I'm not really that excited about the Camaro. Too many angles. I begrudgingly put the Pontiac Solstice on here, but it isn't that unique: GM wanted a piece of Mazda's pie. I think the Miata does a better job of it anyway.

Don't get me wrong, the Corvette and the Viper are impressive cars, but neither one of them make me want to go out to the parking lot and say "wow, that's a beautiful car.".

It's been this way for a number of years too. Annoying as hell. If you want beautiful cars, you have to go to Europe. Most of them can't be brought here for one reason or another either, without some finagling from your Congresscritter.

Aston Martin. You name it, if it has that nameplate, it's likely beautiful. Been that way for years. Here's an excellent example.

Jaguar. Not quite as consistent as Aston, but still, a lot of beautiful specimens. Oh, hey, another example.

Alfa Romeo, Bugatti (check previous posts), Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, some of the Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi stuff... Many, many beautiful cars. Not all models from these manufacturers are beautiful, but they each offer one or two, some more. Some are even brought over here and approach affordable.

But not a single US made unit. It makes me sad, because we were the first to mass produce cars, but can't design anything that I'd really love owning, outside of "loving it for freedom". The US was the reason why cars really became a serious mode of personal transport. With the huge distances to cover, it was really not practical any other way. Horses and trains can only go so far.

It's not that we didn't know how to make them beautiful either. We did. Look at the 60's Corvette, most of the Dodge and Chrysler stuff from the 40s and 50s are beautiful, curvy, if a bit on the portly side. The Ford GT40 and GT are both gorgeous. The Chrysler Prowler wasn't bad either.

Now, it's Econoboxes (not even very good ones... The Ford Ka, available almost everywhere else gets almost 50 MPG from it's tiny engine and light weight. I don't think there's an econobox over here that gets close to that.), Trucks, or the nasty oversized station wagons called "Crossover Vehicles". Please. Please. I beg you, get something beautiful released over here. Preferably in rear drive and not costing over $80,000. I know that we have designers that can draw pretty pictures. Don't be afraid of trying to produce something like them.