Though it took them awhile to step up their game, the domestic automakers are now at the point where their vehicles rival their foreign competitors in terms of overall design, quality, longevity and fuel efficiency.

The challenges today are two-fold: (1) convincing skeptical consumers that indeed, domestic quality does rival foreign quality and (2) convincing federal lawmakers to change the structural problems that create an uneven playing field, making it nearly impossible for the Big Three to compete with foreign car companies here in America.

While other countries bend over backward to support their car companies, our government has made it excruciatingly difficult for domestic automakers to keep pace with their competitors.

Our car companies have to pay more in taxes because they are American companies.

Our car companies have to shoulder the responsibility to provide health care to their employees, because somehow our government thinks that getting health care through one’s employer is the most efficient model.

Our car companies have to, and should, provide decent wages and benefits to their factory workers and contract employees.

Labor unions are the reason we have eight-hour work days and 40-hour work weeks. Labor unions are the reason we have weekends off and embody the American ideal that our work force should not only be the best and the brightest, but also be paid a decent wage.

Foreign automakers simply don’t have to pay as much in overhead. They don’t have to provide health care to the bulk of their work force, since the bulk of their work force is overseas and their home countries provide health care for them.

They don’t have to fairly compensate their American employees for their work. They strong-arm their American workers to keep them from unionizing. They don’t have a huge retirement cost burden for former employees.

All of this adds up to a cost of more than $2,000 per vehicle that domestic automakers incur and their foreign competitors don’t.

Either the Big Three can charge an extra $2,000 per vehicle to make up the additional cost, in which case their vehicles won’t sell, or they can price their vehicles at the level of their foreign competitors and take a huge hit every time they sell a vehicle.

In spite of the cards being stacked heavily against them, our domestic automakers have risen to the occasion. They have hired the right people to restructure their companies and have made their vehicle lineups sleek, fuel-efficient and dependable.

Industry experts, once known for their disdain of American automobiles, have taken note. In 2005, the Chrysler 300 was named North American Car of the Year. That same award went to the Saturn Aura in 2007 and the Chevrolet Malibu in 2008.

The North American Truck of the Year award went to the Chevrolet Silverado in 2007 and the Ford F-150 in 2009, awarded just a few days ago.

GM is pioneering the electric automobile, and the technology is ahead of the pack.

The Chevrolet Volt, due out next year, will be a dual-mode gas/electric vehicle that will run purely on a battery for at least the first 40 miles.

The early estimates put it at more than 100 miles per gallon, and plugging in the car at home will cost as much as it costs to keep your refrigerator plugged in year-round.

The slogans can be tacky, but they are dead-on. If you haven’t looked at a domestic automobile lately — look again.

Farhan Bhatti is a guest columnist for The State News. Reach him at bhattifa@msu.edu