Ice,

The rotary engine,as cool as it is, is not an automotive innovation. I'll give props to Mazda for trying to make something of it and spending some dough in that effort. As you know Mazda did not invent the rotary. The improved it and tried to mainstream it.

I'm a big fan of Rotary engines. I've flown ultra light aircraft powered by Rotax rotary engines. I love that sound!

VTEC not a japanese innovation, they didn't invent the VTEC mousetrap, they made it better.   Supra in any form is an awesome machine but not innovative. Innovation is creating something completely new. Or, significantly improving an existing design. A great example would be the Mini Van. Prior to the mid 80's there was no such thing. Chrysler created it via multi -billion dollar investment on the hope it would sell. It did. So well that everyone else came to market with their cloned copy. Over the past 20 something years what are the major improvements to the Mini van? Dual side doors, Power slide doors, and Stowaway seating. None invented by japan. American companies created one of the world's biggest automotive segments and has brought it to its current high level of design.     The Fit? I agree to say it is no better than a Civic DX is inaccurrate. To be clear, it's not even close to being as good a car as the Civic. It's a kid car imported to compete with the Scion. The problem is Honda is using it to anchor the bottom of the line and by including it as a mainstream offering has increased the price of the base Civic by over 20%. Inflation hasn't been 20% in the last 4 years. We the consumers lose.   While i agree engine tech may be more advanced on some models that's of low importance to most american consumers. Most never look under the hood before making a purchase. Things like ipod jacks aren't important. Would putting an ipod jack in a Grand Marquis mean anything? How about spending the 20 bucks a car to make them Blue tooth enabled? Meaningless. the car is still what it is.   Good catch on theLX 470. I misspoke. I meant top of the line Land Crusier/Lexus. By the way, the Land Crusier it's a Land Rover clone.   Infinity dropped the ball from day one. Why do they exist? like i said they are the industry's screw ups.   Japan is getting a lot of heat in the cloning from the rest of Asia, the Koreans in particular who are building Accord look alike clones. Still, nothing new.