Dismal car sales so far this year by the "Big Three" U.S. manufacturers could be a sign that Americans are becoming disenchanted with the quality of homemade models, some industry analysts say.

　　Since the end of January, domestic sales by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler Corp. have nosedived while sales of imported Japanese cars have risen steadily.

　　At the same time, European sales in the United States have been mostly soft, with only Sweden's Volvo showing some gains.

　　In the first quarter of 1990, the import share of the U.S. car market rose a mighty 2.7 percentage points over the same period last year to 33.2 percent according to statistics from investment bank Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc.Each percentage point equals roughly 100,000 cars.

　　Analysts said that if the car market were truly weak, then Japanese sales would suffer as well. But they haven't, despite heavy competition from U.S. makers which offer generous showroom sales incentives and competitive prices.

　　"The Big Three are giving customers phenomenal deals, and the buyer still goes down to the import dealers," said Shearson Lehman auto analyst Joseph Philippi.

　　Rejecting the theory that it might just be a cyclical market downturn, some analysts have concluded that a growing number of car buyers simply do not trust U.S. cars to have the quality and reliability to which they have become accustomed in imports.

　　"There is a change of attitude on the part of the customer. He perceives the import vehicle as being of appreciably better quality than what America has to offer," said Phillippi.

　　Americans are apparently willing to pay a premium for that quality. Demand is such for Honda Motor Company's Accord model that dealers can ill many instances charge the full sticker price for the Japanese vehicle, while comparable U.S. cars, such as Ford's medium-sized Taurus, go wanting despite deep discounts.

　　In 1989 the Accord supplanted Taurus as the best-selling car in the United States, a first for Japan's auto industry.