Let GM, Chrysler, and Ford Fail Short commentary by a Michigan
'car guy'
by Freethinker Bob
Posted by the Coffee Coaster with permission of Freethinker Bob
"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all a part of the same compost pile." — Fight Club (1996)
Let GM, Chrysler, and Ford fail.
No more corporate welfare bailouts for the “Big-3.” Let the market close the coffin. The age of American manufacturing is dead. The American automotive industry is reaching the final stage of a thirty-year death rattle. Why? A lack of product innovation, quality and adaptability.
Domestic innovation?
One example: GM killed the electric car in 1996. Another: the “Big-3” threw all their eggs in the SUV basket in the 1990s. The Japanese, meanwhile, crafted the Prius and Civic hybrids. More innovation? The Ford Focus, Chrysler Sebring and GM Volt will never be classic cars. They are bland. Gone are the days of the Chevy Impala, Ford Fairlaine and Chrysler Imperial.
Quality?
Quality? By the 1970s sound advice was never buy an American car assembled on a Monday or Friday. By the time GM, Ford and Chrysler sobered up the assembly lines in the 1980s, rust bucket Gremlins, Pintos, Cimmarons and Delarions had already paved the way for vehicles like the Honda Civic to takeover.
March’s Consumer Reports ranks Honda, Subaru and Toyota as tops in reliability. Tired “buy American” mantras aside, let’s count the number of Hondas compared to, say, Fords broken down on the side of this nation’s roads.
Adaptability?
In the 1990s, GM built plants in Mexico. Japanese manufacturers built plants in the American South. Foreign versus domestic, who is creating American jobs today?
The “Big-3” are not entitled to our tax-dollars. If GM, Ford and Chrysler truly want to survive then they need to build more innovative, quality and adaptable vehicles without the government holding their hands. If not, they need to get out of the way.
