Saving The Big Three

I’ll be the first to admit that the Big Three: GM, Ford and Chrysler, are a bunch of screw-ups. Yes, they agreed to pension plans that were so lucrative for their employees that they now find themselves at a gross disadvantage against the Japanese. Yes, they were guilty of building trash—or more precisely a lot of trash for many years. Yes, they have made the wrong decisions time after time, but I’m here to tell you---

IT’S NOT ALL THEIR FAULT!

Television pundits and radio talk show hosts are quick to point out the flaws in the Big Three. Aside from the problems generated by past union contracts and the shortsightedness of their CEOs, they take it as a given that GM, Ford and Chrysler don’t know how to build a car. This is patently false! The Ford Focus is a great car. The Chevy Cobalt is a great car. And the Dodge Neon, well I guess there is always an exception to the rule.

What they don’t want to talk about is the crappy attitudes of a lot of American car buyers. For a large segment of our population, buying a car is a political statement. The children of the 60’s and their minions wouldn’t buy an American made car if their lives depended on it. Why?

They’re sticking it to The Man.

Somehow it’s gotten into the popular imagination that all American corporations are inherently evil. Except for Apple, of course. Yes, American cars were lousy for a long time. Yes, it took the Japanese to wake them up to quality and innovation. But I’m here to tell you that no matter how good an American car can get, a large portion of us won’t buy it simply because it is an American car and it doesn’t fit into their image of themselves.

What was a company like GM to do? Few would give their cars a chance (except for the rental car agencies!). If they had to survive on car sales alone they were doomed. But there was one thing they could do and that was build one hell of a truck.

GM makes great trucks. When it comes to trucks and the SUV’s built off their platforms, no one on the Japanese side can compete with them on a serious level. If you were GM and no one would give your cars a chance, but they’d buy the crap out of a Chevy Tahoe what would you do? If you build it they will come! And the same can be said for both Ford and Chrysler.

The Big Three did what they had to do to survive and prosper. They do make decent cars, and they could prove it if given half a chance. And if given that chance they would be motivated to focus their resources on even better cars for our future. Is America willing to give them that chance? Sadly, I fear the answer is no.

Now I don’t have a problem with anyone buying a Toyota. I’m a Car Man. All I care about is metal going over the curb. But if our American based manufactures are to survive, it is us that’s going to have to give them a break. We are the only ones that can give them a true and lasting bail out. We are the only ones who can save an industry that employs millions of Americans.

I know, it would be a little embarrassing driving up to your save the polar bear meeting in a Dodge Stratus. But think of it this way, you will be saving an even more important species,

Americans.

Talk to you later,


David