Yesterday, I broke a 43 year tradition.
I bought my first non-American plated vehicle. Since I was 15 years old, every car I have ever purchased was an American plated car. I was a patriotic holdout refusing to walk off from the American automakers even though their autos were historically poorly designed, poorly made and poorly serviced by dealers who disappeared after the sale. Several years ago, I found a great dealer and would drive 90 miles to purchase my American plated auto. The cars were not any better, but this was a great family owned dealership which was run by the owners. They handled everything so a poorly made car could still have a chance to be a good vehicle with their relentless commitment to their customers.
But, for me it all changed when the auto makers made their way to Washington to tell Congress that what was good for American automakers was good for the nation. I guess Congress believed the lie and gave them a key to the treasury. "Just help yourselves, take all you need!" And they did, and have come back for more.
I decided that day, I was no longer a customer. I suffered through crappy cars, but I am not going to pay for them at least twice, first through a bank note and then through taxes.
If America and the automakers were joined at the hip, perhaps they should have thought a long time ago about their ongoing unpatriotic management of the Big 3 which shrunk the car industry causing layoffs and plant closings that many communities and families have not lived beyond. By their own hand, GM, Chrysler, and Ford have committed a maddeningly slow suicide by their arrogant refusal to make decent cars at decent prices serviced by decent dealers.
So, I threw in the towel and went looking for a work car that was "preowned" but had lots of life left in it. Yesterday I found it. The price was great, the body was super, the interior was spotless, and best of all, this eight year old car was designed and engineered for 500,000 miles. If I didn't know better, I would say I was sitting in a new car.
I value loyalty and I have been a loyal customer of the American automobile. When Detroit went to Washington, I finally got it. These guys did not deserve my loyalty. Truthfully, they don't deserve anyone's.
On the way to purchase my "preowned" vehicle, I passed a closed GM dealership. I shuttered at the things to come, but greed and arrogance always set up a day of reckoning.
Showing posts with label Chrysler and GM and Detroit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chrysler and GM and Detroit. Show all posts
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
How Much Down the Rat Hole?
Chrysler and GM have come back to Washington to ask Congress for another $14 B bringing the tab the car companies are running with the US Taxpayers to a cool $39 B.
Apparently, Chrysler and GM are convincing Congress they can do something on our dollar they could not do on their own dime. They have made the argument:
First they finally get it! Now that is a major step for these oil burning, gas guzzling behemoths. What do they get? What we have been trying to tell these arrogant bastards for 30+ years. Their crappy overpriced cars are junk compared to alternatives available down the street at the Toyota or Nissan dealer. Each year Americans have bought fewer and fewer American plated automobiles while the talking management teams ignored the reality that was creeping up the walls of their ivory towers. Course they didn't much care what we thought because they jetted around in their "not Detroit made" planes. If any jet manufacturing company made jets like Detroit made cars, no one would fly them, and those who did would generally be dead. The fall that happened when the engines quit working wouldn't kill them. It would be the sudden stop at the end.
Apparently, Detroit finally gets it that they can't go on like this. This is the part apparently Congress doesn't get. Congress has crafted a boogie man that is scaring Congress to death. God love them, they are so easily scared about everything. So, in order to keep an unrepentant industry going, our elected officials are going to let them burn through our cash. I haven't heard one single word, not one, from the company management team about building cars America needs or wants: cars that are built to last longer than the 6 year note it takes to pay one off; cars that don't suck up all the gasoline in the world to get them out of the drive way; cars that don't go down the road rusting and dropping parts off as they merrily sputter to their destination; cars that actually have warranties that are largely unneeded because this vehicle isn't a high school experiment pulled before it was ripe. Or, that owners don't have to chase dealers to honor.
Detroit's approach to getting back to profitability is to lay off workers and then? Well, they are going to sell them a piece of junk they can't afford. Now the person is unemployed thanks to Detroit looking after the big hats, and they really think they are going to run out and buy a car from the very folks who put them in the unemployment line. Now, why am I the only one who thinks this is poor economics?
Let me tell you what I think Detroit and perhaps even Washington don't get. I think the miserable sales is a dire prediction of what is to come. Taxpayers are mad. They are mad at mortgage companies, overfat predatory banks choking on their own greed now running to Uncle Sam for relief. I think folks are tired of car companies ripping them off in the showroom and now ripping off tax dollars because they have been too arrogant, too lazy, too self-absorbed, too stupid to see that America is not some island in the sea that can insolate itself from the rest of the world. So, now, what is almost a native American industry or at least a Western industry is done better by nearly everyone but America--well with the possible exception of YUGOslavia, which is no longer a country, as I recollect.
I need to buy a second car. It won't be new, and sadly, it won't be American. I have finally decided I can drive Detroit and drive crap.
Or, I can finally drive something dependable. I have been a loyal Detroit guy until now.Twelve automobiles. Now, I refuse to do any more to help an industry that has been so unpatriotic as to destroy the economies of individual American families and then run to Washington and rob us again.
Apparently, Chrysler and GM are convincing Congress they can do something on our dollar they could not do on their own dime. They have made the argument:
First they finally get it! Now that is a major step for these oil burning, gas guzzling behemoths. What do they get? What we have been trying to tell these arrogant bastards for 30+ years. Their crappy overpriced cars are junk compared to alternatives available down the street at the Toyota or Nissan dealer. Each year Americans have bought fewer and fewer American plated automobiles while the talking management teams ignored the reality that was creeping up the walls of their ivory towers. Course they didn't much care what we thought because they jetted around in their "not Detroit made" planes. If any jet manufacturing company made jets like Detroit made cars, no one would fly them, and those who did would generally be dead. The fall that happened when the engines quit working wouldn't kill them. It would be the sudden stop at the end.
Apparently, Detroit finally gets it that they can't go on like this. This is the part apparently Congress doesn't get. Congress has crafted a boogie man that is scaring Congress to death. God love them, they are so easily scared about everything. So, in order to keep an unrepentant industry going, our elected officials are going to let them burn through our cash. I haven't heard one single word, not one, from the company management team about building cars America needs or wants: cars that are built to last longer than the 6 year note it takes to pay one off; cars that don't suck up all the gasoline in the world to get them out of the drive way; cars that don't go down the road rusting and dropping parts off as they merrily sputter to their destination; cars that actually have warranties that are largely unneeded because this vehicle isn't a high school experiment pulled before it was ripe. Or, that owners don't have to chase dealers to honor.
Detroit's approach to getting back to profitability is to lay off workers and then? Well, they are going to sell them a piece of junk they can't afford. Now the person is unemployed thanks to Detroit looking after the big hats, and they really think they are going to run out and buy a car from the very folks who put them in the unemployment line. Now, why am I the only one who thinks this is poor economics?
Let me tell you what I think Detroit and perhaps even Washington don't get. I think the miserable sales is a dire prediction of what is to come. Taxpayers are mad. They are mad at mortgage companies, overfat predatory banks choking on their own greed now running to Uncle Sam for relief. I think folks are tired of car companies ripping them off in the showroom and now ripping off tax dollars because they have been too arrogant, too lazy, too self-absorbed, too stupid to see that America is not some island in the sea that can insolate itself from the rest of the world. So, now, what is almost a native American industry or at least a Western industry is done better by nearly everyone but America--well with the possible exception of YUGOslavia, which is no longer a country, as I recollect.
I need to buy a second car. It won't be new, and sadly, it won't be American. I have finally decided I can drive Detroit and drive crap.
Or, I can finally drive something dependable. I have been a loyal Detroit guy until now.Twelve automobiles. Now, I refuse to do any more to help an industry that has been so unpatriotic as to destroy the economies of individual American families and then run to Washington and rob us again.
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