«  
  »

GM and the 230mpg car

It’s ironic isn’t it? For 40 years, ever since the first Oil Wars back in the early 70’s, Congress (well, actually, including Congress is a little debatable) and the American people have been prodding -even begging- GM, Ford and Chrysler to come up with more efficient automobiles. At times we castigated the industry into inaction and at other times we genuflected at the temple of Motown Manufacturing, sacrificing the environment and our pocketbooks in the hopes that the gods of Autos would hear our prayers and not force us to buy non-American products.
.
And what was the automobile industry’s response?
.
They poured their hard-fought dollars and marketing efforts (probably along with some oil industry players) into lobbying for greater restraint when it came to forcing them to move up to 30mpg autos. In the early 80’s it was said that forcing the auto industry to kowtow to Congress and the will of the people would add undue burden on the economy as cars would become too expensive. So Congress caved into the lobbying efforts and took the bait and announced that the auto industry couldn’t move that quickly. Instead, be happy with what they were manufacturing: road runners with souped-up V8s that could go VROOM on highway 66.
.
Oh, and tempers boiled over with citizens screaming “Buy American” (they forgot to add “Even if it sucks” – oops, sorry, opinion!), protests were enacted at various touch points across the country. And in the end, the Germans, Japanese, Koreans all built manufacturing plants in America, paid their employees as well as -if not better- than their cross town feral cousins. And then they did something unheard-of which even the unions couldn’t stop: they held their employees to a higher standard. Cars had to be spot-on perfect when they left the shop. There were ripples early on, but the employees eventually got it. They understood: they were suddenly showing pride in the products they were producing. And the Germans, Japanese and Koreans got what they were after: bigger market share.
.
And so what happened to our lobbying-crazed Auto-gods?
.
GM, Chrysler (and almost Ford) lobbied themselves into bankruptcy. People announced the death of American manufacturing.
.
But wait!! There’s more … you’re just not going to believe this …
.
All of an unnatural sudden, within 90 days of getting out of bankruptcy, GM announces a car that will get 230mpg. 230 M-P-G. They didn’t just leapfrog with an incremental move. They didn’t go, for 60mpg or 70 or even 100. Nope they blew away the bar, shot it to hell and totally reset the standard.
.
So why did it take 40 years and a complete bankrupting of an industry to get them to do in 90 days what we had all been begging them to do for 40 years?
.
Regrettably this little post is saturated with cynicism and anger. I’m mad at our auto execs for letting it get to this point. Oh, I understand that the companies were splitting apart at the seams under the weight of their ancient unsupportable defined benefit pension plans but it didn’t have to go to these lengths to achieve a solution. A solution could have been reached years ago putting less stress on the economy and taxpayers pockets. It just seems to me to be another example of hubris and dumb decision making typical of a company that has spent too long at the top and has become reactive rather than proactive in its product lines.
.
Don’t for a moment think that this 230 mpg car just suddenly was born. No, it had to be on the drawing board for years. And this new car -while phenomenal- could have been in our hands years ago and could have helped maintain the American car industry’s market share stance for years had not greed and -I’ll be kind- Dumb and Dumber running Detroit.
.
Stay tuned …
August 18th, 2009 | Category: Economy, Politics, Rants

5 comments to GM and the 230mpg car

«  
  »