“The caravan bound from Detroit to Washington, D.C., to support federal bridge loans [a.k.a. bailout] for Detroit’s Big Three automakers will take the information superhighway instead of the interstate… Grand plans of an automotive cavalcade to the nation’s Capitol grew to the point of impossible once the idea was floated last week by a number of influential people in Detroit.” And so The Detroit News pronounces the T.O.D. for the Caravan of Love. “The outpouring of support was huge,” said Jason Vines, Compuware Corp.’s vice president, TTAC podcaster and former chief spokesman for Chrysler LLC. “We’ve changed this into a virtual march, in part because we didn’t want to become targets for environmental groups or others.” Whoa! Hold on there. First, GM CEO Rick Wagoner can’t drive to DC with his $25b bailout bowl because of “security concerns.” Now the Caravan of Love is bummed-out by possible bad vibes from whacko tree huggers? Talk about a bad trip! So… now what? The bridge builders are launching a site called TheEngineofDemocracy.com. “There, people can share their stories about how the auto industry impacts their lives.” Customers too?
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
“We’ve changed this into a virtual march, in part because we didn’t want to become targets for environmental groups or others.”
Political correctness is so full of BS…
Tree-huggers too
That is the lamest excuse for failure I’ve ever heard. Portends a likewise bad show in DC. Why are they getting paid if they can’t at least lie in a halfway professional manner?
I wonder how many stories of “how the auto industry impacts their lives” on TheEngineofDemocracy.com will start out….‘When my GM/ChryCo, Ford unexpectedly broke… or ‘After the sleezebag dealer tried to rip me off…’
The site is “Under Construction” – since the Internet existed, the lamest excuse for a lazy webmaster. And if I were VW, I’d send them a takedown notice for ripping of the Autostadt logo. http://www.autostadt.de Can’t they come up with something American?
The site will probably fail because they can’t communicate with the web masters in Bangalore…
They were gonna go to washington until they realized that everyone was gonna drive thier Camrys to get there.
“…we didn’t want to become targets for environmental groups or others.”
LMAO!! Do these fools want that money or not? And who are these “others”? Former customers?
“Others” could be the ACLU, PETA, Huffington Post?
Seriously, though. Simply no need to waste fuel for a purely symbolic gesture. There are many better ways to “get er done.” And no, I do not have any snide cheap shots to take at the web engineers or their cause or the Big 3.
Taxpayers can be much more violent than environmentalists, but aren’t as easy to scapegoat.
Let see, who is getting on this endless welfare train called the automaker bailout, and why would anyone want to attack a Gypsieing the taxpayer Caravan going out representing them:
-The domestic car dealers: Oh yes, only environmentalists would be annoyed at tax money being used to buy out sleazy domestic car dealers. Sorry that the brand you sell comes from an insolvent company, but that’s not the taxpayers’ problem. By the way, your infighting and demand for overlapping product and overlapping marketing helped make them insolvent.
-The UAW: These are the kind of low life scumbags that will throw new workers under the bus, letting new workers (probably the most productive workers) take half the pay and reduced benefits, instead of making any meaningful current-worker-concessions to the companies that they have extorted to the brink of Bankruptcy. There are a lot of good unions out there, and the UAW is a disgrace to all of them. Hey, a bunch of lazy high school drop outs have forced major manufacturing companies to pay them better than the engineers, and to give them job banks – good for them!
But now that the UAW is a co-conspirator in killing those companies it is not the taxpayers’ job to become the UAW’s next victim, supporting the big-3 as walking zombies so that the UAW workers members can continue the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. With regard to paying welfare to the UAW I think people that work for a living are more of a threat than environmentalists.
-The large banks that GM, Ford and Chrysler owe hundreds of billions to: Need I say more. The large banks are hoping and praying that tax money will bail out their bad loans. Socialized risk privatized return baby!
-The Boards of Directors and top management of the big-3: They might get replaced in a structured Bankruptcy. They’ve done such a good job, much better to keep them in place with taxpayer money.
It is tragic for America that a Caravan in support of the brave patriots listed above has had to be canceled because of the treat of something as un-American as a taxpayer revolt.
If you as an executive have ‘security concerns‘ maybe you should think about your actions and the consequences of your actions. Maybe if you and the companies you run behaved in a manner that is more beneficial to your workers and the communities you operate in, maybe you would not be so worried about ‘security concerns’. Or maybe y’all just know you have enough pissed-off workers all along the way from Detroit to D.C. that you started having nightmares about all the people along the way you screwed-over trashing your Caravan of Love Tour and that’s why you have ‘security concerns-you know that not a lot of people love you very much-heck just the retirees and near-retirees that have a bunch of nearly-worthless-now GM stock as the basis of their retirement portfolios would just love to give you a piece of their mind-even more so once you go back to D.C. and agree to cut even more retiree benefits just so you can grovel for a mere $25 Billion more. Yeah-maybe you DO have ‘security concerns’.
I submit this: a few years ago I was at the Detroit Auto Show (NAIAS) on an Industry Day and along came this contingent of GM suits-Wagoner, Lutz, Henderson et al…along with seemingly 10+ bodyguards for just a few GM executives and while no one was rude or pushy and everyone was well-mannered, the presence of armed bodyguards definitely sent a chill through the room and in general people just voluntarily got out of the their way as they cruised the show. All in all, it seemed pretentious, self-serving and a P.R. mistake to have the Caravan of Anxiety complete with armed bodyguards making such a scene for seemingly no other reason that to have the executives feel like they’re important enough to warrant such protection. As show exhibitors, these men could easily have seen the show anytime they wanted; before the doors opened or after they closed but oh no-they had to show the rest of the Industry that ‘they were important‘…Next time, go to show before it opens.
Conversely….same show, later in the day, I run into Willie G. Davidson from Harley-Davidson, a name I sure many ‘regular folks‘ recognize much more than Wagoner, Lutz or Henderson….and we had a nice chat, he was walking the show by himself, no staff, no underlings and above all no armed bodyguard contingent and he was as pleasant as he could be. All in all, a delight to chat with.
To those of you on the ‘Caravan of Love‘ or the ‘The Engine of Democracy‘ or whatever you eventually call yourselves, maybe you think about why it is that Willie G. can walk around crime-ridden Detroit unguarded and chat with strangers and have a good time and you feel the need to have seemingly constant bodyguarding in your hometown at your home show on an Industry Day-not even Public Day for crying out loud? Hmmm…maybe Harley and Willie G. run a company, deliver a product and create something American and iconic that is ‘beloved‘ and still are creating value for their employees and the communities they live in. Maybe you have acted in a manner that has you scared for your own life. Think on that going forward.
The domestic auto industry helped to form the middle class in this country, helped shorten and win W.W.2 by mass-producing war-fighting materials, grew communities, is very philanthropic and in general has been very good for the overall health of the American society when taken as a hundred-year whole. However over the last few decades you have been so out of touch with what America wanted, needed and quite frankly demanded that you have lost massive amounts of market share, profitability and respect that lately you have been forced (credit crisis aside here) to take actions to save your companies or your own careers that lately you have been cutting right back into the health of the very communities your largess helped to create.
You had it all…you were like Sears and Wards-you WERE the American stores and everybody knew to come to you…and now we have have the imports acting like Wal-Mart and Target in the sense that unlike Sears&Wards , Target and Wal-Mart understood exactly what Americans wanted and delivered it and took your business that you owned right away from you while you watched….like Wards&Sears you stuck to your old ways for too long and now we ALL have to pay for it even though for a lot of Americans, ‘Wal-Mart& Target’ are doing a fine job of delivering what they need.
Executives like Henry Ford II, Willie G. and others all have or had the ‘touch of the common man’ that allowed them to walk the Plant or walk Mahogany Row and have nearly everyone at each end of the company admire, respect and even adore them. One of the reasons you find yourselves in a position of having ‘security concerns’ is that you have lost that touch with the common man. If you had listened to the common man by simply observing his/her buying habits and reacted accordingly you might not find yourselves in the terrible situation you find yourselves in today- you might still be on top but you didn’t and you let the imports do your job-YOUR JOB better and better while you fell further and further behind in understanding just what people wanted because by the time your thinking went from ” Those funny little foreign cars to Oh SNAP!! Lexus makes a really nice car,guys!!” it was too too late…Way too late and the common man had 20-30 years of great ownership experiences with their ‘funny little foreign cars’ by the time you finally woke up and took them seriously-You STILL do not have a serious U.S.-made competitor to the Honda Fit for example and that car has been out since 2002-Why? Because you still don’t get it-people want a great small car that is fun to drive and you’re still stuck in 1978-think of ‘Small Cars=Small Profits’ with only possible exception being Mulally…but the other 99% of Detroit executives STILL think this way…The customers didn’t leave you, you left them because in your myopic Grosse Point C.C. view of the world, everyone drives a new domestic car right? No, not right and you need to understand why they don’t and why you and your companies are rapidly becoming irrelevant-just like Wards&Sears…Think on that going forward.
Good luck in D.C.-a lot of the ‘common men and women’ that work for you are out here hoping you can get your act together just enough to save this industry, one way or another.
This caravan is way more important than the Woodward Dream Cruise, and car fans aren’t afraid of greenies during that event. I’m just sayin!
Stu,
I’ve seen Billy Ford w/ some security guys, but I’ve never had a problem getting access to Lutz and other GM execs at the media previews. Billy’s great-granddad was not loved or respected by his employees by any measure. He was feared, and Harry Bennett made sure of that.
Do the GM suits travel with an entourage of retainers? Sure, but the comparison with Willie G. isn’t apt. He’s known by the biker community but most folks would think, from the way he dresses, that he’s just another biker. Also, his role at Harley-Davidson is head of design, more analogous to Ed Welborn’s, than Lutz’. He was at the NAIAS that year to participate in a panel discussing styling.
With most big corporations, senior execs, like senior VPs and above, travel, at least to large events like the NAIAS, with an entourage. Roger Penske is considered to be a no-nonsense businessman but he’s had about a half dozen assistants with him at the NAIAS.
Finally, the comparison with Willie G. brings to mind the fact that were it not for government protection in the form of tariffs on Japanese bikes at the time when H-D was in danger of failing, Harley might not be in business today. Or at least not as an independent US owned company. Yes, they turned things around, improved quality and brought out new product like the VRod (with an engine designed by Porsche, btw), but it wouldn’t have happened without some government protection from foreign competitions.
At least GM, Ford & Chrysler didn’t try to trademark the distinctive exhaust sound of a V8, like H-D did with the “potato-potato-potato” sound of a V-twin.
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/articles/content/1998101101.html
Drop me an email and we’ll compare notes.
Ronnie Schreiber
Motorobilia
Sajeev, the Dream Cruise already has been invaded by environmentalists. There was a “green” cruise event this year.
My guess is that the logistics of hundreds or thousands of cars caravaning was the primary reason for canceling, but driving a large number of fuel efficient cars 500 miles to prove how much fuel they save is internally contradictory.
In the current PR atmosphere (cf. business jets are evil planet killing things used simply as a perk for rich folks, not a cost savings) environmentalists’ cheerleaders in the media would be quick to point it out. They’d act similarly if Wagoner drove a Volt mule, saying that the car’s not a production version and that that specific vehicle cost GM half a million dollars to build.
Meanwhile, Sandy Weill, retired CEO of Citigroup, who was paid almost a billion dollars in salary and bonuses still flies for free on company jets and nobody demands that Citi executives explain their turnaround plan to Congress and the public.
Ronnie: I missed that, although green was represented at this year’s NAIAS to the point of nausea. But Green cruising has to be the biggest oxymoron in modern history.
Regarding the caravan: it should be a celebration of Detroit’s core competency, and a slap upside the head of Washington know-it-alls. If they can’t drive the warm and fuzzies to Washington to make a point/plead their case, who will?
More to the point, Hot Rod Magazine made a successful “Power Tour” with hundreds (thousands?) of their readership, I cannot understand why the PR machines of Detroit can’t do that on a smaller scale with their deep(er) pockets and years of knowledge.
My guess is that the logistics of hundreds or thousands of cars caravaning was the primary reason for canceling, but driving a large number of fuel efficient cars 500 miles to prove how much fuel they save is internally contradictory.
Or there’s a much simplier explanation; they don’t even have hundreds, let alone thousands, of willing participants as they say they do. It’s rather easy to say you have the support, but when push came to shove, they realized they had maybe 100 people willing to go to DC.
Sajeev Mehta: “But Green cruising has to be the biggest oxymoron in modern history.”
Why? You know, Lutz also thinks “green” means “enjoys wearing hair shirts.” I care about the environment but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy going for a pointless drive in a convertible. I’d love to, in fact. However, until I’ve got a greener way of doing it by car, I’ll cruise by bicycle.
Sajeev Mehta: “Regarding the caravan: it should be a celebration of Detroit’s core competency,”
What, exactly, is that? An answer of “trucks and SUVs” is pointless, isn’t it? And since the introduction of the Tundra and Titan, I’d say it’s arguable. It seems to me that Detroit is sorely lacking in several core competencies that really matter: Flexible manufacturing and rapid product development. And one can not look at GM’s Yukahoescelade hybrids and not also come to the conclusion that marketing isn’t one of their major competencies, either.
KixStart: I care about the environment but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy going for a pointless drive in a convertible.
No argument here, I LOVE CRUISING. Sometimes I cruise in a pre-1973 vehicle, spewing out more emissions with the key out of the ignition (PCV valves my azz!) than a Prius does at WOT. Going up and down Woodward Ave with other people is an inherently not-green act. I’m sure there were still plenty of burnouts and non-emission cars. Its all good, but don’t label it “green.”
This is why I recycle like its going out of style. Karma, baby.
KixStart: What, exactly, is that? An answer of “trucks and SUVs” is pointless, isn’t it?
Good point, but I’d like to think a Detroit love fest will be more than the latest whipping boy. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of Focus/Cobalt/Cavalier/Neon Internet fanbois could turn this event into a meeting for their national club. I’m sure there’s PR money to help them. Get some trucks in, and all the taxi/limo/police fleet vehicles, get EVERYTHING Detroit makes or has made and their respective owners out there. That’s how you make an impact.
Not that I think Detroit deserves the money without C11, but I’d like to see a Woodstock for Cars.
Wow – so many ludicrous opinions here I don’t know where to start.
The fact is that there are too many people who wanted to join in this caravan – those of you who doubt this are just hiding your heads in the sand and believing your own hyperbole.
Get over it – you are in the minority on this one. There are so many jobs on the line here that it is the height of arrogance to suggest that there are not enough people who would participate in this.
The fact is that the ‘Ambush Setup in Washington’ that was the alleged hearings, was simply a way for those who structured the true bailout – you know, the one “For the Finance Industry” (read those who destroyed the economy for their own personal greed) to deflect the attention away from their horrendously idiotic lack of oversight in the $700+ BILLION bailout.
So – here we are, don’t provide the loans to the American OEM’s – and our illustrious ‘political leaders’ (Gags) truly screw hundreds of thousands of families in this country. It the economy wasn’t currently in the toilet thanks to Wall Street, this wouldn’t even be on the table. If Chrysler went down in a normal economy, it would be at least tolerable to absorb the workers at Chrysler, various suppliers and their dependent economy (you know, Elmer the butcher et al).
But we are NOT IN A NORMAL ECONOMY and this cannot be allowed to happen now.
A tremendous number of people from all walks of life are suffering right now because of Wall Street and their global brethren. It is high time all of you understand this and get over your petty, ludicrous comments of “Detroit must die” because they “just don’t get it” and the rest of your clueless comments that you repeat like trained parrots. The real issue here is to stop the hemorrhaging of our economy and the real possibility of the loss of our middle class and deal with the true problem – the out of control financial community!!
Maybe you like your 401K’s and the value of your homes tanking, but I am not too happy about it.
Yes, I think that there are some real problems with leadership at many of our companies in this country – but not just the domestic OEM’s – the financial companies are much worse.
There are also a great many smart, hardworking people who – given the right leadership – can right the ships that are listing all over our economy without going to ridiculous extremes of letting entire segments disappear along with the technical capabilities that are absolutely essential to continuing our way of life.
You can talk all you want about how some of the foreign cars are built here, but the true value of a domestic auto industry is the sheer level of technical capabilities that this entails. And I have been in virtually every R&D center of both the foreign and domestic OEM’s and a majority of their tier one suppliers – the foreign OEM’s (and suppliers) do the vast majority of their true development in their home countries – that is why every country works hard to develop and NURTURE their own auto industry – it is the key to a middle class lifestyle and leads to numerous opportunities for other types of industry to develop and thrive.
However, until I’ve got a greener way of doing it by car, I’ll cruise by bicycle.
I’m a serious cyclist. A human on bicycle exercising at cardio rates at a heart rate of 120 BPM puts out CO2 at the same order of magnitude as a 4 cylinder internal combustion engine for the same distance traveled.
Your bike isn’t as green as you think. The steel, aluminum or titanium in the frame and other componensts was mined from the ground and refined. Bicycles are made from specific alloys, not simple recycled steel: 4130 chromoly steel, 6061 Aluminum, and 3/2.5 Titanium. If the frame is a composite, well the fibers and resins came, most likely, from petrochemicals, you know, stuff made by those big bad chemical plants. The rubber in the tires came from somewhere too. Then there’s all the methane from those cows used for the leather in the saddle.
Ronnie Schrieber,
Your claims don’t pass the sniff test.
On bikers producing CO2… First, I can go up to about 30 miles per gallon in my car… that’s about 5.5 lbs of fuel, which is largely carbon which largely gets turned into CO2. To emit the same amount of CO2 as a car, I’d have to convert more than 5 lbs of fat when biking 30 miles. That doesn’t happen, although I wish it did. And then there’s the matter of the warm-blooded mammal’s rest metabolism… if it takes me 2.5 hours to bike 30 miles, you’ll find that I’d expel some significant fraction (probably half, maybe more) of that CO2 (maybe more) were I to simply nap for 2.5 hours.
On the environmental impact of producing a 40 lb bicycle vs a 3000 pound car…. you’ve got to be kidding. Moreover, the bike lasts nearly forever. The one I bought in ’79 is still hanging up in the garage for occasional use (it’s a road bike) and I expect the one I bought in ’06 (a hybrid for commuting) will last quite a while, too. If not, it’s largely aluminum, which recycles very nicely. I’ve purchased 12 vehicles since I bought that ’79 cycle and I’m sure at least half have gone to the crusher. The entire vehicle is certainly not recycled 100% effectively; I’ll bet several times the mass of my bike is lost along the way.
—
Sajeev Mehta,
Still, what are the core competencies? For clues, we’d go to Detroit vehicles that are very competitive. And vehicles in categories where Toyota and Honda do not choose to compete or where heritage counts heavily would not necessarily be representative of product from core competencies.
Their core competencies must include automtive design, engineering, marketing, manufacture and distribution. And “competency,” to me, implies, they are as good in these efforts as anyone else. To have these core competencies, unless hindered by other forces that act unequally on the competitors (like, for example, healthcare costs) or other organizational problems, would lead to competitive product.