If anyone knows the pressures of covering Motown’s meltdown, it’s me. I’m putting in some serious time behind this keyboard (“that’s why they call it work” my wife reminds me) trying to keep up with a news cycle that makes a racing bike seem like a mobility scooter (or something like that). My favorite carmudgeon Dan Neil blew a gasket earlier today, arguing for– yes for— the creation of an American Leyland. The same Dan Neil whose criticism of GM’s management (before criticizing Motown’s management was cool) sparked a retaliatory ad boycott and, thus, the first GM Death Watch. And now Autoblog supremo John Neff has gone off the deep end. In the recently launched “Opinion” category– an inherently bad idea for writers with all the teeth of a Chrysaora fuscescens— Neff wails “Stop arm-chair quarterbacking the auto industry.” Huh? If that’s not a textbook example of pathological solipsism, Bob Lutz is. Anyway, Neff’s knickers are in a right royal twist.
“While Detroit deserves much of the ribbing that’s on the way, it irks our ears every time we read an op-ed piece from folks who flat-out do not know what the Hell they’re talking about.” Without the slightest whiff of irony, JN provides two examples of commentators out of their depth. And then the automotive journalist who condemns arm-chair quarterbacking arm-chair quarterbacks.
“While it’s easy to dog on the domestics for the sorry shape in which they find themselves, don’t listen to every Karen and Michael out there who voice their ill-informed opinions on how things ought to be. There are such a myriad of factors that have contributed to the current state of the Detroit 3, some of which is their fault and some (like bad mortgages ruining the credit market) which aren’t, that there just is no silver bullet fix beyond continuing to lower costs and building better products.”
All I gotta say is that even in this crappy market, most car companies are looking at low profits, not annihilation. The fact the domestic got bled out by a year of recession is enough to tell you whose fault this situation really is.
We could always cultivate this John Neff. Not sure how much he knows about cars, but then again, I could say the same thing about Rabid Rick.
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/history/faculty/neff.html
Any relation to Autoweek’s Natalie Neff? She is insane too.
“it irks our ears every time we read an op-ed piece from folks who flat-out do not know what the Hell they’re talking about.”
Funny, that is how I feel anytime I read the comments over on Autoblog. If it doesn’t have a bowtie (or live under the GM umbrella), it is bashed constantly. When the tag says “toyota” or “honda”, it is unreadable.
He’s right.
No, he isn’t right.
There is no real damage that comes out of armchair philosophizing. That is what we do.
There is, however, something fundamentally wrong with thinking that everything is fine and dandy and that the domestics are in the same boat as the imports. They’re not… by a longshot. There is no long-term viability in GM the way it is, and that’s what TTAC has been arguing for quite some time. Going around saying “GUYS STOP JUDGING THEM!” is idiotic and pointlessly defensive.
I’ve said it before in here and I’ll say it again: if Saturn had stuck to their original raison d’etre (“the practical person’s sporty car”) and had made significant improvements in the engineering, I’d still be driving one. (My Saturn was a ’93 SL2 5-speed, purchased new.) They didn’t, and I have an Accord that I’m very happy with.
The warning signs have been there for years. If the domestics couldn’t make money in a historically good market of 16-17 million new vehicle sales per year for the past few years it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they can’t make it when sales drop to 14 million or less. There are a lot of factors that went into where they are today but the reality is that they couldn’t make money structured the way they are today even in a good market.
@ Captain Tungsten:
Neffs are pretty common. There are an estimated 22,509 of them in the US.
@RF
It’s inevitable that a certain percentage, like the aforementioned John, are going to be insane. On the other hand, there are only 504 Faragos.
source: http://names.mongabay.com/data/surnames
What’s wrong with armchair auto executives?
If any real auto executive was smart, they’d bum around auto enthusiast sites for free brainstorming. There has to be at least one good idea somewhere in the mix.
I think (though haven’t confirmed with Neff) that he’s talking about two categories of people. And if that’s the case, then he’s absolutely right.
People writing on the op ed page of major newspapers have absolutely no clue what is wrong with the auto industry. The Mustang program is not why Ford is screwed. A lack of hybrid cars is not why GM is screwed. They need to shut the hell up.
On the other hand, there are valid debates and commentary amongst those that do know what is going on. That includes what goes on here at TTAC.
Yes, Neff looks like a hypocrite for armchair QBing about those who armchair QB. Who cares? If I hear from one more generic pundit on the idiot box about how GM tried to build hybrids with the Tahoe, I’m going to go postal.
Really though, what does this post have to do with cars? Why create a public feud between Autoblog and TTAC? This piece reads like it’s motivated by the urge to discredit another writer for the sake of ego-stroking.
What’s the first thing anybody will tell you about investing? Diversify. That’s what every major automaker except the D3 has been doing. They have wide product portfolios, managed risk and limited exposure to a particular segment going sour.
Twenty years ago, the D3 said “look, our cars always suck, and make no money. Screw it, let the Japanese have em, full-size SUVs and pickups are where the MONEY is. No one will ever stop buying Tahoes and Explorers, so to hell with cars. We’re rolling in cash. Should we invest in a serious program to compete with Corolla/Camry and Civic/Accord? Hell no! Let’s go on a buying spree! I call Jaguar! I call Saab! Oh yeah? Well I call Volvo, take that Mr. Feugehergen!”
Toyota and Nissan are taking just as much of a bath on the Tundra and Titan as the D3 are with their trucks. So why aren’t Toyota and Nissan days away from bankruptcy? People are still buying Camrys and Altimas. Toyota and Nissan can shift production away from trucks and to cars easily. They are, what’s the word, competently managed.
Autoblog flatly copied the CD cover analogy from TTAC I noticed this morning. Back in black by ACDC was on TTAC hours before Autoblog (yeah I had the day off) pawned a copy of another CD cover. Talk about originality.
GM mentality
1. same old complaints, damn they stole our customers by competing with us and made better products
2. engineering? Damn too expensive, lets re-engineer something else and see if it sticks together (x-cars), Olds diesel, etc.
3. Damn Unions will kill us, lets buy them off with great SUV profits.
4. Unions sucking us on one end, Japanese an other, and white collars guys want big bonuses and corporate jets, heck, now the Koreans are coming on strong, we need help Uncle Sam. We lost so much market share and have nearly 810,000 cars sitting on nearly 7,000 dealer lots. nearly a year supply of cars… no one can buy a car since banks won’t lend, what to do….
there is this mentality of stabilizing prices and assuring a constant stream of income without wanting to compete. Gm/Ford/Chrysler have been working together, remember the Justice Dept has sued GM a few times for their anti-competitive practices.
Let’s take a step back from all this car stuff, into the ocean. Literally.
The international ocean freight trade is hurting, badly. Not just because people have stopped buying things in stores (even if they wanted to, their banks don’t.)
No, the shipping lines are hurting because no one is moving anything; whatever cars are shipped end up parked on the pier of their destination, not providing incentive for shipping more. Which likewise does not provide incentive for shipping ore, processed metal, or any of the other stuff required to manufacture excellent cup holders.
In fact, shipping companies are talking of “the perfect one hundred year wave” flushing them all away.
Dry bulk rates have gone from 285.000 US/day to – and brace yourselves: 860 US/day. Yes, you read that right. And while the industry just a little over a year ago was confident enough to be contracting new ships, everyone is now desperate (and unable) to cancel those contracts.
No wonder, a 99,6% drop in contracting rates is 100% Proof.
Hmmm – financial Tsunami, I guess.
You know, it’s funny. I got this weird email forward. It was In Fact a missive from Neff himself that was supposed to go to Farago. I got like ccd or something.
Check it out:
“Dear Robert,
LEAVE BRITNEY ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
-weird, eh?
As for armchair quarterbacking, I studied very similar stuff to what the big 2.4 do, at university. So, if I do qb from an armchair, it’s a goddamn Herman Miller Aeron or Steelcase LEAP, dammit! :P
I would add something in here about what AB and their Three Card Monty “OPINION” Column (authors of This BS: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/23/opinion-the-real-cost-of-unionized-auto-workers-70-hour-try/ ) can go do.
-probably involving explosives, flamethrowers, the human GI tract, interstellar nuclear fusion, etc. but Teh Farago would just delete it, so this is me not saying that ** ** * ***** * ****** **** ***********.
Neff insane == Y.
Would you guys quit picking on Ramblers and Edsels already???!
You’re nothing but a scruffy looking Neff herder.
I’m with Berkowitz and Neff here — the two examples Neff sites are totally valid to his thesis.
RF — why did you omit them?
The big loony was that Ford must cancel the 2010 Mustang if they want any bailout money.
Seriously, how is being against that “Insane?”