It’s one thing to pay lip service to a brand. It’s another to be it’s slave. I’ve got no problem wearing that yoke. As Bob Dylan opined during his Jews for Jesus phase, you gotta serve somebody. So when I put the idea of a GM and Chrysler boycott to TTAC’s Best and Brightest, I was ready, willing and able to receive blowback. I may have invented this brand, but you, dear readers, own it. As the “are you out of your fucking mind” comments piled up (preserved for posterity), I was overwhelmed by your passion, logic and common sense. Clearly, a GM/Chrysler boycott is/was/would be a big mistake: a brand extension that would weaken TTAC’s core remit. And we can’t have that. So I have abandoned the idea. I apologize for going off the deep end, and thank you for resetting my moral and marketing compass. And yes, there will be more car stuff. In fact, I’m going to test a brace of Lexus SUVs later today, Or maybe the IS-F, just to remind myself that a good brand takes joy in what it does best, and leaves the rest of the market to itself.
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Thanks. Your commonsense in this is appreciated.
Thank you. It is hard to try and maintain balance in the constant rattle of todays world, no matter the focus or occupation.
If possible, have a little fun.
Good on you, Mr. Farago. I look forward to reading more automotive reviews on this site. Despite recent events, I have faith that TTAC will be objective in its reviews of all products, foreign or domestic (or a mix thereof).
I wish you and everyone at TTAC a happy and prosperous New Year.
I knew you were smarter than that.
I’m planning on boycotting GM and Chrysler, and to advise all the taxpayers I know to do the same.
Now, is it TTAC’s job to tell us to do so? I’d say that an op-ed could advise that, but without engaging the entire site’s responsibility. That’s pretty much how the big newspapers do (WSJ, NYT,…). But in any event, I’ll admit to “bailout coverage fatigue” and have found myself skipping most bailout-related posts, simply because there are so many of them.
I’ll look forward to more car reviews!
wow farago…..do I feel a soft spot in your heart. I am taken back…. BTW you had me at hello
Or maybe the IS-F, just to remind myself that a good brand takes joy in what it does best, and leaves the rest of the market to itself.
Yes!
Robert,
Perhaps a second blog, like autorantings.com where you can go off the deep end, and in fact the branding of the web site is where you and others do in fact go off the deep end might be a good idea.
A website where your goal is not page views or profit, but just rantings on the stupidity and ignorance of what goes on around you, might be good for you, and this website.
And you could also post any really offensive material there. Think of it like ttac.com, underground.
Uhhmn I have been boycotting the big 2.8 for about 20 yrs. Last Detroit car purchased was a ’66 Valiant back around ’86
Every so often, I open the hood of some new car. I contemplate doing service on something under there and a feeling of dread overcomes me. It motivates me to keep my 88 528e going forever.
I realize that I am not your average car consumer, so my input is of little relevance to the mainstream. What makes me really POed is that my tax $ are being spent to aid an industry that I havent supported ever.
That no amount of money can fix, if people will not buy their products.
A TTAC boycott against any manufacturer would have been a huge error.
What were you smoking?
Thanks for reconsidering, Robert. Now I won’t feel guilty when I pick up a Chrysler for cheap as a kid’s car when Chrysler liquidates.
Sometimes I think you do these things just to make us mad. See, now I’m channeling my parents lectures.
Robert,
Anybody can change, but only a few can grow in the process.
I congratulate you for making a difficult decision — and also for providing us insight into your decision making process.
I wish you, yours, and all of us in the automobile industry a wonderful, healthy, and prosperous 2009.
-Where’d The Boycott Page Go?
It Does Not Come Up At:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bailout-watch-320-ttac-to-launch-gm-chrysler-boycott/
Grammar-Nazi: “it’s slave” should be its slave
Yes, I am not native yet I’m bothered – and I am even worse when it comes to my mother tongue (Hungarian, that is.)
Anyway, a boycott has its place but I doubt these times would evoke such a harsh response – but your original piece doesn’t come up so I cannot really comment on your reasoning…
That original piece should go away, never to be found in a search again. Look at the comments once in a while if you start feeling plucky.
A professor of mine once said that if you fire people for making mistakes, you’ll never have anybody working for you who has learned from their mistakes.
Good for you for being able to reconsider.
P.S. I have to remind myself from time to time that these are just cars we’re talking and arguing and getting worked up about. Just cars. Some people don’t even own one, if you can believe that.
Robert, I am behind you 110% on your stance,I have already made up my mind to never buy a car from one of these loser’s that have bent us over.I can only hope that most Americans will think long and hard before they invest twice in buying a car from one of these Company’s.But as history goes we know American’s have a short memory,and time will tell.That is why we will never regain the ground that we have lost, it will be business as normal in a year or two when this stuff is no longer in the main street news.It pain’s me to here someone say they will buy a car from one of these Company’s,but that is there choice and I can just stand back and feel I have stood up for what I believe in and you can to.These Company’s will go down,how much it will cost the tax payer to get there is the big unknown,but it will happen.I was in the auto parts business for 20 years and and bought from Ford,waste? I could go on for hours on what I seen,but we all have heard the story’s.Please keep up the great web site.
@AnalogKid: Nu-Unh!
Robert floated the idea. He wrote it. We responded. It’s out there. It’s done.
Start playing Historical Revisionist by De-Publishing, and I’ll start lumping TTAC in with the ilk of Jim Cramer, who has CNBC scrub the transcripts of his pre-crash Bear Stearns Buy Recommendations.
De-Publishing is weak, capricious, dishonest and disrespectful. You want Private coms, you should’ve E-Mailed the B&B.
-If people spend some of their own time-currency on TTAC to comment, do them the service of leaving it up -or you’re wasting their NSFW-ing time.
…->Or: you can just have a blog full of 1-word-comments by people who know INGSOC’s Ministry of ‘History’ may swoop in at any moment and blow their investment.
At that point, you might as well invite the 12-year-old YouTubers over for the party.
willman:
Point taken. It won’t happen again.
Here’s the petition:
To The Board of Directors of General Motors and Chrysler Corporation,
We, the undersigned, believe that the free market principles upon which The United State of America was founded are as valid today as they were when our country was created.
We believe that maintaining these principles– even in a time of economic crisis– is critical to protecting America’s long-term prosperity and vitality.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, oppose the use of taxpayer funds to subsidize and sustain failed commercial enterprises.
Aside from financial aid offered in a time of war for the common defense of The United States, we consider any such federal intervention injurious to the free market system and, ultimately, our citizens’ best interest.
In specific, we condemn the loans made by the federal government to General Motors and Chrysler Corporation.
We, the undersigned, believe it is not in America’s or her citizen’s best interest to support organizations who undermine the foundations of our economic system.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, will not purchase a General Motors or Chrysler product until and unless the federal loans made to these automakers are repaid in full.
We, the undersigned, do not wish to damage General Motors or Chrysler’s chances of recovery, or threaten those whose livelihoods depend on their success. But we believe that well-established bankruptcy procedures offer the best chance for their survival.
Meanwhile, we, the undersigned, will show by our actions that we believe that our cherished principles should not be sacrificed on the altar of expediency, or perverted by those who seek to profit by their destruction.
I’ll create pdf with all the comments as soon as I can get my step-daughter off garage band….
Nice to see you talked in off the ledge.
Just Google up: http://74.125.45.132/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetruthaboutcars.com%2Fbailout-watch-320-ttac-to-launch-gm-chrysler-boycott%2F&btnG=Search
kamm
Thanks for that!
The boycott seems in line with your ‘brand’. I haven’t read this site for very long but it often seems to me that your reason for being is to trash the not so big 3.
Good, TTAC goes on.
Robert:
No apology needed.
In fact, I’d move ahead with the whole boycott idea immediately. If you don’t, it will be the one time TTAC follows actual sentiment in the market instead of, as you most assuredly and often do, lead it. America has already started it’s boycott of GM and Chrysler (For GM the love affair has been on the rocks since at least 1975. That’s the year my dear grandfather proud owner of 40 or so years of Chevrolets purchased a new Toyota Celica GT. Even as a still-wet-behind-the-ears 20 year old, I knew then that there was big trouble ahead for the Big 3.)
@willman,
I have no problem if RF wants to put it all back up, but he is under no obligation to do so. Nor is he obligated to preserve every comment to every post.
If you want to go back and re-read your posts please save yourself a copy.
The boycott would have been a distraction. Keep posting on the bailout’s slimy financial details, but if people want to buy from welfare Motors, let ’em.