The leather still has that fragrant smell of dead thick cow skin and the interior offers a better living space than many Manhattan apartments. It only has 104,000 original miles after 21 pampered years on the smooth roads of North Georgia. Everything about it is world class. But as soon as I utter the name BMW, some of you will be instantly turned off. A Yuppiemobile. A prestigious status symbol loaded with whatever arrogance and hubris the Germans can muster. Not to mention that it’s not a Lexus, or a Jaguar, or a….
Pontiac? Don’t you guys know that Americans can’t build world class machines! Well of course there’s the Corvette, the Silverado, the F150, the Suburban, the Fiesta, the G8, the….Actually come to think of it. Didn’t the Cavalier and Sunfire whip the Tercel and Echo for a good ten years? Hasn’t Honda learned that they can’t make a pickup to save their axe from first base? Nissan? Weren’t they bailed out by the French?
Not to dedicate the rest of this write-up to anything from France. But when I think of France and cars, I can’t help but think of that wondrous vehicle known as LeCar. A hamster powered tin box that can be outrun by Rabbits. Both American and Mexican.
Renault only saved Nissan because like any good company based in a left-leaning country, they kept on making cheaper versions of the very same car year after year. The ‘E Pluribus Versa’ strategy is brilliant for a lower end vehicle when everyone else that competes with it tries to go upscale. For higher end vehicles like the Titan, Quest, Armada, Sentra and Maxima the cheap and frumpy approach fails. The only thing worse than a Renault/Nissan would be an all French car like the Peugeot.. or perhaps …
Korean cars. Those of you who think that some Korean car making prince snapped his fingers and turned the shitboxed Excel into a high quality Accent are drinking from our national media’s Kool-Aid. The same Jim Jones concoction that made Consumer Reports recommend the Volkswagen Passat back in the late-90’s. It’s a big lie. Korean cars have not redefined anything except another flavor of Toyota vanilla in the marketplace.
Most of our media outlets only care about the ‘trendy’ and ‘different’. They aren’t going to mention that the Panther cars are exceptionally durable or that Chrysler is nearly back to owning half the minivan market. Only in the American media is ‘Detroit’ the ‘enemy’ and the purveyor of all things uncool. Which brings me to what everyone thinks of when they hear about Detroit and it’s inner city.
The Chinese. Why couldn’t these Mao worshiping, North Korean supporting warmongers quit whoring out our middle class. Americans love cheap crap… God bless our 99 cent ‘value’ menus… and we can still offer a ton of it to the developing world. From Walmart to Waffle House, we should export our talents through any means possible. (ED: Consider it done. There is a huge Walmart across the street from me in Beijing. There’s a 7-Eleven in my building. KFC opens up one new chicken store per day in China. Yesterday, I came back from the Beijing airport, and what did I see? An Outlet Mall! For a minute I thought I had been dreaming and I’m still shopping at Tanger Mall in Riverhead. The empire definitely strikes back.)
But we can’t. Why? Because the Chinese will steal, cheat, lie, devalue their currency and generally do all the other things that our leaders and CEO’s pretend not to do. No matter what language you speak, cheap always has a price.
Hmmm… speaking of cheap. Korean cars were cheap once. Some still are. The Japanese made a ton of cheap cars, cameras, and watches. German cars were once cheap… and so were many American cars. From Models A and T. To the Neon and Cobalt. Everyone has some type of competitive edge in this business. In the beginning and end it’s usually ‘cheap’.
Do we need to be protected from a ‘cheap’ bogeyman that is well over a century old? I think we do. The cost will be shutting our goods to a more competitive and far larger global market. But protectionism will ensure our success, as surely as it did in the 1930’s.
Truth be told the only real demon we’re fighting right now is a two-party political machine that ensures minimal competition to those who sponsor it. If you want to make American cars competitive, don’t worry about Detroit. Worry about a government that will do the bidding of anyone who is willing to pay for the privilege.
I remember when TTAC was about cars.
For the record, we had been protectionist throughout most of our history. Seems to have worked for us.
Protectionism is the cowards’ way out. It’s what countries do when their industries can’t compete with better products from abroad.
I’ve often said, there’s nothing “un-American” about buying the best of whatever is available. When it comes to cars, that has seldom been a domestic vehicle. Perhaps that tide is finally turning around… for that matter, perhaps it would have turned around decades ago had we forced Detroit then to put their energies towards building competitive cars, instead of begging for import restrictions.
Oh, and remember that our protectionist stance also helped contribute to the rampant corruption and illicit political influence of today’s UAW. No union should ever own a political party the way this one owns the Dems.
As I sit here reading your post, preparing, willing (and failing) myself to get up and go and carry out my civic duty this election day (duty no, obligation as voting is mandatory), I can’t help but wonder on how is it that, though we have at least 5 or 6 national parties, I really only have 2 choices today. Two choices who pretend we are living the dream and that our current President is God incarnate. That all we need is more of the same and you voter just go out there and confirm how right and fine and dandy and bootylicious everything is in this the most beautiful, but most stupid of all of God’s nations.
Sigh
I tried to think of some sort of snappy retort to this article but I’ve reached the conclusion that the best thing I could do in response was go practice some of the freedom that I enjoy as an American.
So if you’ll excuse me, I’m headed off to the St. Francis Fiesta to enjoy a little freedom with my faith community. (Along with good homemade Mexican food, baked goods, and music.)
Because the Chinese will steal, cheat, lie, devalue their currency and generally do all the other things that our leaders and CEO’s pretend not to do.
The land of Blagovitch and Duke Cunningham has similar issues. Not to the same degree, perhaps… Although in the case of currency debasement, the dollar’s future is not immune from the political degeneracy and economic illiteracy of the current administration.
I read this 3 times and still canot firmly figure out what this piece is about. I’m no fan of Jack B. but at least he ha clear points
michal1980: Thank you, I thought it was just me.
The most I can figure is that Mr. Lang dislikes liberals. Unfortunately it’s not entirely clear who he thinks liberals are, and since protectionism tends to be a -conservative- policy, I honestly have no idea. The rest was just incoherent to me. He seems to be pretty pissed off about whatever it is, though.
Protectionism has been pushed in recent times most heavily by labor unions, so labelling it a “conservative” policy suggests that Mr. Lang isn’t the one who is confused.
There is a method to this madness. I follow the flow but it makes me think of the old days when I would get stoned with friends. Someone would say something, and in my head I would go through about 10 tangential thoughts, and then reply to the original question. My reply made total sense and was completely relevant, at least to me. My friends usually looked at me and when “Huh?”
michal1980:
I read this piece several times, and like you, I’m quite uncertain of the point. Maybe Steve still has a buzz on from Saturday night, you think? He has apparently even caused the first few comments to be quite loopy as well. Is it always like this Sunday AM?
“But protectionism will ensure our success, as surely as it did in the 1930′s.” Because the 30’s are so oft cited as a successful time for America, huh?
I think he meant that as a snide. I also think he was hinting at the consequence of the 30s, you know, the 40s.
There is a major difference between “protectionism” and a level playing field. Both Japan and China are exceptionally protectionist, resulting in a massively tilted playing field.
Probably the first time in my life that I agreed with something Krugman said:
“And look, if China continues on its present course, eventually we will have some serious currency and trade conflict. Furthermore, we should.”
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/preemptive-unilateral-disarmament/
“Both Japan and China are exceptionally protectionist, resulting in a massively titled playing field”
Japan ISN’T protectionist. I’ll let Paul Niedermeyer and Bertel Schmitt do the talking.
I only understand the first few lines of this blurb, but I agree with them. My BMW is the only car I have ever owned, and there have been many, that seems to know what I am thinking. It responds so well to whatever I want it to do. I too used to think it was all about the Roundel, and the supposed status. It Isn’t. In Germany (land of my ancestors) A BMW is just like a Chevy or a Ford here. Nothing special. Once I bought my E46, I finally understood the magic. The new BMW’s however just don’t seem to have the same DNA. They are overweight, overcomplicated machines, that seem to appeal to status seekers. People just don’t seem to understand that they can own one of these great cars for less than they paid for their used Camry, and if they can turn a wrench, the maintenance is quite reasonable. Get one while you still can.
Sorry, Ed, but 7-11 is a Japanese company.
Sorry, Cammy, but 7-11 is an American company bought out of bankruptcy by a Japanese holding company. The Japanese also owned Pebble Beach for a time. did that make it a Japanese golf course?
Lorenzo,
By that reasoning, GM isn’t government owned. It was a company bought out of bankruptcy, by a “holding company”.
A protected market means corporations win, consumers lose. There’s no incentive to bring good, well priced products to market. The Trabant survived with communism and failed under capitalism.
The Detroit Three frittered away a 90-percent 1955 market share by accepting good enough instead of striving for excellence. They focused on pleasing the Wall Street slicksters, maximizing executive bonuses and buying off the union bosses. Customers, not so much. Their cheap-assed nasty crapmobiles had hard plastic interiors, flimsy switchgear and body metal so thin you could dent it by looking at it hard. Mechanical Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) engineered to coincide with warranty expiry made parts and repairs cash cows. They sold them as the “real deal,” and an entire generation of consumers abandoned American cars.
They’re still doing it. General Motors trumpeted a new commitment to quality and customer care saying it would increase its key parts MTTF from 130,000 to 160,000 kilometers coincident with a longer 160,000 kilometer 2007 warranty, well short of average 200,000-250,000 kilometer vehicle service life. The undertaking was short lived. GM quietly downgraded its 2010 warranty. The cars are nowhere near as good as competing Asian products and most people know it. GM’s Canadian market share slid to 12.1-percent from 23.1-percent in 2005. As recently as 2000, it held 27-percent.
“My friends usually looked at me and when {said?} “Huh?”
But you were fun at those parties, right?
But we live in a democracy and we resolve our differences through the political process. There are many issues on which our society is sharply divided, and it is impossible for these issues not to be politicized. Not to politicize an issue would mean that you shut up and follow the leader, i.e., the president.
Many returns for a Google of “everything is political”
Some truth to that utterance.
Akin to:
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;…”
References to politically-related events, ideas, etc. do not bother me. Even if I disagree with what I read. But, that’s ME, a stodgy Coot-like entity who has for so long viewed life from the bottom of the socio-economic heap while having access to members of the pile quite a bit further up that pile.
I mentioned before how Mom married a multi-millionaire who thought nuthin’ of the HUGE cost of a full-membership to the PGA West country club.
Access to those folks, listening to their views and exposure to their outlooks… well, lots of “politics” there!!!!!
It is interesting to shanty-bound me stuck at the bottom of the pyramid-shaped socio-economic hierarchy and too old to likely escape my non-lofty position to read many of the responses/replies/comments/babbling/etc. made in response to TTAC articles and/or comments made about those articles.
Some remind me of what I heard from those extremely wealthy and often born-into-privilege OR earned via the labors of their “hired hands” and whose wealth would never have been attained if low-paid hired help was not available….(and I WAS surprised at how often those wealthy gents (few to no females present when the wealthy guys gathered socially) ridiculed the “hired help” for not having attained a “lofty position” themselves…. for being of a lowly sub-class that had not soared to their lofty height. Gratitude for the efforts that allowed those “higher class” extremely wealthy folks to amass wealth was non-existent.
To each his own.
And if you don’t like what I write meet me at the bike rack after school and poke me in the nose. I double dare yah’. Especially you wimp boys from the upper reaches of the “pyramid.”
Perhaps it is time to learn what years of blue-collar labor and living upon the “mean streets” can do to hone a bloke’s abilities.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The four minor points… besides the utter randomness.
1) Protectionism doesn’t work. If you protect the home market, it makes your domestic products weak and uncompetitive.
2) There are no ‘demons’ or ‘angels’ as far as car companies go. They all make the rules and break the rules whenever a profit can be had.
3) Most of the messes come from governments that are paid off by a well-funded elite.
4) Citizens always suffer whenever these two forces join together and declare what is in the public good.
I was trying to show how every automaker, American, Japanese, Korean, German, Chinese, is portrayed as the proverbial enemy based on their nationality and car culture… and how pointlessly random that is when it comes to valuing any car (or product).
To put it another way… manufacturing always involves a race to the bottom when it comes to ‘cost’. But the quality, design and engineering that is used to develop and even assemble a world class car involves thousands of highly intelligent souls from all over the planet.
To demonize our ‘enemy’, is to really just demonize ourselves… and millions of folks we don’t even know.
Wow. I got absolutely none of that from the actual article.
On the bright side, I don’t have to leave tonight thinking you’re a confused Tea Partier hopped up on shrooms.
Well, why didn’t you just say so? ;-)
It’s hard to detect sarcasm in print so no idea if you really meant LeCar was wonderful or not. I think it was.
Renault 5 had incredible amount of internal space for such a small car and still managed not to look bulbous, I am 6’9” and could fit in the drivers seat and an adult would be able to sit behind me. in a 3.5m long car. My friend had one as his first car. It was a 1.6 non turbo diesel and had 55bhp a couple of hundred thousand km before he bought it seventh hand or so. But it still went strong and barely used any fuel at all. He always managed to beat big bmws in traffic light sprints. In the first five metres of course.
As a curiosity, these small light cars with non turbo diesels had unbelievable fuel economy. I just found this on the wiki for Citroen AX:
In 1989 a naturally aspirated diesel AX, using the 1360 cc all aluminium alloy TUD engine, managed a figure of 2.7 litres per 100 kilometres (100 mpg-imp; 87 mpg-US), totalling over 1,000 miles (1,609 km) from Dover to Barcelona. This was the longest ever distance travelled on 10 imp gal (45.5 L; 12.0 US gal) of fuel
Rented a Renault5 (aka LeCar) for two summer weeks. It was a lot of fun, especially with the huge cloth sunroof open. Never quite got used to the stance. Car sort of tilted toward the front.
Drove a Renault Dauphine company car for about a year. Great car, vastly superior to the VW 1200 I owned. Certainly superior to the British and Italian cars of the day.
Came within a inch of buying a Citroen DS-21. Three fellows at work had them. Chickened out at the last minute. There has never been a car like it. Still regret not buying it all these years later.
Guess I just like French cars. Wish they would start importing them again. Don’t knock ’em if you haven’t tried them. Biggest problem was the dealers. They tended to be gypsies, tramps and thieves.
1) Protectionism doesn’t work. If you protect the home market, it makes your domestic products weak and uncompetitive.
It’s pointless to make blanket statements, because they are hardly ever true. Protectionism works, and fails. It all depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
It’s also historically inaccurate. The US in fact used protectionism to get this country’s industry off the ground. Our domestic industry was weak and uncompetitive before protectionism. Protectionism made industry possible.
Things change, and the need for, and benefits of, protectionism change. But to say it never works is ridiculous.
http://www.paecon.net/PAEtexts/Chang1.htm
I think I’ve had enough of TTAC for a while. It’s becoming increasingly a political site, and there is less and less depth, not to mention truth, when the subject strays from cars.
I’m by no means through with TTAC, but the politics -is- getting a little thick in the air. And the politics is tilted enough on average that much more might well drive (see what I did there?) Me away.
“The Detroit Three frittered away a 90-percent 1955 market share by accepting good enough instead of striving for excellence.”
Plus, in 1955, most Americans hadn’t ever sampled what the foreign automakers had to offer. The Jaguar Mark I was priced in the upper end Buick/low end Cadillac price range and would utterly destroy the Detroit barges of the time on the road with its 3.4 liter XK 6-cylinder engine and manual gearbox. But most American car buyers of the time were awfully unadventurous and just wanted the next big wallowing barge out of the local domestic showroom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_Mark_1
In 1955, foreign cars were still inferior to the domestics. They were DIFFERENT, but not necessarily better. On a long-distance trip, that Jaguar (or most other foreign cars) would have broken down within the first 100 miles, while the Detroit vehicle would have still been going strong. Detroit’s engines were the most reliable, trouble-free and low maintenance power plants in the world through the early 1970s.
Plus, foreign automatics, air conditioning and power assists were a joke compared to what the Big Three were offering. And, yes, I understand that most enthusiasts like manuals, but most Americans didn’t at that time, and still don’t. Same with air conditioning and power windows, doors, seats and locks.
Which is why any foreign make that wanted to succeed in this country had to offer those features (and make them reliable).
I’m not going to jump on the French-car bashing bandwagon. I recall renting a Peugot 504 (?) turbo sedan in 1985 and thinking that it was a very nice car, with a supple suspension and a better implementation of a turbocharger than the Volvo of the same vintage, which operated very much like an on-off switch.
The challenge for any imported car during the “early years” was having a decent dealer network with mechanics who could maintain and service the cars. And, as others have noted, the second challenge was catering to American tastes, which meant air conditioning and automatic transmissions for all but the “economy” market. For quite a long while, European cars fell down in those two areas.
I think that is the reason that the most successful imports from the early years were those that attacked the economy end of the market. Buyer expectations were that the cars had to be economical, that is not expensive to buy (compared to the domestic product) and they had to be cheap to operate, which meant low gas consumption and reliaiblity. The original VW Beetle and the early Toyotas and Datsuns (Nissan) met those criteria, as did Honda, when it came in. Except for VW, which fumbled the transition away from air-cooled, rear-engine cars rather badly, the other companies worked off this base to move upmarket successfully.