Yeah, it’s all over the news, the American, er, global auto industry is in shambles. Gone are the good ‘ole days where Cadillac is the standard of automotive excellence, and a Pontiac the car that every young boy hopes to own some day. Grandpa’s Olds is gone, and Saturn’s dent free bodies are not long for this world. Has the world gone mad? What does it all mean? Should I be building a shelter? The answer is no, history will tell you, and yes - I mean, NO...

Call me crazy, but I think that what we have here is a long overdue evolution and a bit of history repeating itself. We here in the US are experiencing what happened to the English Automotive Industry back in the mid to late 1960s. England was faced with a labor crisis when British Motor Holdings (BMH) came VERY close to collapse due to an aging product line and abysmal quality. So, the solution was to have the government step in and offload the troubled BHM onto Leyland Motor Corporate (LMC), a giant of a company that had some kick ass cars in its arsenal. Good idea, right? WRONG!  

The merger created a company so big and so ponderous that successful management was nearly impossible. The resulting British Leyland Motor Company (BLMC) was plagued with quality and labor issues due to a paralyzed managing body. As a result, there was much platform sharing and badge engineering of some simply awful vehicles. Cars built on the same chassis with varying trims and hood ornaments could demand significant premiums over identical models with “entry level” marques.

Sound familiar? Go out and look for a late 90’s Pontiac Grand AM. Now, go find yourself an Olds Alero… Does something look a bit familiar? A rather poorly executed sedan available in more than on iteration! It didn’t turn out so well for Oldsmobile.

Fast forward to Today… Pop into your local Chevy dealer and take a brand spanking new Chevy Aveo out for a spin. What you’ll find is a rather dull little car with little in the way of performance, and questionable build quality. Despite its rather diminutive size, it’s a thirsty little bugger only managing 30 mpg on a good day. 

Now ride on over to Pontiac, and what’s this? This brand new G3 looks mighty familiar! Oh, wait a minute, this is an Aveo! Sure, it looks a little better – has a bit more trim, and sportier seats, but it’s nearly $3,000 more! What gives?

Wait, it gets worse! You see, it’s not even a domestic car! What you have here is a Daewoo Kalos, a miserable little beast produced in South Korea that GM thought we’d like! It’s such a dull little car, it doesn’t even sell well in the country where it is produced!

A bit-o-trivia: Did you know, at one time there were nearly 100 American auto makers turning out cars? How's that for supply and demand?

Now, I may come off a bit harsh on this poor little car, but actually, I have to admit that I do like it. I like it in the sense that its fairly cheap, and fills a gap. Despite that, this little car is just one of many examples of what’s wrong with US auto manufacturers. 

For the past 30 or so years, the big 3 have produced cars that were dull in every sense of the word. Performance was lack luster when compared to the imports and quality was merely passable at best. The big 3 knew this, but kept on truckin – turning out hundreds of thousands of mediocre machines, and we kept on buying them. A financial/credit crisis falls heavily across the land, and now folks can’t get a loan to buy a car, and those who can, want the biggest bang for their buck. Uh oh!

So, now our Government, with pure enough intentions steps in, not to save the brands per-se, but to save the tens of thousands of jobs that would be lost if these behemoths go under. Actually, it’s probably more like hundreds of thousands of jobs when you look at the extended enterprise of suppliers and such. All of this due to one thing, complacency. 

For so long, the industry had its eyes set on quick dollars, and failed to look at or think of the big “what if” scenario lurking around the corner. Competition was a domestic issue to them, and the foreign imports, so they thought, weren’t really big players in their markets. “Toyota Camry people will always be Camry people. We need not worry about this when thinking of the Malibu.” Or, so the thought was when the 5^th generation came out in 1997. Again, not a bad car, just not a competitive car. 

So, here we stand. GM is now a subsidiary of the US Government  - sort of. Chrysler is close to becoming an outlet for Fiat/Alfa Romeo – not really a bad thing, considering the cars they produce. And, Ford, is well, Ford. Surprisingly, Ford is doing OK in this turmoil. They’ve got their strong overseas markets to keep them marginally afloat. The soon-to-come “new” Taurus is an intriguing family hauler that is bound to be a glint in the pan. The Fusion is a competent enough vehicle o hold its own against some of the entries from Japan and Korea on a spec sheet and test drive battlefront. Not too bad!

However, all is not well. Ford may have the Taurus and Fusion, Pontiac the G8, and Chrysler the 300 – all cars that are really rather good, it’s the names that are the problem. Ford, Pontiac, and Chrysler are not “aspirational” brands – that is, not anymore. When was the last time you heard a teenage boy say to his chum “Gee Billy, I sure hope I can get one of them new Pontiac G6s someday”? Once, not so long ago, such was the case. A GTO was a thing of dreams, a Mustang GT500  - something to drool over, heck, a Buick LeSabre kept some up at night! Now-a-days its BMW, Acura, Mercedes, Jaguar, Audi, Lamborghini, and other imports and exotics that are what the buying public aspires for. These cars are not perfect, but they represent a heritage of no-compromises engineering to some - prestige. Being a (old) Mercedes owner myself, I’d put my 300k mile E Class up against a new Chrysler on a durability run any day. These imports represent the intangible “feeling” that the big three have gotten wrong for so long. On paper, the specs and even the quality may be the same, but the American buying public has been burned for so long, they no longer want to be associated with a name that at one time may have represented compromise. 

What we have here is an issue of brand perception and damage control. The American auto industry will be in for hard times until a time when young boys (and girls) are proud to have a poster of the latest Chevy hanging on their bedroom wall. Me, I can't wait for the day when I can cover over that picture of the Alfa Romeo 8C in my office with Ford, GM, or Chrysler poster!