By Bertel Schmitt
November 5, 2009
On Tuesday, twenty years after the fall of the wall that separated the two Germanies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel went to Washington. For the first time since Germany’s Chancellor Adenauer in 1957, the topmost German addressed Congress—to roaring applause.
There was another wall. A wall of silence. Nobody in the US government—owner of General Motors—supposedly had [...]
Editorial: Opel, Aftermath and Prelude
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 58 comments 
By Edward Niedermeyer
October 25, 2009
We’ve seen the signs coming for some time: rumors from Japan, declining car sales at home, advertisments selling cars as “the ultimate mobile device.” And the picture that’s beginning to reveal itself is a challenging one for fans of four-wheeled transport. Young people, once a deep well of enthusiasm and sales growth for the car [...]
Editorial: The Carless Kids
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | Sales and Marketing | 74 comments
By admin
October 3, 2009
So exactly how did Ford achieve quality equal to Toyota? Or are their TV ads misleading, as the ads from decades ago which proclaimed “At Ford Quality Is Job One”? This was the question in my mind as I returned to the Sharonville Transmission Plant after exactly 30 years. A long term friend, who did not jump ship in 1979 as I had done, when it looked like Ford was going to self destruct, got me past the guard post for a tour of the plant. Jerry had seen what he called “a compete transformation of Ford Motor Company” during his 37 years. He said I would not recognize the place.
Ford 1979 vs. Ford 2009: What’s Changed?
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 59 comments
By Andrew van der Stock
September 17, 2009
Your car is made up of thousands of components, manufactured all over the world and assembled in many places by humans and robots. There is simply no such thing as a 100% “domestic” car anywhere in the world. When (not if) artificial barriers are placed on the manufacture, sale and movement of parts and the eventual manufacture, sale and movement of the resulting vehicle, there are two common outcomes. The best-case scenario is you’re going to pay more---effectively stealing from you and everyone in the global economy. Unfortunately, the typical result is that you cannot buy most of the cars made on this planet in your local market.
Make Cars Not Trade Wars
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 31 comments
By Robert Farago
August 27, 2009
Thanks to Uncle Sam's Cash for Clunkers program, even the weakest of America's mainstream automakers will live to die another day. Meanwhile, the so-called "mass luxury" brands are hurtin' for certain. The falling tide of the global economic meltdown has left Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lexus and Mercedes stranded, flopping around on the metaphorical beach, gasping for the oxygen of financial lubricity. It's hard to feel sorry for any of them. The upmarket marques marked the last ten years or so by chasing volume sales with "entry level" models that cheapened and weakened their brands. Is it any surprise that the very customers that fueled their expansive profits have abandoned them in droves, as badge snobbery has kept pace with financial security (or lack thereof)? In other words, the fact that these "luxury" brands are "suddenly" in worse trouble than everyone else is their own damn fault.
Editorial: Luxury Carmakers Hoisted by Their Own Petard
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 76 comments
By Darwin Hatheway
August 18, 2009
While driving the Buick LaCrosse, I asked Line Director Jeanne Merchant a question: what could she tell me about reliability that would persuade me, a satisfied Toyota owner, to jump ship? Merchant gave a pretty good answer, but I was busy trying not to run over traffic cones. In a subsequent phone interview, Merchant said reliability starts early in the process. From design to component testing, from durability tests to audits and feedback, from computer modeling to real world testing, they make sure every part of the car and all its systems are built right and performing to specification. And they take it very, very seriously. “The LaCrosse is very personal to me," Merchant said. "I’ve worked with it for years. Everybody else involved feels the same way. And the same goes for the other product lines.” Process and passion. Is it enough?
Editorial: How GM Tried to Win Me Over, Part Three
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | Media | 124 comments
By Darwin Hatheway
August 14, 2009
A few weeks ago, I received this from GM Communications: "I've noticed some of your comments on our Fastlane blog. We are looking for passionate and influential consumers to participate in an upcoming showcase on August 10, 2010 in Detroit, MI. Would you be interested in a GM-hosted opportunity like this to learn more about our future vehicles and company?" I was more than a little surprised; my FastLane posts are generally uncomplimentary regarding GM's products and business decisions. “Do they know we own three Toyotas?" my wife asked. "And we gave a fourth to our daughter, who’s happily driving it at 150 thousand miles?” “I think that’s part of it; they want to know what it will take to win me over.” “They could try building cars that are as reliable as Toyotas.” “I’ve suggested that.” “Don’t you dare bring home a GM car," she warned.
Editorial: How GM Tried to Win Me Over, Part One
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | Media | 57 comments
By Michael Martineck
August 11, 2009
The CAR Allowance Rebate System---C.A.R.S---sounds like a ‘70s Saturday morning cartoon about guys in striped jackets using trick vehicles to save the world. In fact, that would actually be preferable to the program currently airing, at cost of three billion and counting. Cash for Clunkers may be popular with a healthy segment of the population, but that group doesn’t include a lot of economists. In terms of economic policy, C4C would benefit from a little C4, if you know what I’m sayin’.
Editorial: Why I Hate Cash for Clunkers
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 109 comments
By Lewis Siegelbaum
August 5, 2009
I set out to write a book not so much about the varieties and comparative deficiencies of cars in the Soviet Union as what these objects meant to Soviet citizens. The structure and organizing principles of the book were among the first things to become clear. There would be three chapters on the “Soviet Detroits”---the places where automobiles were built, the people who built them, and how the cars and trucks they produced both embodied the state's agendas and inspired popular identification.
“Cars for Comrades: The Life of the Soviet Automobile”
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | Nostalgia | 32 comments
By Bob Elton
July 26, 2009
Archives are the foundation of historical research. Without access to primary material---be it documents, photographs, financial statements, engineering or test reports---historians lack the building blocks necessary to write the chronicles that inform our understanding of the past and illuminate the future. To their credit, America's automakers have gone to great lengths and expense to preserve and protect the historical documents which chronicle and define their existence. Until recently. As Chrysler and GM plunged into bankruptcy, they turned their back on their own heritage, and destroyed a priceless part of our collective past.
Editorial: Chrysler Destroys Its Historical Archives; GM to Follow?
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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 65 comments
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