Grosse Pointe Myopia

Andrew Dederer
by Andrew Dederer

For any journalist covering the American auto industry, The Big Two Point Five's insularity is a constant source of amazement. And so it has been, for well over six decades. Over the last forty years or so, the names have changed, but the message hasn’t. The party line: “foreign” cars are a fad (especially the small ones), ours are as good as if not better than theirs, prosperity is only a couple of cars away and, oh yeah, it's all the union’s fault. One insider coined the perfect term for this combination of reckless denial and mindless optimism: “Grosse Pointe Myopia” (GPM).

Note the term’s geographic specificity; Grosse Pointe is the swanky suburb just outside of Detroit favored by highly-paid automobile executives. Every member of The Big Two Point Five– which includes no less than fourteen domestic sub-brands– are headquartered in and around Detroit. This concentration of industrial energy, all directed towards the creation of products within a single consumer category, is not the norm for manufacturers in most industries. Even within the car biz, America's insularity is without parallel.

Even in much smaller countries, there’s a greater physical separation between the main players in the automotive sector. In Japan, the Dai-san are separated by almost as much distance as they are in the US. While Honda, Nissan and Toyota all have offices in Tokyo, they also have “home turf” in very different parts of the country. Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes all have their own lebensraum in a country roughly the size of Texas. Even SAAB and Volvo weren’t neighbors until they were bought. When it comes to cross-corporate cultural incest based on simple geography, Motown rules.

The biggest single problem with sharing your home base with your rivals: it stunts your perceptions. Every new development– whether it’s a design, technological advance, personnel policy or marketing technique– is analyzed in terms of what your not-so-friendly neighborhood competition is doing. The “what would BLANK do?” debate slows the adoption of new ideas, especially in manufacturing. It also retards the pace of innovation. After all, the “visible” competition is moving just as slowly as you are.

Equally important, Detroit and its environs are a terrible place from which to survey the domestic automotive scene. Even in the days when The Big Three ruled the American market, their distance from the left and right coasts made import-related trends seem much less important than they really were. Just about all the foreign competition made their first inroads on the coasts, away from Detroit (and nearer to where the economic heart was moving). Is it any surprise that The Big Two Point Five are most dominant in America’s economic backwaters, including their rustbelt fiefdoms?

Detroit is one of the few major metropolitan areas in the US where imported automobiles are still a relatively rare sight (and even this is changing). Like ancient potentates unaware of the barbarians at the gates, the current Kings of Detroit look out their windows and find false reassurance. Ford moved Mercury to California for this very reason. They scurried home soon thereafter; what the rest of Ford couldn’t see, didn’t exist.

Obviously, this plethora of monomaniacal, short-sighted executives wasn't trained from birth (though a large number of Detroit's movers and shakers are second and third generation automobile executives). Rather they’re plucked from a narrow range of design, engineering and B-schools. Those who fit the profile and succeed soon find themselves living in glass towers– literally– seeing the rest of the world through a strange prism of executive privilege. They know real customers don’t drive box fresh, hand-picked vehicles. They know they don’t fly first class or private jets. But the execs gratefully submit to the common, alternate reality, and, eventually, become oblivious to its distancing effect.

Of The Big Two Point Five, GM suffers the most from its GPM. Ford's recent decision to poach their new boss from Boeing reflects a historical willingness to hire executives from other auto companies and industries. A fair chunk of the Dai-san’s American management (especially Nissan’s) started with The Big Two Point Five. GM is different, a royalty unto itself, pure, unsullied, and inbred. The fact that their current CEO Rick Wagoner has never worked for a company other than GM tells you everything you need to know about The General’s terminal myopia.

Ford talks of Bold Moves. GM speaks of on-track turnarounds. Chrysler says wait and see. Meanwhile, Nissan’s moved to Tennessee. There is no question whatsoever that The Big Two Point Five should also up stakes and split town– for three different destinations. They can leave whatever technological and manufacturing operations remain in Michigan in Michigan, but their executives should abandon Detroit as soon as possible. It’s the best way for The Big Two Point Five to learn to see the world in sharp focus, as it really is. Only then can The Big Two Point Five start the process of psychological recovery that financial recovery demands. Otherwise, whether they like it or not, whether they know it or not, they're all going down together.

Andrew Dederer
Andrew Dederer

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  • Ar-Pharazon Ar-Pharazon on Oct 24, 2006

    Zoomzoom, Oddly enough, there is plenty of apparently biased reporting against the domestics in the Detroit press. I never quite understood it, but they seem to take great pride in printing every negative story they can, regardless of the underlying truth. Go figure. Regarding your 'middle management' family member. The guy sounds clueless. I wouldn't blame that on an 'insular environment', unless he's personally responsible for making his own environment insular. I can't really speak for what goes on at the VP level, but down 'in the trenches', anybody I've met with a lick of sense knows exactly what the score is. Believe me, driving on Woodward or Hines Drive you'll see plenty of non-domestic vehicles considering the fact that the domestics are all headquartered here. Not to wish him ill personally, but I really hope that he and anybody else like him will be the ones gone come February, because we need to cut the clueless out of the organization if we expect to survive and thrive.

  • BTEFan BTEFan on Oct 24, 2006

    I do think the domestic car magazines do have a bit of a bias against the domestic manufacturers. Its possible that they KNOW that the domestics CAN make better products, its just the bean counters say no. Remember the Olds Intrigue? They LOVED that car - of course, in classic GM fashion, they killed it when it got good. The domestics have an interesting relationship with the press and auto media. 5 years ago, I used to work at a Pontiac Buick Dealership in suburban Vancouver BC as a stock controller. Part of my duties included managing the GM of Canada Western Zone Media fleet, where I would handle the bookings of press vehicles with the different local media folks. It was a fun job - got to meet the press, do the walk around with them, get to personally drive them to make sure nothing was amiss etc. Anyways, some GM 'process analysts' came out to the Zone office and were reviewing the policies and processes of the press loaner program. It was interesting sitting in this meeting, with the folks from Oshawa (Canada's Detroit), the local zone managers and my counterpart from another dealership that handled Chevrolet Oldsmobile. We got to sit in on a meeting where the GM folks discussed things like who fills the gas in the press car, why we charge them for washes when the cars are supposed to come back washed and vacuumed, how a GM person cannot borrow a GM car if he/she/it has a company car already etc etc. Aside from being a waste of time, it struck me at how 'THEM vs US' the management were with respect to the auto media. They were convinced they were out for 'a free ride' and that they were using GM for cars, and not writing glowing reports. I actually heard one of them say ' I would love to nail these media a$$holes with a few bills for a few car wash and gas bills'. It was unbelievable how they would be so petty on these little things. If they said 'don't worry about it' and let it slide and were generous and showed a bit of customer service to the media folks, they might have got more positive reviews, and more sales.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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