Tuesday, April 24, 2007

That’s Un-American!

Filthy LucreUnmitigated Gall

Who would have thought that making quality products would lead to world-wide domination?  Apparently not GM, who just slipped into second place behind Toyota.  When reached for comment, GM spokesmen replied, “They cheated.”

The last American car I bought was a 1963 Cadillac, 20 years ago.  Based on my experience with friends and relatives, I don’t believe that I will buy any others in the near future - the sole exception being the potential purchase of a used pickup.  The reason?  They suck.  Just ‘cause they’re made here (which, strictly speaking, they’re aren’t always) is not reason for me to subject myself to unreliable and poorly engineered vehicles.

[Wik] Patton also posted on this very topic, but was too shy to post it at Perfidy.  I will do him the favor of reproducing it here:

Hide the women and children! To the storm cellar, pronto! The Japs have sold 90,000 more cars than the, (quick - what’s a light-hearted pejorative for Detroit natives?) the Detroit guys!

…

Hey, wait a minute - so what? That little statistic is even less important than the dates and times at which the Dow Jones Industrials crossed each of the 1,000 point barriers, that is, “not at all”.

Given the fine mess that’s characterized GM these past few years, including poor results, billions of dollars in losses, junk bond ratings on its corporate debt, the jettisoning of the majority of its GMAC finance arm to Cerberus, the bankruptcy of Delphi, which it tried (and failed) to hive off as a separate, self-sustaining entity, and the battles with Jerry York, Kirk Kerkorian, and Tracinda, the fact that Toyota has passed them in sales is neither surprising nor particularly newsworthy.

They’re rather lucky to still be ahead of Ford, itself a company that is, as Monty Python might say “not at all well”.

Xenophobes and Detroit residents may mark this day as one that will live in infamy. More rational sorts will simply see it as the logical end to a progression that Toyota began, 20 years ago, when they started making cars better than General Motors was able or willing to do. Given that my last four vehicles have been made by Toyota, perhaps my objectivity isn’t perfect in this matter.

My post has the advantage of pithiness, but Patton got several more jokes in.


Posted by Buckethead on 04/24/07 at 11:32 AM
Filthy Lucre • Unmitigated Gall • Permalink