Folly of Automakers
by Derrick Z. Jackson
Boston Globe
Everything you need to know about American automakers was in four recent newspaper clippings. In the Aug. 25 USA Today, a review of the 2007 Cadillac Escalade and GMC Yukon Denali said they had ``many improvements, lavish presentation, but seating and space utilization are compromised despite large overall size."
Hit the brakes! How could it be that General Motors makes two metallic mastodons that are each over 5,600 pounds, nearly 17 feet long, 6 feet tall, and 6 feet wide, and still do not have enough space?
On the same day, The Wall Street Journal reviewed the Chevrolet Suburban and 3-ton Ford Expedition Extended Length. ``With their big gas tanks, a fuel stop can be jarring," the Journal said. ``It cost $97 to fill the Suburban, making it necessary to fish out a second AmEx card when we exceeded a station's $75 charge limit per credit card."
You must be kidding. For the fourth straight Labor Day, American soldiers are dying in a botched war in an oil-rich land. Big oil is exploiting wartime uncertainty by gouging Americans at the pump for record profits. Real wages for Americans have dropped since the invasion of Iraq.
What is Detroit's response? Cars that get 17 miles per gallon on the highway and cost nearly $100 to fill.
The third item came a week earlier. In a year where Toyota passed Ford in US market sales and could pass GM globally by its end, what was the concept car for 2009 that GM CEO Rick Wagoner drove, claiming it ``talks profoundly about a new way of doing business at GM?" Surely it was a competitor to Toyota's 40-50 miles-per-gallon Prius. No, it was a muscle-bound Camaro.
The fourth item is near the end of this column. The first three prompt one to wonder why Ford just announced its biggest production cut since 1982, slashing fourth-quarter manufacturing of sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks by 21 percent. Ford and GM had already announced staffing cuts totaling 60,000 US jobs.
(You can read the rest here.)
Boston Globe
Everything you need to know about American automakers was in four recent newspaper clippings. In the Aug. 25 USA Today, a review of the 2007 Cadillac Escalade and GMC Yukon Denali said they had ``many improvements, lavish presentation, but seating and space utilization are compromised despite large overall size."
Hit the brakes! How could it be that General Motors makes two metallic mastodons that are each over 5,600 pounds, nearly 17 feet long, 6 feet tall, and 6 feet wide, and still do not have enough space?
On the same day, The Wall Street Journal reviewed the Chevrolet Suburban and 3-ton Ford Expedition Extended Length. ``With their big gas tanks, a fuel stop can be jarring," the Journal said. ``It cost $97 to fill the Suburban, making it necessary to fish out a second AmEx card when we exceeded a station's $75 charge limit per credit card."
You must be kidding. For the fourth straight Labor Day, American soldiers are dying in a botched war in an oil-rich land. Big oil is exploiting wartime uncertainty by gouging Americans at the pump for record profits. Real wages for Americans have dropped since the invasion of Iraq.
What is Detroit's response? Cars that get 17 miles per gallon on the highway and cost nearly $100 to fill.
The third item came a week earlier. In a year where Toyota passed Ford in US market sales and could pass GM globally by its end, what was the concept car for 2009 that GM CEO Rick Wagoner drove, claiming it ``talks profoundly about a new way of doing business at GM?" Surely it was a competitor to Toyota's 40-50 miles-per-gallon Prius. No, it was a muscle-bound Camaro.
The fourth item is near the end of this column. The first three prompt one to wonder why Ford just announced its biggest production cut since 1982, slashing fourth-quarter manufacturing of sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks by 21 percent. Ford and GM had already announced staffing cuts totaling 60,000 US jobs.
(You can read the rest here.)
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