With not on the United States reeling in the wake of the credit crisis but the world, the Detroit Auto Show went on with, well, the show. If this were a few months ago in the midst of almost $5.00 a gallon gasoline the central theme for the show would have been fuel efficiency. In par fuel efficiency still is the major player at the show but another theme has arisen as a broader all encompassing one. The auto industry is still here, even the Detroit three, and producing cars that are available for sale. How much longer they will be producing cars is anyone’s guess.
With so much focus being put on bailing out companies, the TARP fund, whether or not Washington will listen to Larry Flint and bail out the porn industry cars can get pushed to the wayside.
Families, businesses and individuals have lost and are losing money all over the place in this market and it is understandable that purchasing a new car would be at the bottom of most peoples’ list of things to spend money on right after lottery tickets and Blu-Ray DVDs. Why are the Big Three automakers in such dire straits? For too long they have produced sub-par cars that are inferior to their Japanese, German, Korean and Russian counterparts. Well, maybe not the Russian ones.
With lower gas prices people wanted more power which resulted in the rise of the aftermarket parts industry. When gas prices went back up, fuel efficiency was then at the center of everyone’s automotive mind.
Detroit was ahead of the curve on the fuel efficiency front because they had already been told by the government that they had to make more fuel efficient cars. Café standards being imposed on American auto makers have not been because of especially high gas prices, that crisis has only been a recent one. So what could be the reasoning behind making Ford, General Motors and Chrysler produce these hybrid and ultra fuel efficient cars that have had notoriously low sales numbers? The environment is the reason most often uttered by politicians that want to run Detroit. The environment angle plays to the voting public’s emotions and is an excellent way to get legislation passed that favors environmental laws for cars.
I submit that Washington should leave car design and sales up to people who know how to do it. Politicians should stop micromanaging a business that they know very little about.
There is a long list of government fiascos (Social Security, Traffic Laws) that should be reason enough for voters to want them out of Detroit. Hopefully some sort of epiphany will take place in the American mind before its too late for the Detroit Iron.
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