GM Says "American Cars Are Back"

If thats true, where have they been? My friends have the answer...they tell me that GM and other American car companies have been clowning us all these years. Now that they're status and reputation has dropped to all time lows, they claim that over-night they've found quality!!! Except of course for Ford, whom for many years have proclaimed "At Ford...Quality is #1". So we say, what about outside the Ford facilities? Or do they only really mean that with their F150 line?

Maybe they mean the F150 line here and all their flex fuel car line in Brazil. Americans can be convinced to buy crap if the commercials are both sexy and macho. In Brazil however, Ford doesn't advertise because the people demand of manufacturers that they want highly efficient cars, so voila! you have flex fuel cars which run on highly efficient low cost bio fuel.

In the late ninety's, the State of California on behalf of its people mandated highly efficient vehicles be sold. Voila! GM produced the very popular EV1, only to spend more time and money poo-pooing its own product and only allowing folks to lease, not purchase this coveted car. They couldn't afford having this engineering marvel outsell its other lines. GM couldn't afford to allow the EV1 popularity in California to spread across the U.S.A. They were making too much money producing inefficient, poor quality vehicles which saw more profits from a shorter owner lifespan and a booming parts 'n service business.

Should we applaud car companies for selling us products that leak dollars from our pocket while we drive, then turn around and make a better product only when we stop buying from them? We are not free of blame here however. Business marketing dictates that they will sell and charge what the market will bear. If we are too dumb to demand far better and if we are willing to part with our money for anything less, even using credit, then we're as much to blame here too. The only American car companies who should be applauded are the innovators. Take Tesla for instance. Ok, right, their first car, a very exhilarating, fantastically fun-to-drive model is over $100k. Yet this tiny car company makes one of the fastest cars on the road and it runs on batteries. It can beat nearly any sports car the world over with its 0-60 mph in 3.9 secs. with batteries! It can be fully charged in only 3.5 hours at home. It can go over 240 miles on a single charge! Tesla started out in 2003! Yes, that we can applaud! Tesla is going to produce another model at less than half the price and be more available to the family market. While the price tag sounds ominous to us during the recession; coming from a very tiny company like Tesla, it can be applauded! They don't have the advantages of the economies of scale like Ford and GM, so in comparison, Tesla can be applauded! And they are an American company...yeah!

But GM with their anticipated 2010 release of the Volt, carrying a $40k price tag? Come on! Lets look at Toyota who has been making the Prius Hybrid since 1996. Who still to this day ranks among the most efficient and pollution clean vehicles in the world. Currently they are 2nd behind the Smart Fortwo. Then Toyota places in the winners circle again with the Toyota iQ. Back to the Prius...in price comparison the Prius even when maxed out fully loaded with options, cost a clear $8k less than a base model Volt from GM. Don't need all the bells and whistles? Then you can get the Toyota Prius for a whopping $18K less!!! Mind you, Toyota has been doing this since 1996 with this car, which is now in its 3rd generation. We can applaud a car company who has been doing the right thing for the people and stand as a shining example. Even when GM was busy laying off American workers and closing plants, Toyota was sending employees on leave fully paid! Then when the worst hit, they did it again, but then asked its employees to volunteer in their communities. For this, we can applaud a car company who does right by the people!

Then theres the Ford Fusion.  At $27.3k base or $36.6 fully loaded, it gets 41 mpg or possibly 48 if you drive it nicely. Do the same thing with a Toyota Prius and you get about 60 mpg by comparison. Ford was making all electric vehicles all the way back...believe it or not...from 1890 through to 1930. So you tell me that we the people haven't been clowned? We have had the ability but since the advent of dirty, filthy oil, they just didn't want to produce anything that was exciting to the buyer using electric technologies. They could have all this time but instead, we have paid for and paid for, and paid some more, for cars and the service of those cars which just don't last. It took a massive mistake through war (Pearl Harbor), by the Japanese in defeat, to learn that the best way to get to the top is with quality, efficiencies, and caring for its people.

We recently heard that GM has good sales in China. Question...does this help the U.S. side and its workers? No? Ah Shucks! We also heard that GM is going to be building the largest GM manufacturing facility in China. Is that where our bailout money went...to China???? Does this benefit the U.S. taxpayer? No? Ah Shucks! Then why did we bail them out?

Why don't we the people of the United States demand the same of our American companies as with Toyota; as with home grown Tesla? If we would and if they responded...even if mimicking Toyota, who has been doing it all these years, then we could applaud the Americans. But we'd have to ask ourselves, was it worth the wait? Could we have spoken up far far sooner and got a better deal for us and our planet? Why aren't the Americans leading the technological innovations and why must we get the old bits while the rest of most of the world benefit from the newest technologies??? Its because we'll buy anything...we'll buy crap even. We need to clean out our old expectations and start up a new and healthier lifestyle of expectations for our country. And we need to demand it from all our businesses. Will you speak up?

Special thanks to Art for inspiring this story; you really have interesting and great on-target perspectives...and to Gary, burning oil and billowing smoke from his car as he drove down the highway late one night.

WAKE UP & SPEAK UP AMERICA!