Que fait-on quand on est américain, que l'on fabrique des produits de merde et que sa société est au bord de la faillite ?
On en appelle au patriotisme de ses compatriotes :
Time to buy american
"A foolish consistency," Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "is the hobgoblin of little minds." And so, after bashing America's homegrown carmakers here over the past few months, today I boldly reverse course and assert that it's your patriotic duty to once again buy American. I'm clearing out my hobgoblins in a full-on effort to save our domestic manufacturers, and so should you.
If you're even half-awake you know that Chrysler, GM and Ford are all on the brink of financial obliteration. Within the next six weeks it's conceivable that one or two of them could go bankrupt and it's likely that by the end of next year all three will have. That is, if nothing changes. And the thing that needs to change most is, well, us. And by us, I mean you.
It's pathetic to watch a once-mighty company like GM grovel for government cash, but expecting a change in federal policy to be the change that saves the car companies is flat stupid. Giving the car companies buckage for doing nothing more than pulling political strings doesn't change the underlying weakness of the industry. All it's going to do is postpone the reckoning, not avoid it.
The fundamental underlying weakness of the American car industry isn't labor cost (though that needs to change, too), but that Americans aren't buying American cars. Even the good ones.
And there are 40 years of good reasons for this, stretching back to your Uncle Ted's Pontiac Parisienne with the red velour interior, the wire wheel hubcaps and the ability to shed chrome trim at highway speed.
But today there are more competitive domestic models than ever before. GM, Ford and Chrysler each have their fare share of cars and trucks that pack high levels of build quality, driving dynamics and overall design. In other words, there's no reason not to do the patriotic thing and buy an American set of wheels.
And I'm not listening to any crap that says a Toyota Camry assembled in Kentucky is an American car. Forget it, Bud; that thing's as Japanese as whale hunting and ritual suicide.
Meanwhile, it's impossible to argue that cars like the Chevrolet Malibu, the Ford Fusion and the Saturn Aura aren't competitive with the Accord and Camry. Even if they are still a smidgen behind those Asian benchmarks, that smidgen should easily be overcome by patriotic duty.
Patriots know that one of the things that makes America great is that it has an auto industry. And patriots don't want Ford, Chrysler and GM to swirl down the same toilet bowl that flushed away British Leyland and the rest of the English car business.
This happened once before, you know. It was 30 years ago. Chrysler was done, bailed out by the government and revived by the buying public. The CEO of Chrysler at the time, Lee Iacocca, convinced Americans through a series of TV commercials he appeared in, that buying a K-car was the right thing to do at the time.
Buying American became fashionable and Chrysler thrived. Next thing you know, we have the minivan, the Viper and the Grand Cherokee. Things turned around, because Americans cared about America.
You do care about America, don't you?
Look, you may want a BMW 5 Series and you may even deserve a BMW 5 Series, but right now it's important to do the right thing and buy a Cadillac CTS. Even if you think the BMW is better in every conceivable way, you ought to also know that the world would be a much worse place if America didn't have General Motors in it. The mush in your skull knows damned well that GM is a linchpin in our economy and that its failure will lead to a cascade of failures including, most likely, your job, too.
Don't whine that you can't afford a new car. Of course you can. It's just a matter of manning up, gathering your wits and skipping the three six-buck lattes you drink every day. Because if the American auto industry is going to be saved, then damn it, it needs to be saved by Americans. And those lattes are making you fat anyhow.
Here's one American who's shopping for a new American car right now. What are you doing? -- The Mechanic, Inside Line Contributor
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