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One thing that REALLY bothers me is that every news show I have seen has a general consensus among the news reporters and the talking heads and the people they interview that somehow all of this is the fault of the US car companies.
A couple of points they keep bringing up that bug the heck out of me:
1) They only make big gas guzzling trucks and SUVs which nobody wanted to buy.
This is B.S. They made trucks precisely BECAUSE that's what people wanted to buy. They also make economy cars too but focused on trucks and SUVs because that's something that people wanted to buy and it was where they had the competative advantage over the imports. It is completely LOST of these people that all of the import companies were "gunning" for the truck and SUV market with billions invested in it themselves trying to horn in on the domestic action.
2) Domestic cars are inferior to imports in quality and value and reliability.
This may have been true at one time, but it's really a myth that the import companies have been very careful to keep cultivated and perpetuate the brainwashing of the masses. I am mostly familiar with GMs products but I have heard many people rave about the qaulity of their ford products as well. It really bugs me that people brainlessly believe what they see in advertising and don't check out the facts or read reviews before choosing a car. I used to be amused by the fact I "knew something they don't" and would chuckle to myself when an import fan expressed shock and awe when first riding in my friends new Malibu... but now it saddens me to think this has hurt the domestics so much.
3) The domestic companies are mismanaged and have done nothing to improve.
I'm not a business expert and cannot judge the management skills of the CEOs but the implication here is that the proof the domestics are mismanaged and have not changed at all seems to be "they are failing right now". I've seen a lot of improments in the way the domestics build cars and do business over the past 5-10 years and think the failure of the companies has MORE to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the bank failures than anything they did. If people can't get loans they can't buy cars. No cars are selling well, okay? It's NOT like everyone suddenly switched to buying only imports so the domestics fail.
I could go on about this for days. The news media needs to go back to their roots and do some RESEARCH on the things they report. They have become parrots of advertisers and pop culture / popular mythos.
This has got to stop.
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