|
Back in 1992, when Pat Buchanan called for a "culture war" during the the Republican convention, I explain to an acquaintance why I did not vote for any Republican: they had a desirable image of who their voters should be and I did not fit this image.
I was reminded of this concept recently, with GM. During the 90s GM came with monstrous cars: Hummer, Suburban, Yukon, Tahoe. Even their trucks got monstrous. It used to be that a pickup would have a cab for two, or three if a bench seat, and then a bed for hauling stuff.
Then a half seat was added to carry stuff, or, perhaps, for small children. And then a full back seat was added so basically the pickup would be a size of a full size car and a bed of a truck replacing the trunk. And some of these drivers would even try to park at a parking space at a strip mall.
Like the Republican party, GM had a clear vision of who their customers should be and I did not fit that image. At some point I was leasing cars and trucks for employees where I worked and I could see how we moved from sedans - for managers - and simple trucks - for field technicians, to these monstrosities. Our guidelines were to purchase only American made cares and with a cap on price and by 2000, the only non SUV or full size cab pickups would be the Ford Taurus and the Chevy Lumina.
In the early 90s I was thinking that my next car would be a Saturn. GM came with this line to specifically compete with the Japanese cars. And then I've read that this was going to be a tease. To get the would-be Japanese cars purchases to switch to GM and then to switch these drivers to the V8 models. We've never had any car with more than 4 cylinders; I stayed with Toyota. I had an '86 Toyota Camry which was a compact and I really liked it. When I had to get a new one, the new Camry grew to a full size and I was thinking about a Corolla. And then there was a news story about a collision between an SUV and a Corolla. And you can guess which driver was killed. I got the Camry.
I don't know how it has been in the past years; I do remember, during the gas shortage of the late 70s, that many GM and Ford employees were driving Japanese cars, too.
I empathize with current and former employees of GM and Chrysler, also the dealers. They dedicated their lives to them and contributed to the livelihood of many small towns and created the image of middle class based on manufacturing, rather than shuffling papers and manning calling centers. But GM, like the Republican party, chose to bet on the horse that, after a successful career, finally reached the end of the trail.
OK, start flaming.
|