Well kids, it finally happened.
The colossus that is GM has finally succumbed to the fact that its cars suck and has declared bankruptcy. In any other nation this would meant that its assets would be auctioned off and its wealth spread around to all of its shareholders to make good their debts. This would allow other companies with ideas that weren’t forged in the early 20th century to step up and innovate, refresh the consumer, and come up with their own version of a market for their wares, thus spurring the improvement of the overall economic environment for their country.
In America this means that the shareholders and bondholders are given the royal shaft and the company is allowed to keep its monies and reorganize itself into another company whose ideas WERE forged in the early 20th century and thus stifle any further competition by upstart companies and perpetuating the continuous economic downturn caused by poor planning and shitty cars.
Ok. Now that I have that out of my system, lets look at this another way. I drive a GM(C). It was made in 1992 (shut up) and runs like a champ. It was built when the dominance of the American brand was complete, and a 4.2 litre engine could still drive a couple hundred miles between fill ups. It has 230,000 miles on it and still runs like a Swiss watch.
Well… like a good Seiko, maybe.
Still, this car was built by a company that knew what would work and what would not. For some reason this is the same company that thought it an intelligent action to create a brand of cheap, high-mileage cars to sell to the masses. Saturn then began to compete against GM in general and started winning, meaning that GM was effectively sapping its own money away from itself by undercutting its own larger, more expensive models. Way to go guys.
And let us not forget the fact that GM thought it a good idea to acquire Hummer. Lets take a vehicle that was originally designed for the military to fight in forests, burns bunker-fuel, and has the un-refuled range of a go-cart and market them to people who are hearing the first rumblings of their self-induced environmental degradation and know – at some unconscious level – that they are the most gluttonous people in the world.
Where is the disconnect here? Where is the point that the poor decisions made by this company over topped the good ones and tipped the company over the brink into the financial netherworld? Is it really possible that the sheer size of these American companies and the institutional momentum involved in their decision making has put them so far behind the curve that they are no longer feasible in the world market?
The answers to these questions are I don’t know, years ago (though only those who know anything about cars – thus not the vast majority of Americans – saw it until now), and emphatically yes.
That is why they have to go. They have to. We need to allow some of the smaller companies in this country, those that are straining at the bit to get their new ideas out from under the umbrella of corporate special-interest and presented to a waiting populace a chance to take their place as the alternative to trucks/SUV things that have 6.8 litre HEMi engines and could tow a supertanker into dry-dock.
Electrics, hybrids, solar, shit I’d drive a steam-powered car if it got better mileage AND polluted less than the 8,000 pound particulate-spewing monstrosities that I dodge on a daily basis in my rather nice neighborhood. These technologies need government money to come to fruition, money that is wasted trying to keep anachronistic companies with outdated business plans and no real idea what the market is like anymore afloat.
I know I’m on a big soapbox here, and that the problem probably isn’t as simple as I make it out to be (though I’m pretty sure it’s close) but still, come on. Doesn’t it make sense that things need to change when the entire world is making cars that out perform ours in every regime except raw horsepower and the American people are taking money earned here and sending it to Japan by buying cars made in Nebraska?
Just doesn’t make sense to keep on going the way we have been, that’s all.
I would argue differently about the Saturn brand. GM had moved all of its midsize and small size sedans away from reasonable price ranges before adding the Saturn brand. They needed a way to compete with smaller, efficient cars that Honda, Toyota and even Ford were putting out. The first saturn series were a HIT but they did end up cannibalizing their own brands… but that is because they never had any brand identities at this point. Sadly, they completely screwed the pooch by leaving innovation by the way side on continuing models of Saturns (like all their other brands)… Hell my Saturn is actually an Opel chassis and body with a new logo (I knew this when I bought it… I kinda like Opel…)
We can have a longer discussion about this on our upcoming long car ride.