Quote:
Originally Posted by Encroaching Death
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We used to build the best cars in the world.
Detroit used to be one of the richest cities in the world.
We had so much going for us...
Someone TOOK that from us
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Complicated issue with a lot of causes that took a long time for it to happen. I'll touch on a few, but no single forum post (even a long one) can be comprehensive.
The Big Three, most especially GM, have a long and dismal history of shooting themselves in the foot at every opportunity. Look at a corporate history of GM sometime you'll be shocked that such a large corporation could be so badly run for so long. They hated their own workforce and never wanted to build downsized cars and quite often deliberately sabotaged their own economy models. They also had dealer networks that treated their customers like garbage, driving people to foreign brands in large numbers. Lots of folks, I knew folks myself, were plenty glad to pay more for a largely inferior Honda or Toyota just to be treated like a human being and for some peace of mind knowing they wouldn't get a door slammed in their face if they needed warranty work.
The quality advantage of the Japanese makes has assumed mythological status, but it's a case of something rooted in reality becoming severely over-blown. The stuff they sold over here was pretty good for the most part, but so was plenty of domestic stuff. History demonstrates that something like a early 80's Honda Accord or Toyota Corona was no longer lasting on average than contemporary U.S. equivalents like the Chrysler K's or the GM J's. Detroit's reputation was ruined by some well-publicized disasters like the Chevy Citation, Ford Fairmont, Dodge Aspen, etc, coupled with a viscious dealer network who quite often would not honor warranty or recall claims without legal action. Foreign makes tended to cherry-pick their model ranges to some extent and (usually) didn't ship their problematic models here, and in those days most of their dealers weren't jerkwads.
"Malaise era" is such a stupid term, usually originating from people who want to trash America. In reality U.S. cars--domestics and imports, all--were slow for awhile because the U.S. had the world's best air quality laws. That's something to be proud of. The 84 HP K-car or 90 HP GM Iron Duke engine get trashed yet mysteriously the same people trashing those continually sing praises of the still-slower 75 HP Honda Accord. They were all slow until technology caught up. That was okay. Lead gas sucks more than we ever realized at the time.
Take all that, then along comes globalization and unfunded mandates and the american car, already weakened, dies. Japanese family cars, for example, were always miserable little torture boxes. They still are. But automakers want platforms they can sell everyplace and meet international needs. Couple that with various regulations making it outright impossible to design comfortable interiors or sell actual economy cars anymore, you have a recipe for suck.
Danth