Jim Thomas
Columns
November 20, 2008 07:54 PM
Jim Thomas
Get back to the basics.
Where have you heard this command?
Usually it applies to education. And usually it’s applied by seniors. Basics, so-called, relates to reading, writing and arithmetic.
To us, rightly or wrongly, too little significance is attached to these areas. However, a lot has changed since you and I were young. Kids don’t have to read, they can watch TV. Kids don’t have to write, they can use computers. Kids don’t have to add, they can exploit calculators. And while these gadgets may be intimidating, even superfluous in the minds of many, they’re here to stay.
While reversing the hands of time is never easy and seldom feasible, it’s a fact of life the hierarchy within the auto industry must face, and face immediately. For, if they don’t, the big three, General Motors, Ford and Daimler Chrysler, will soon be distant memories.
They’re on the brink.
Presently, here in Ontario, chief mechanics set to repair the damage are Premier Dalton McGuinty and Treasurer Dwight Duncan, with help from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Treasurer Jim Flaherty.
These men, despite positions of importance, are caught between a rock and a hard place, not wanting thousands to lose their jobs, yet hesitant to invest dollars in an industry headed down the drain. So what’s in the wind? As sure as June follows January, a bail-out’s coming. In Canada as well as the United States.
But first things first. The automotive industry, GM, Ford and Daimler Chrysler, must initially put its house in order. Each must get back to the basics.
Remember the post-war era of the mid-1940s? Some of us do.
General Motors had five basic cars: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac.
The Ford family included the basic Ford along with Mercury, Monarch and Lincoln.
Chrysler was top-of-the-line, preceded by Plymouth, Dodge and De Soto. Each also built trucks, from half-ton pick-ups to three-ton heavy-duties. Ford had an additional lineup of tractors and farm machinery.
That was then. This is now.
Does anyone except GM dealers know how many cars they currently have for sale? Does anyone care?
The same goes for Ford and Chrysler. In an attempt to satisfy the whims of every tire-kicker in the country, they’re marketing models of every price, size, shape and description. With few, too few, selling!
If the repercussions weren’t so serious, they’d be ludicrous.
To make matters worse, GM purchased the bankrupt Daewoo firm, tacked on a bow-tie symbol and sold them as Chevrolets.
Then, with gas prices nudging $1.25 a litre, GM added a tank-like oddity called a Hummer to its already over-crowded fleet. Prior to that, they resurrected the Camaro.
About the same time, Ford unveiled a car called the Five Hundred, a beautiful vehicle but out of touch with the times. Drivers avoided it like the plague. To keep pace, Chrysler re-introduced the Charger, another gas-guzzler. Since then, they’ve added a Calibre, a Nitro and who knows how many more?
They’re competing against themselves.
Little wonder heads begin spinning when would-be buyers conjure up sufficient nerve to enter a showroom.
It’s mind-boggling.
Without admitting to absurd pie-in-the-sky marketing schemes, big three brass attribute the current sales slump to an influx of competitors: Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Subaru, Kia and more, forgetting that, back in the 40s there was Willys, Studebaker, Oldsmobile, Nash, Packard and Hudson.
Each of these once occupied their fair share of the road, only to die insolent deaths. The same fate is due many models today.
Let’s get back to the basics. Stop being all things to all people. Stress quality instead of quantity. Anything less and we’ll see Ford, Chev and Dodge on the same discarded scrap heap as Nash, Hudson and Studebaker.
Jim Thomas is a Stouffville resident who has written for area newspapers for more than 50 years.