Buy American?

Back in 2001, my American made Mercury Sable shot craps by blowing its engine seals at about 90,000 miles. Suddenly without a car, I went car shopping and I knew what I wanted. I wanted a AWD or 4WD vehicle with some amount of cargo room, a manual transmission, and an engine that would deliver some performance at 70 MPH.

Detroit didn't make a car like that because they assumed that if you wanted a stick shift, you obviously only wanted it for fuel economy reasons. Thus, they only combined it with their most economical (translate smallest and least HP)engines on their most economical cars (Ford Focus anyone?). Alternately, you could get a stick on a two door sports car like a Mustang. Jeep was just debuting the Liberty which could come with a manual... in about 3-6 months. I ended up getting a Subaru.

FAST FORWARD to 2009. I'm car shopping again in the middle of a recession. The radio is replete with news stories that the Big Three are in Big Trouble and advertisements telling me that I should go buy American because most of the money from foreign cars goes to foreign places. After all, loyal Americans support America by buying American products.

Of course this ignores that in the interconnected 21st Century, we need the other country's economies to rebound too if we want to re-achieve a 90's like prosperity. It also ignores that having people over here with jobs is probably more important than where the money finally goes. I'd rather see an entire Subaru plant over here running flat-out than Dodge making its cars in Mexico and selling them here. It also ignores something else, something philosophical.

Once more when I'm shopping for cars, I am having difficulty finding what I want from an American manufacturer. This is not a quality issue; american cars are as good as any import and better than many... well maybe not Chryslers. But Ford and GM are. This has to do with what I want in a car, and I admit I'm not typical. I don't want a sun/moonroof. I do want a comfortable seat. I don't care about the stereo, but I like my stick shift. I like cars that are fun to drive; cars with character. And once again, Detroit just doesn't make them. Ford does AWD, but with low ceilings and assumes that if you want AWD, you MUST want the sunroof. Chevy assumes that you don't want AWD. Buick assumes you want large, FWD, and a low ceiling, probably with a sunroof. Etc.

So here I am, looking at MINI's and Subarus and Toyotas and getting guilt tripped about not being a "loyal" American. And that makes me mad. Detroit's argument is that you should buy what they make because they make it. Even if it is not what you want, you should buy it. Logically then, if it was a $30,000 scooter with a terrible reliability, you should buy it because they make it and you are a loyal American. "What's good for General Motors is good for America." Oh wait, that kind of arrogance was supposed to have died in the late 70's. My bad. No wait. Their bad.

In the almost 30 years since 1979, they still haven't shed that corporate culture and institutional American car maker arrogance. This recession may be the only way they will learn, can learn. And maybe they can't learn, can't change. Either way they still don't get it and I think GM thinks that we will not allow them to fail because GM = America. We'll come around any minute and buy their cars in droves, even if they go back to making the cream of 1978. Except we won't. Americans demand quality, performance, and choice. In this iPod, MyMusic, MyDocuments, MyWay world, maybe shooting for the largest common denominator doesn't sell cars. It doesn't sell them to me anyway.

No, it's not that "loyal Americans" will rescue GM/America by buying American made cars. Loyal Americans companies would have managed to make the cars that Americans want to buy. It is a shame when it is the foreign car companies who seem able to best read the American consumer.