The Media and the US Auto Industry

Hey, I haven't written anything in a long time. I guess I've been a little busy with a career in supply chain working for Chevron and most unfortunately, a father who has become quite ill with lung cancer. But being the gear head that I am (like my Dad who worked at GM for a large part of his career), I can't help but think about how our own domestic car manufacturers are viewed in the eyes of the public at large. I drive a GMC, but my wife drives a Lexus, and I know which one I like more (the Lexus). Probably not a fair comparison, considering the GMC is 4 years older, and its a truck, but still...I know which one has given us less problems. But times are changing, for the better I think, for the US automakers. But you wouldn't know that if you opened any large newspaper these days. Its interesting to watch, but I think we're seeing a good example, a case study if you will, of how an industry with it's back against the wall can actually come out fighting, and perhaps even change what I'd like to think are pretty stale perceptions.

A lot of mainstream journalists, columnists and editorial writers have been taking some pretty hard cracks at the domestic auto industry. I've been following the car industry for a long time, passively, as both a consumer and an enthusiast. Anyone who enjoys reading the Wall Street Journal, Businessweek or the like has surely come across quite a bit of press over the last couple of years agonizing over the troubles that GM, Ford and Chrysler seem to be having since posting some pretty huge losses in 2005.

While I agree that GM, Ford and Chrysler messed up pretty bad by putting all their eggs in one basket (SUVs and trucks in the 90s), they really are offering some very competitive (and "relevant", using a word from our fearless leader) products these days. The problem now with the Big 3 is perception and stigma. Lets face it, a lot of influential journalism comes from the coasts, and the coast dwellers love their trends - they always have. Its trendy to rip on the Detroit automakers, which honestly is pretty sad, especially for a car guy like myself. If its trendy to associate only trucks and SUVs with Detroit, then most California or New York based writers will do it. Columnists and their rags will stay popular, and ultimately sell books and magazines, and that's what the media is in business to do. Some of the news is true (health care costs certainly are a problem, not just in the auto industry, but for self insured small businesses as well), but a lot of is just simple tripe, coupled with a now very boring and somewhat deceiving notion that our auto industry is archaic and mundane, which really isn't the case (anyone who follows the industry with an open mind and at least a little bit of curiosity will see that the Big 3 have some pretty cool technologies and designs too). In a way, the view by most mainstream columnists of Detroit continuing to offer old, stale product is as old and stale as the old stale product actually was. At the end of the day, it would be a lot harder to convince any reader who wasn't following or had no interest in the auto industry via a cartoon, that Detroit was actually building decent cars now.

Cartoons of the day about the US Auto Industry