Drive anywhere in Genesee County, Mich., and look closely at the vehicles traveling in your vicinity. Notice that eight out of 10 are Detroit products. This County and the City of Flint are loyal beyond reason to American made automotive products.
The same cannot be said for other parts of the country. While traveling in South Florida, I observed the opposite numbers held true. The roads are loaded with Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Lexus and BMW products.
Surely, this is the case in other parts of the United States, where the Big Three (Chrysler, Ford and General Motors) have not sustained a manufacturing base. In addition, people and their communities never have had to rely on the tax base these facilities provide to fund the municipal operations of towns and counties where they reside.
Retail operations in other states, where the automobile plants are not located, find the customers from other walks of life. Why should people living in these areas worry or care what brand of car they drive?
Why has General Motors not been equally loyal to us? In one week, they announced batteries for new vehicles will now be produced by a Korean company, LG Chem, and the gasoline engines, which were to be made in Flint, will be produced in Austria.
Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors, who has worked for Chrysler, Ford and BMW, said, “You cannot keep importing everything we use and not produce a thing that benefits American workers.” He also stated, “So what if you can buy a DVD player for $19.95, but in the long run, who will buy the product if it’s not produced here in the United States?”
Many people will argue the foreign automobiles simply are superior in quality and overall performance. I would only ask them to strap in and put their foot into a 396 Big Block,426 Hemi, or a 351 c.i. Cleveland to feel what living the American Dream really is like!
Long live the Big Three! My father and others said it best: “What's good for the American Automobile industry is good for America!”
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Here in Houston, the ratio is about 50-50 with the US models being predominately pickups and SUVs. The big 3 are actually making money on these vehicles, but their new 535 member board of directors (congress) thinks they need to make more money-losing (for them) smaller cars domestically. By every prediction I've seen, the Volt will be a money pit for GM.
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