Opinion> Froma Harrop> Big Three Auto Firms Will Need Music Too

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Big Three Auto Firms Will Need Music, Too

The American "love affair" with cars is close to dead, then-Ford Motor chief Bill Ford lamented six years ago. "In California, people used to write songs about T-Birds and Corvettes," said Henry Ford's great-grandson. "Today, they write regulations." Ford had earlier shocked Detroit by admitting that sport utility vehicles caused environmental problems.

Ford got it, even before the recent spike in gasoline prices sent consumers stampeding out of gas-guzzlers. As the Big Three automakers again ask Washington for help, Ford Motor is the only one not begging for an immediate taxpayer bailout. One reason: It's the farthest along in developing fuel-efficient vehicles.

Once the companies restructure and have the technology in place, they can turn to winning back the public. A car isn't like a refrigerator. You buy a fridge, and if the appliance works, it quickly fades into the wallpaper. A car is your steed and daily companion. It develops a personality, even if only in your head.

And what kind of personality has Detroit offered in recent decades? Often not a pleasing one. A half-century has passed since ads promoted the 1957 Chevy Bel Air as "Kitten-Quiet and Cream-Smooth." Gone are the automotive hymns of the '60s — the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" or Jan and Dean's "Surf City." Would Bruce Springsteen ever serenade an SUV (or its owner) as he did the pastel Caddy in his 1984 rockabilly song "Pink Cadillac"?

A moment of silence for the female curves and rocket ship fins that made Detroit's golden age so much fun. At some point, cars designed to seduce turned into trucks of potential aggression — humorless, muscle-bound brutes. The SUV was old technology sold at big mark-ups in a market dependent on cheap gas.

Detroit lost hearts and minds.

Environmentalists raged at its killing of rules to cut smog and emissions of planet-warming gases. National-security experts decried its promotion of a gas-guzzling culture that enriched our oil-producing enemies. While General Motors fought fuel-efficiency regulations, Toyota successfully marketed itself as the earth-loving maker of the Prius (even as it churned out gluttonous Sequoia and Tundra trucks).

Yes, Detroit had to think short-term if it was to maintain its very generous employee and retiree benefits, some of which were excessive. (Even friends of labor strain to justify paying laid-off autoworkers $31 an hour plus benefits to do nothing.) The United Auto Workers are not to blame, though. They tried to get what they could. The carmakers should have drawn lines.

Thus, when the Big Three went to Washington last month for their bailout, they met a Congress that was not so much lame duck as mad duck. Imagine Donald Duck's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie flying their private jets to ask Uncle Scrooge McDuck for a handout.

Note that President-elect Obama and the enhanced Democratic majority in Congress are not rushing forth with alms. "Taxpayers can't be expected to pony up more money for an auto industry that has been resistant to change," Obama said after the three executives were sent home empty-handed. "And I was surprised that they did not have a better-though-out proposal when they arrived in Congress." Uncle Scrooge couldn't have said it better.

Detroit's plan should include a return to romance. Picture an ad with a cowboy. He's leaning against a big-tailed 1957 DeSoto Fireflite in "Fiesta Red" with white trim. "Choose any car in the De Soto corral, and pardner," the cowboy says, "you've got yourself a thoroughbred."

Nothing wrong with plain, reliable cars, but surely Detroit can market something sexier than the appliances produced by Honda and Toyota. There may be a song in it.

To find out more about Froma Harrop, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Comments

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Ma'am;... I think Uncle Sugar ain't too sweet... They really did give the imports a big tax advantage over our producers for a long time, and perhaps still do... It isn't that the competition does not have a great product, or that the big three do not have some good stuff... Older businesses will always be working against a disadvantage, and the health care issue weighs heavy on any company that carries it... Those with health insurance carry a lot of people without insurance, and if they did not carry insurance it would break the government and the health care providers... Let it happen... Some people can't figure it out until it hits them in the chops... Kill all the unions and the sooner revolution...Thanks...Sweeney

Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Tue Dec 2, 2008 9:42 AM

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Re: December 1 article. Recently the Medford Mail Tribune had a Letters to the Editor sent in by a gentleman who
stated his wife had the answer to the Auto Industry crisis. Let the big OIL COMPANIES loan them the money.
That makes sense to me. They have the huge profits from the "taxayers" so why not?

Comment: #2
Posted by: Lexi
Tue Dec 2, 2008 10:39 AM

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For years the big three have done little more than was absolutely necessary to sell cars. They did nothing to improve their vehicles fuel economy unless the government passed laws to make them. They built bigger vehicles, that got less and less fuel economy, and did more harm to the environment, without regard to little else but profit.
They seem to race each other on who has the biggest vehicle, and who makes the most profit.
Oh, they were willing to share the wealth, instead of trying to contain some of their legacy costs, they decided it was better not to worry about them.
Some of the foreign manufacturers are not much better, just about every company offers these low mileage, high profit trucks and SUV's, but you don't see them in Washington with theirs hands out. Honda and Toyota have been selling hybrid vehicles for a long time, why are the big three so far behind?. PROFITS.
When Lee Iacocca asked for government for help back in the 80's, he had his ducks all in a row BEFORE he every went to Washington, he met with his union employees, got them to share in all the cost cutting along with his salaried employees, as well as the executives of Chrysler. He even put a Union member on the board of Chrysler.
He knew before he went not after his second visit. He asked for a loan, and then poreceded to pay it back long before it was due.
The union people are not the problem at these businesses, they are hardworking, and are anxious to help save their jobs, despite the horrendous mis-management that has been the normal way of business for so long in Detroit.
Where have all the leaders gone?

Comment: #3
Posted by: Rich Scaramelli
Wed Dec 3, 2008 10:18 AM

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A very interesting comment on the marketing of autos. I was with Froma all the way until the final paragraph, with its gratuitous slam at the Japanese. She is right about Toyota, whom my wife calls the "sturdy brown oxford" of automobiles (referring to her mother's insistence that her daughter get "sturdy brown oxfords" rather than the more stylish shoes she desired). But Honda is a different matter: witness just one campaign, that undertaken to sell the Acura TL, which featured young men leaving LA to run up to San Francisco for the sheer joy of driving the car, and the young couples going places only for the same reason. That was the selling of joy in the car's performance and handling, the image of its quiet superiority. Although she did not mention Mazda, its Zoom-Zoom campaign is a perfect contemporary example of auto romance. ( Disclaimer: our garage now holds an Acura TL and a Mazda Protege. It has held the previous TL, with those dreamy road trips surrounding it, and a Mazda Miata, the parent of the entire Zoom-Zoom. )_ That said, we are in the perfect position to testify that neither manufacturer or their products (especially their service and support) have disappointed. Their ad campaign's did not lie, nor did they create romantic dreams unconnected with the car's performance, as we found the Detroit campaigns to do. Trying to paint Honda or Mazda as bland appliances is definitely not an automobile lover's judgment, however popular its chauvinism might be.

Comment: #4
Posted by: Ed Livingston
Thu Dec 4, 2008 5:46 PM

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