It’s time for you, the average consumer, to take a stand!

Friend consumer, for years we have been driven to the auto industry cleaners: It is time we demand a change in product quality and the way the auto industry conducts business! As consumers we need to push the industry to change course and give us the best product and service they can or let them die, go bankrupt! If some US companies survive, they may; finally, they could understand that Americans deserve and expect more.

Don’t be fooled by bad economy and bad sales stories! The American auto industry has done this to itself!

I’m not saying there isn’t a bad economy but they have been on this path of destruction for a long time. I used to work at an Oldsmobile dealership, Subaru – in 1986 we sold every model from both manufacturers, let me cite two models from the ’80s to make my point.

1) Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra pickup came with a 4 cylinder engine, air conditioning, AM radio, power steering, power brakes, approximate retail price was 10k-11k.

2) Subaru GL Pickup came with 4 cylinder engine, air conditioning, FM stereo, power steering, power brakes, 4 wheel drive, power windows, power locks, split rear seats, rear defrost, multi-way front seats with Tilt, Roof Rack & More – Approximate selling price was 10k-11k.

Olds had a reputation for major motor problems and often did not survive past 100,000. By contrast, the Subaru was well known for surviving over 200,000 miles with few engine problems. Plus, there was a big difference in standard comfort features for the same price: We sold the Subaru at 40-to-1 compared to the Olds.

The US auto industry continued down that path for several years as the price of vehicles rose dramatically and they began using financing tactics to sell their inferior products. The inevitable happened and many of the vehicles sold did not last the term of the loans without major repairs and the resale value of a US vehicle was low so you couldn’t trade them in without setting yourself back financially.

Around 1990, American automakers began to pay attention, producing some better quality vehicles and keeping prices more stable. Unfortunately, along with the improved product quality came a substantial increase in parts costs. Therefore, repair bills began to skyrocket and they continued to lag behind foreign competitors and their technology. Around 2000 it seemed like we were going down again in the Quality department, around 2005 we started to go up a bit, but I think it was too little, a little too late.

In 2008, Ford Motor Company had an ad campaign saying that they now had cars of equivalent quality to Toyota. I don’t know about you, but if I owned a Ford, I’d feel like “Oh great, so the Ford I bought before 2008 was certainly inferior!”

US automakers sponsor race teams at a cost of millions of dollars a year: They continue to overpay their executives: They grossly overstate union workers’ compensation: And still, after at least 2 decades of foreign competitors hot on their heels, they still lag so far behind in technology and quality. Frankly, I don’t understand why!

Now after years of inferior products, higher repair bills, exuberant executive pay, they must have unions to work in the plants, did they reach out to the taxpayer to bail them out? There should be no doubt about the answer: a resounding NO!

Thank you, Mr. Ford, for building the Model T and ushering in the industrial age, thank you to America’s auto manufacturing for providing good jobs for so many years: but after all, you are a business and you must stay alive or die like the rest of the business world!

I am not advocating for Americans to buy foreign products, especially in our current economic crisis! However, most of the working public in the US have a limited amount of money for car purchases, which requires that we use that limited amount wisely. With past and current conditions in the auto industry, higher quality, better comfort, more options for the same price suggests that foreign automakers offer “more value for money.”

(By the way, I have two American vehicles, one I’m not at all happy with, and the other so far *cross fingers* it’s been fantastic.)