From: mark@wdcwdc.sps.mot.com (Mark Shaw)
Subject: Re: Im going to be sick...
Organization: Motorola Western MCU Design Center, Chandler Arizona
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 00:53:14 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.100303.1@us.oracle.com>, eoates@us.oracle.com writes:
 (Mark Shaw writes)
|> > The majority of automotive consumers were fat, dumb, and happy with what
|> > Detroit was producing until the 70's when emissions, oil shortages, and
|> > rampant inflation made the smaller car finally attractive (or at least
|> > pallitable) to a majority of people.  
|> > 
|> <more stuff deleted>

|> Well, let's do some history here...
|> 
|> The first foreign car invasion was in 1959 for no apparent reason other than a
|> minor recession.  Remember the Iseta, Renault Dauphine, VW Bug, etc.?  Detroit
|> responded quickly with the Corvair, Falcon, and Valient!  
|> ...................................................
|> In the late sixties, the Japanese invasion started and was met with the Pinto
|> and the Vega!  .......... ........ The price difference got fixed in a couple of 
|> years with Yen deregulation, but Detroit never got the quality message.  People
|> bought Japanese cars because of quality, not due to economy reasons alone. 
|> Detroit's small car answers were pathetic.....................
|> Apparently Detroit (or Ford at least) got the quality message in the
|> mid-1980's, and started producing better made and designed products.  The
|> American buying public is critical...........
|> .....................................................
|> My conclusion: evaluate your automotive options and buy the cars/trucks which
|> suit your needs and are built to high quality standards, regardless of country
|> of origin.  If all things are equal, you may want to consider buying American,
|> if you can determine what that is..........

Your points are well taken, but you missed mine.  The ....majority..... of the
buying public in the '60's and 70's was quite happy to buy what Detroit was
making.   They demonstrated that by buying millions of what you call inferior
designs.   

There is a sort of "elitist" attitude among foreign car buyers -- a sort of
"only we know what a quality, high-performance, great... car is" attitude
that translates into a condescending tone towards any automaker that does
not supply what "they" want.   Most early foreign car buyers were more
interested in all aspects of the car they bought, but the simple truth is
that most people didn't really care about all that -- they just wanted a
car that that would get them from A to B with comfort, room, good looks, or
whatever.   Quality? Hey, if it broke down, they had AAA! 

My point is that Detroit knew what these people wnated and gave it to them.
Went the oil crisis and other economist factors started to bite the average
consumer, they started rearranging their priorities.  And they did it almost
overnight.  Detroit in their slow moving manner just got left behind.  The
crisis was always there to happen, it just took some pushing.

The crisis will occur again, since fuel prices have stayed low TOO long
and the average fuel consumption (even on Japanese cars) has risen. 
The next shortage may catch both sides of the pond off guard.  Japan is 
currently trying to deal with the same stagnant economy problems, and
lower quality of some Japanese cars has tainted the others.  Nobody's
perfect.

For decades Detroit gave us exactly what the majority of the people were
willing to pay for.  They should not be condemned because we suddenly woke
up and changed our minds.   For pete's sake do you realize how many of
those so-called "awful" Pinto's, Vega's, Corvair's, and Falcon's they
actually sold!  

BTW the import invasion started long before 1959,  I believe that the VW
arrived in the 1956 time frame.

Mark


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