Foreign Versus American Cars

A number of years ago my wife and I traveled throughout England. We rented a car and drove 2100 miles in two weeks. Other than getting used to right hand steering, and left hand standard shifting (I don’t know which was worse!), we were impressed with the car. It was small to our standard, but a medium sized vehicle for England. Made by Ford in England, the four-door sedan was roomy and comfortable. The engine packed enough zip but got great gas mileage. Good thing because gas was nearly 4 pounds or about $6 dollars. Then again the gallon was 5 quarts. High octane gas only. Oh, and the car was a little noisy; not as much sound insulation as American makes have.

At the time we wondered why Ford could make a car this good in England while in the US we had large cars with oversized engines and poor fuel efficiency. If they could do it there why not in the States?

Indeed. Why not?

Seems Ford, Chrysler and General Motors had been manufacturing vehicles around the globe for those markets for generations. Higher efficiency ratings. Smaller in size. Good value. At the same time those same manufacturers were touting their inability to make cars like those in America and still make money. Turned out to be rot, didn’t it?

The manufacturers had dominated foreign markets for generations and were then still doing it and making strong profits. But in the US they continued to make cars the old fashioned way and boosted their profits saying they just couldn’t compete with the other manufacturers in foreign markets.  They owned those markets! So it was a lie, flat out.

Then Japanese cars came to America, and to ease their entry they promised to make or at least assemble a portion of their product line here. And they did. And over the years they continued to do so to the point that much of Japanese autos are made in the US. And they beat American auto manufacturers at their own game! In quality, price and fuel efficiency.

So much so in fact that the American taxpayer was asked to bail out the auto industry. First with Chrysler. Then all three most recently. And they are on the mend, finally.

I don’t mean to be a curmudgeon about this, but Americans do not need behemoth cars and trucks. For those who need large vehicles, fine; make them and sell them. But to produce enormous quantities of them and boast they reflect our success and status is hubris of high order.

We need to right size our cars as well as our homes. We simply don’t need the space in either to live comfortably and authentically. Fully featured is OK, but size and meaningless glitz? Nope.

A recent trip to Curacao proved the point admirably for us. Almost every car in that island nation is small to tiny. Very few full size American cars on the scene. Gas costs a little more there than in the Chicago region, but the cars sipped gas, took up less space, and provided excellent transportation. Simply put, no one needed the larger inefficient cars.

And neither does America. Smaller is better unless you are hauling a large family or commercial loads of cargo or trades equipment. Those utility vehicles do exist and rightly so. But passenger vehicles sized large for no good reason should be the butt of our jokes. The rest of the world is laughing at us. We should be, too.

Luxury cars are fine for those who wish to splurge and show off. But most are not needed for utilitarian purposes. They are fun to drive. I had my share of fine cars, but I look back on those years as a waste of money. Fun and Posh, yes; good sense, no!

With that balanced thinking in place, we can do much better on fuel efficiency and auto pricing. As a nation. As responsible citizens of a global society. As humble authentic people.

Closing statement: if we want our cars to be made in our own country, then we should demand our manufacturers meet global standards and build those here to compete as much at home as they do abroad.

December 20, 2011