We were talking to our friend the other day about the car industry and why the foreign competition seemed to be having a pretty easy time eating Detroit's lunch. We decided that Detroit put its lunch on the counter and didn't watch it. Nearly literally saying, "Please eat my lunch. It's tasty as hell. Yum. I certainly wouldn't want you to not eat this lunch. Man, is it gonna be tas... Hey! WTF, man! You ate my lunch!" (later) "Hmmm, since you stole our friggin' lunch, we'll bet you won't eat our supper. Man, this is gonna be one tasty supper. Lots of room. Uses a lot of gas, but... Hey! Why ain't you consumers adding to our supper pot? Gas is how much? Oy." Rough patch for pickup sales may be a danger sign.
Then we run across Robert Farago's column General Motors Death Watch 71: The Butterfly Effect. Mr. Farago has been watching GM slowly kill itself. Excuse us? Kill itself? That's what we were also talking about with our friends. By creating a generation or two of vehicles that proved to be unreliable, GM has essentially handed over its business to the competition. Mr. Farago writes:
While The General’s flackmeisters will scream bloody murder about self-fulfilling prophesies, current events are the fulfillment of a prophesy made over thirty-five years ago, when GM and its fellow domestics responded to higher quality foreign imports with arrogance, derision and scorn. They had their chance to change by their own free will. Now change will be thrust upon them. The Death Watch continues.
Meanwhile, Autoblog reports: Big 3's biggest challenge rebuilding trust? Can GM and the rest of Detroit rebuild trust? Or is it the "press" just exaggerating this "problem"?
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