A recent article in The Wall Street Journal lamented the loss of style in products from American automakers, especially General Motors. The author comments on the development of outsourcing the development and manufacture its small car, explaining: "Detroit zeal until his famous brand cars that were developed elsewhere, may have to attach something to their downfall: get cars around us, of course, but also in their appearance and behavior, to catch a cultural perspective, a spirit, even anational identity. "Style meets" cool "and cool cars to sell. But GM and Ford and Chrysler are certainly a little short on cool days and have this for several decades.
But it was not always so …
When I was in high school, somewhere in the Pleistocene, were American cars that were all there. Oh, a Volkswagen, Opel lost, Fiat or found its way onto American streets, but they were largely ignored and rarely as oddities. Foreign-built cars were simply notrelevant. The American cars that followed the Second World War, updated versions of the developed before the war and not very exciting. The left side of designs from the thirties and early forties, you just do not cut it in the cool department. (I once had a '46 Ford pickup, which was only a '40 Ford pickup with a new grill.) It took the American automobile industry a few years back tool by tanks and armored cars to designing and building new cars again.
But sometime in the mid-fifties American carStyle adopted, and we have some very cool cars. The '53 Corvette, an American sports car of the new material, fiberglass, which were both based '55 Ford Thunderbird and the '55 Chevy hardtop, each produced with a V-8 motors, the first truly exciting cars of our youth. And came after them a number of mental-bending designs, a seemingly never-ending buffet with chromium, PS, and tail fins. We have found cars and girls around the same time, and it was hard to tell which one was our first true love!For a teenage boy was nirvana. Of course we could not afford to buy one of them, nor were most of us old enough to drive them away, but we camped every year in September when the new models hit the dealer showrooms. The walls of our rooms were covered with the car brochures. And later take the big brother of a friend we can go into a '63 GTO, '62 a Chevy SS 409, or '64 Plymouth Hemi.
Mid to late sixties, a car-lover's paradise already, and then we have the pony cars, theMustang, Camaro, and the Barracuda. Heavy on PS with short, only slight body made of rubber for the laying up and down Oakland East 14th Street between driving the two Pring-ins, one at each end of the most beautiful sailing areas in the northern California road!
By the way, gas, even super-premium was about 36 cents per gallon and this is not America and Europe after the war, we had everything we could burn. Gas wars between rival stations would be the price even lower (I remember 19.9Cents / gal) and we were filling up, and held the Pedal To The Metal, as the phrase of the day. A few foreign cars show started in the fifties and sixties-the Toyopet from Japan, machine guns from England, and the VW Beetle was a bit more noticeable. The error eventually became a cult car, and a hippie icon, so it was ok, but other than that, American cars were the Kings of Cool. Nash Ramblers were better, some Japanese, but perhaps because the seats have been completely folded back into aBed. My friend Kenny in possession of one and we paid him two six packs, and a full tank of gas, we take them on dates.
But we came of age with a jerk. First there was the Vietnam War, and then in 1973, the Arab oil embargo. These events were like the lights coming on in a theater at the end of a fantastic film and all you could see were empty popcorn boxes, candy wrappers and an empty screen. The oil boycott and the car party was over – big time. Gas prices shot above 50% in justa few months between mid 1973 and beginning of 1974. But scarcity ruled the day, and at one point there was very little gas at all to buy. The crisis ended a year after the start, but the effects of scarcity, artificial or otherwise, and the resulting high prices are still being felt today and it was the beginning of the end for the American car culture. Suddenly, Toyota and Volkswagen Datsuns and flooded the land and people buy them as fast as the dealers could get them in. Wewere at our wits out of fear that we will not be able to enough gas for our cars. Foreign vessels were Sippers gas compared to the average American V-8, and we could not buy them fast enough.
U.S. automakers had tried on some level with this threat to foreign imports for a decade the Ford Falcon and the Chevrolet Corvair were examples of competition, but U.S. car companies are not the same experience with small car designs such as our Japanese and German competitors weresurvived the post-war period of shortages and high fuel prices, by learning to build good, fuel-efficient small cars. U.S. companies "discovered" the 4-cylinder and V-6 engine and front wheel drive for some time in the seventies, but cars like the Chevy Nova and Ford Maverick were disasters, and it even worse. The American love of big, fast cars, it could not simply be translated into the designs of small, economical cars of the same companies that they admired forYears. Ford and GM do not have the talent, with Asia and Europe compete in the compact car division.
But it was even worse. By turning their attention to small cars and trucks, finally, American car manufacturers lost their way. They forgot how to set default style in normal size coupes and sedans. Cars was an afterthought, especially when the SUV craze allows manufacturers to make large profits on trucks. But Europe and Japan did not stop at small cars. They improved their largealso more expensive versions. Mention Mercedes, Lexus, Jaguar and BMW not Porsche and Ferrari, was the lust object of a new generation. These cars were stylish. They were cool. U.S. auto manufacturers with small cars failed, and now their regular offerings by year, the mainstay of generations of car enthusiasts have been ignored, and faded into oblivion in favor of the truck.
Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar and build a pickup truck, at least not for sale in this country. Ah, yes, someCommercial vehicles, however, the car of the four-door sedan, the coupe great and small, have their support and the luxury of State and Government have been for two decades. Their SUVs, with a few exceptions, are really crossovers on car chassis with ride and handling to match. While American car manufacturers were with large, high-profit has slipped trucks, the Germans and the Japanese owned and stole their bacon. Having cars for so long ignored, it is not surprising that the American car companies have beennot catch up. Cadillac for the closest thing to a foreign sports sedan, but it may be too late. Not too late for the engineering, to catch up. Too late to reclaim the cool, the desire and the taste of the audience for American iron. GM and Ford have lost their sense of style. The American public has changed, and the American auto manufacturers have been left behind. Ford owned Jaguar. It should be added the style of Jaguar in the main line of the car. But if the sale of trucks, they tend to sell JaguarUsing as his unique blend of style and performance, an American passion for new cars.
GM is a mere shadow of its former self. It has two cars with a certain degree of cool-the Chevrolet Corvette and Cadillac CTS. Everything else is a desert from the perspective of the American car buying public. I look at our parking lot and count the American-built cars there are on one side. The shame is that the domestic vehicles that are not bad, but they are definitely not cool. They hadonce, and they lost their way. There is hope, but it has devastating economic with what GM had few remaining assets, and there's precious time, to use for the re-design and re-creation. And their competitors in Europe and over again with better designs, new versions of cool, Fanning wish once was fomented by the likes of the '55 Chevy and the Mustang.
When the song thus: "Little GTO, you're really lookin 'fine. Three of the four deuces and speed, and a three eightynine … "
She looked really beautiful – once upon a time.
1. Felton, Eric: "Intelligent Design: To save itself, needs GM Style Wall Street Journal, 17 July 2009, page W11.
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