Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comHere are ten cars that helped to bring down Detroit. Many are terrible cars, while others are not too bad, but they symbolize an underlying problem that contributed to the fall.
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If you want bad cars you need to include Volare (severe rusting problems due to bad fender
design) the Corvair (unsafe at any speed) and then all time turkeys like the Edsel. All problems at
Detroit ultimately stem not from Union Problems but rather management problems where
engineers whounderstood auto design weren't in charge and Accountants, MBAs, Marketing and
Styling Artistswere. The fish rots from the head down. It is time for management to make full
confession of their deeds!
Are you nuts? Taurus was a best selling US car. The guy that wrote this is full of BS and forgot a lot of GM crap.
Around first generation of Taurus, Ford rank bottom for quality of cars among american auto manufaturer it was big shock...But you are right, Taurus allow Ford to come back on quality compare to other american cars.
The guy also forgot the "k car"... Also, people forget that american cars do not rust as fast as foreign cars. In other words, the alloy used in american autobody was better quality from better technology.
But I don't "relate" to with this news article because american cars were easy to fix, american parts were cheap, you can sometimes use old model parts, the junk yard got more autoparts you can use, and the only bad about them is that they are heavy to lift so a fat kid still got to go pump iron to work on them. Foreign cars may run longer, but them auto parts can set you back, and that just assuming you do the labor yourself. But that was the 80s-90s, maybe thats why GM went bankrupt after 2000, cuz them new blood running the company forgot the basics and got too greedy.
Are you nuts? the guy that wrote this aricle hs his head in the dardk. How bout those great bueties of the 60' 70' 80' and 90's?. Idiot.
I had a vega, loved the sporty, look and the good gas mileage, was so sad the motor huffed a quart of oil a week, with only thirteen thousand miles on it . generous motors put two more in before i said good bye to it. was not all their fault, alcoa sucked them in with the 721 alloy. even the people that made made lawn mores new better.
What?! No mention of the Ford Pinto, the Plymouth Valiant, or the Chevrolet Camaro? Let's not forget the Pontiac Fiero, a good-looking fiberglass body hiding an underpowered, overly complicated drive train, that went from bad to worse before it was finally euthanised.
Fiero is one most awesome body design for their time on a mass produce car. Camaro's and Firebirds are cool until they got the total make over upgrade bodystyle. Then it was time to grow up.
You also forgot the GM attempt at diesel powered cars. They single handly destroyed the market for Diesel powered cars in the US for decades.
If you want diesel cars, buy German. GM can't compete with the Germans on diesel sedans and the Japanese on gas sedans at the same time. GM will look like an idiot. GM got smart about it and did what they had to do--they stick with trucks, quad cab trucks, etc.
There were good cars and some bad ones, but "they" did not bring down Detroit; complacency, poor Q.C., refusal to automate and cater to market demands, and high salaries did - making them unable to compete in a world environment. They stood by believing they had a captive audience and watched while Japan slowly beat them at their own game in broad daylight.
The Pontiac Aztek isn't ugly. The Scion is ugly; the Cube is ugly, and the Smart for two is ugly.
Chevy stopped making one of the best low-priced cars, the Cavalier, in 2005. I have a 1998 Cavalier with over 108,000 miles on it, and it's still going strong. It gets 26 mpg, a lot more than those SUVs. If they bring back the Cavalier, I'll get a new one.
UAW salaries and entitlement, let's put the blame where it belongs.