Readers offer U.S. automakers some advice

Roland Jones Business news editor • Profile • E-mail

Once upon a time, American-made cars embodied a vigorous national confidence. They were enormous chunks of muscular metal and chrome with jukebox-like dashboards and dangerously-sharp tailfins. Bold and flashy, they commanded respect on the highway.

These days, forget about respect. American cars are singled out for their lack of exciting designs, poor quality and meager fuel efficiency. Many American consumers began to choose Toyotas over Chryslers years ago.

And so with the American automotive industry facing one of its most challenging periods in decades, its supremacy under threat from a handful of Asian manufacturers and its biggest players — General Motors and Ford — bleeding cash and in the midst of massive and agonizing reorganizations, we asked MSNBC.com readers for their thoughts on how the nation’s big automobile makers can fix their problems. They certainly had their views.

The reader comments focused on the poor design and quality many see in modern American-made cars. There was also bitter disillusionment with the American automotive industry, one of the nation’s largest, its management structure and out-of-date union deals. And many readers also spoke of their newfound preference for Asian-made cars.

Paul of Hattiesburg, Miss., spoke for many when he asked, “Why can’t America build a car of equal quality to Honda or Toyota?” Like many others who wrote to MSNBC.com, Paul said he’d happily buy an American-made automobile if he could get the same quality and reliability that he finds in an automobile from Honda or Toyota.

“As much as I would prefer to ‘buy American,’ I am not going to subsidize the huge pensions and inflated salaries that the United Auto Workers union (UAW) has extorted from Detroit by buying a sub-standard automobile,” Paul said. “The UAW and their kind are going to be the undoing of the American car manufacturing industry as we currently know it. What rises from the ashes may be an automobile manufacturer that will stand up to the UAW and build cars that actually give people their money’s worth.”

The American automotive industry needs an “extreme makeover,” according to Lew Hages of Rockville, Md. “Its brands, names and images are old-fashioned, weighed down by perceptions of poor quality and styling that is second-rate at best,” he says. “I don’t know why GM and Ford can’t simply copy the designs of companies like Toyota, Nissan, Lexus and even Audi. Isn’t that how the Japanese car companies began their huge battle on the formerly golden Big Three?”

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A reluctance to change with the times has put the American automotive industry in the position it is in today, according to Robert Adams of Meridian, Idaho.

“They refused to accept change,” said Adams. “While automotive industries in other countries were building smaller, safer, more fuel-efficient and reliable vehicles, the American automotive industry looked the other way and continued to shove oversized, gas-guzzling vehicles down the throats of consumers.”

“I always used to buy American until 1995 — that’s when I purchased a Nissan, and I am still driving it over 200,000 miles later. I’m very satisfied with its performance, and I have since purchased another Nissan and have convinced my sons to purchase Toyotas, Mazdas and Nissans. All the American-made automobiles I have ever purchased — from Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge — all seemed to start falling apart at about 60,000 miles,” he said.

Indeed, the thought of buying a vehicle from General Motors, Chrysler or Ford went out with Betamax VCRs, quipped Gus Stefanow of Enon, Ohio. “So many have had nightmares with poor quality, or bad dealer experiences … they will never go back,” he said, adding that “many people I know have come to trust Honda, Toyota and Nissan.”

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