...you mean like the wonderful cars that Detroit offered us in the 70's???
I bought my first new (American) car in the early 70's. Within two years,
it was already beginning to rust out, even though I kept it spotless. After
40,000 miles it needed a new engine, even though I changed the oil
regularly. What kind of garbage do you think Detroit would be offering us
today if not for the Japanese threat to a bloated and complacent American
automotive industry. If you spent even one day in a factory watching the
care and pride that went into assembling American autos even in he late
60's, I can assure you you'd never buy one. Besides growing up in the Motor
City,, I worked as a draftsman in the late '60's for a company that
manufactured all the electrical switches for all of GM and Chrysler cars.
We also maufactured the wiring harnesses. One afternoon, I was summoned to
join one of the engineers on a trip to the assembly line because one of the
shifts had assembled the insulators on the trunk harness backwards. They
couldn't be installed on the cars. We had to go down on the assembly line
and remove 1000 of them and install them correctly. As you can imagine, we
spent the better part of the day there. In the meantime, since we weren't
"tourists" I was able to observe some pretty eye opening stuff. For
example, I watched one guy repeatedly (probably deliberate most of the
time) drop voltage regulators on the floor, pick them up and install them
on the car. This is when he put them on the car at all... he'd sit down
every few minutes and let cars go by without them! Even though auto factory
workers had acheived unprecedented wages gains in the 50's and 60's, the
air was thick with contempt for the work. Boring stuff, this factory work.
And who did the Americans consult and _imitate_ to improve the working
environment in the factory... the Japanese.
The auto industry hadn't changed since they were forced to switch to
military production during WWII, and wouldn't have changed if not for the
Japanese import threat. With the exception of cars like Mercedes Benz,
foreign cars were never considered to be competition for American cars
because amoung other things, the were never considered to be good quality.
The British cars we collect and revere today have always been considered to
be inferior quality (along with Italian, French, etc.). Seems to me, most
American cars today, while improved considerably in style and quality, are
imitations of Japanese and German cars. Except for cars like the Dodge
Viper, Plymouth Prowler, Dodge Powerwagon, the upcoming PT Cruiser and a
few other Chrysler prototype cars like the Atlantic, I see very little
innovation in American cars... at least not since the likes of Harley Earl.
Probably the most imitated vehicle of late is the minivan inspired by the
Caravan/Voyager.
If innovation is what the masses desire, then everyone would own Macintosh
computers. I can't think of anything more mundane and "without character"
as a PC, especially in the mid-eighties and early 90's. Windows '95 was
totally inspired by the Mac OS and came onto the scene nearly 10 years
after the Mac OS first appeared. Yes, Jobs 'stole' the idea from Xerox, but
at least he had the vision to bring it to the masses, otherwise it would
be in a trash bin somewhere, and we'd all be using DOS (if we even had
computers). Even the iMac is now being imitated by one PC manufacturer. A
year and a half later, they are making an iMac look-alike. I'm sure more
will follow.
No, what most people want is what everybody else has, and they want it
cheap. How many American cars have you seen compared in advertisements to a
Japanese car only cheaper. That's why most of the British and other foreign
cars appeared in our market in the first place, economy, even if couched
with the word 'fun'. In the days when there were more than three auto
companies, companies like Packard, Kaiser, not to mention Tucker couldn't
survive on innovation and character.
I have to add here that your generalization of the Japanese culture is a
bit misguided, it's not that they don't value the unique, rather they place
more importance on the group need (family) before the need of the
individual. I think if we tempered our "absolute priority right" to be and
"indivdual" with concern for the group, we'd have less shootings in our
schools, churches and freeways. When you consider Japan's population
density v.s. land mass compared to the U.S., I don't think their country
could survive, let alone flourish any other way. It also is based in the
centuries (more than two) of the fuedal system and how it developed to
unify the country.
BTW, Gerry Coker's inspiration for the 100-4 and the Bugeye came from
Italian sports cars... so, everyone borrows, or is inspired, from someone
or something else. That's how things get better.. usually.
Gerard
At 4:02 PM -0600 9/17/99, Herb_Goede@amsinc.com wrote:
>Car Folks,
>
>It has been way too long without controversy. So here we go.
>
>In my opinion the Japanese can engineer and build good reliable vehicles.
>However, with a very few exceptions such as the first and last Mazda RX7s,
>Japanese cars lack the character of European and even American motor cars.
>My belief is that this is due to a fundamental characteristic of the
>Japanese culture that does not place a high value on being unique.
>
>There is on old Japanese proverb that states: The nail that sticks up will
>be hammered down. The result is a culture of copiers and improvers but not
>innovators. Even such significant cars as the Datsun 1800/2000, 240Z and
>even the Miata are revised versions of European sports machines - Triumph
>(pick one), E-type, and Elan respectively. Lets face it, the CRX would not
>exist if not for the Mini and the NSX is a Far-East Ferrari.
>
>Ready, aim, fire away.
>
>Herb G.
G G Gerard Chateauvieux
E A
R R pixelsmith@gerardsgarage.com
A A
R G Pixelsmith on Duty
D E
S http://www.gerardsgarage.com
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