Mr. Obama's moves on the auto marketplace

Oh, the hand wringing now that President Barack Obama has decided to do what we all asked him to: effect positive change. That our president is trying to help the holiest of holy cows – the auto industry – is bringing all the naysayers out of the closet to put him down.

If you had told me, even two years ago, that Ford Motor Co. would be the healthiest of the former “big three” Detroit-based auto makers, I would have laughed you off the face of the earth. At that time, Ford was promoting the heck out of its big trucks and stupid useless vehicles (SUVs).

Yet Ford has turned itself around, bringing out such fabulous vehicles as the new 2010 Ford Mustang, its most iconic brand. Ford has improved its Fusion, Milan, and MKX segment leaders and introduced a proper hybrid engine for the Ford Fusion that knocks out the Toyota Camry with a feather. It’s that good!

Ford has elected survive on its own, without taxpayer financed support. It’s doing business the old fashioned way by helping itself to bring viable products to the marketplace.

Then there is General Motors, reeling from mismanagement over the past 25 years, allowing its “We are the best” culture to exist while the behemoth manufacturer falls deeper and deeper into the morass. It’s a damn shame.

GM has brought this upon itself – it hasn’t been pushed into producing and promoting high-yield trucks and SUVs – GM has relied on its own culture of reinventing the past, something Ford did under the design auspices of J Mays but has pulled away from, thank goodness.

GM has some very good cars, many of which are based on its European partner Opel, another brand that once trod the streets of these United States but was banished by poor management and equally poor product. Opel has lent its platform to plenty of GM products without fanfare, especially in the Saturn lineup.

There’s always the Corvette to bring a smile and thumbs up to any American’s face and fingers. Cadillac is making some superb vehicles these days, notably its CTS and STS models that meet the best of Europe and Japan with aplomb – and beat them in many categories. When it comes to trucks, GM has quite a few good ones, and has found great success with its over-wrought Escalade SUV, now a status symbol in many communities around the country.

Chrysler, on the other hand, having lost the marketing whiz Lee Iacocca many years ago now finds itself in another quagmire. The only items in its stockpile with worth are those with the Jeep brand name. We cannot allow that nameplate or its off-road capabilities to go away, a fact I’m hoping potential Chrysler partner Fiat agrees with.

Without Jeep, Chrysler is just another car company peddling mostly mediocre vehicles – its SRT-branded high performance models – and the long-in-the-tooth Chrysler 300 – being the sole exceptions.

So what happens from here? Hopefully Chrysler gets Fiat incentives and adopts the Italian culture of doing business with strange but appropriate vehicles that carve their own niche. And wouldn’t it be nice not to have to go three or four GM dealers to see the same car with a different name? GM can survive if it is lean and mean.

That brings up the question with GM: who should survive? Obviously we need both Cadillac and Chevrolet. The Buick nameplate has fans in the Far East who would be distraught without their Lucerne models – but can’t that be farmed out to a local GM outpost to market that brand where it’s lucrative?

Is it time to say bye-bye to Pontiac, GMC and Saturn? Yes, yes and yes. With few exceptions, these three brands are redundant – the aberrants being Pontiac’s G8 (an Australian Holden product) and Saturn’s delightful Aura and Astra, both from the German Opel lineup.

The sky is falling on the American automotive marketplace. Our elected president, Barack Obama is making two vehicular dinosaurs – Chrysler and General Motors - move into the 21st century, something they should have forced on themselves.

The results of Mr. Obama’s moves should give us less confusing redundant choices in the future and, hopefully, better products in the remaining, obviously stronger dealerships.

© 2009 Anne Proffit