Antique & Classic Cars Blog

In the 100 years-plus since there have been cars, a lot of names have come and gone. We’ve talked about them here. Some were small, mostly novelties; others were serious machines in their time. Duesenberg built a wonderful car, Tucker had the right idea, Plymouth slugged it out for years and Oldmobile even more years.

All are gone, as are Triumph, Austin, Sunbeam….

Reader JB asks that we touch upon this momentous time when all of the Big Three are imperiled and the chance of at least one of them disappearing in the near future seems possible if not probable.

There are volumes to be written here. A piece in the NYTimes compared the Big Three today with British Leyland in the 1980s. It had labor troubles, deep debt; its cars were not keeping pace with the imports in sales or technology. The government stepped up with billions but it did not save the collection of brands gathered under the name.

It’s no secret that manufacturing is a vanishing segment of our economy. I laugh sometimes that Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton’s biography is called Made in America. As with any other store, a team of trained investigators will have some searching to do finding a non-food product in Wal-Mart that lives up to the bio’s name.

Our auto workers have made the machines that hauled our goods and families and visitors, and did our work building this country, for generation upon generation. Now, other countries can pay their workers less. Newer manufacturers have newer facilities. Their countries impose fewer restrictions. Yet their cars are not selling well now either. Imported cars are piling up in U.S. ports without buyers. Dealers don’t have room for them.

All of the auto makers in the world are lean right now. Many are asking for help.  There are exciting ideas, and public demand, for new technologies but R&D is an expensive enterprise that takes years to make back the investment.

Some consolidation in our market seems inevitable, sooner or later. No matter how good current models or plans or designs, the Big Three are all short on capital. Fighting back in a competitive market and rising above competitors takes money—for new technology, upgrading facilities, paying down debt, meeting salaries, recruiting new talent, and selling both your brand and your product to a financially strapped public.

There are some harsh words being traded on the Hill about bailing out the white collar segment and letting blue collar workers founder. And other voices asking whether the money will lead to recovery, or just prolong the period before restructuring.

Obviously this is a dark time for car fans, classic fans in particular. We revere these brands that we have known and loved and learned all our lives.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.