glockmail
VIP Member
- Banned
- #81
the only reason the japanese/asians won in the car market is because their innovation produced cars that were more fuel efficient....this was their niche....that american car manufacturers ignored...this gave them their way in to the american car market....detroit ignored this....for over 3 decades now...
the ''workers'' have always worked hard, those in the company that were suppose to LEAD, fell short on innovation.
My uncle was an accountant for Ford and started his career with them back in the late 60s. He had his choice of their models and so as a young man drove all their hot muscle cars. I remember the Cougar he had with a 429 PI engine in it. When he got gas he always asked the attendant to check the oil because he got a kick out of the kid's face when he opened the hood and exposed all that huge iron. Remember this was back in the days of muscle car wars, and GM especially had some very innovative products such as the rear transmission Pontiac with a solid drive shaft, the full size front-drive Olds and of course the rear engine Corvair.
Anyway his assessment of the industry back in the early to mid 70's was that when the government and insurance industries got their talons into the auto industry their response was to fire all the engineers and hire accountants.
So basically your assessment is correct.