I’m sure you’ve heard the gloom and doom by now. Ford has its worst quarter ever. GM is hemorrhaging cash with one foot in the grave. Chrysler is this close from outsourcing all its manufacturing and becoming merely a shiny brand they attach to any car they can get their greasy mitts on. There’s one side of me, fairly strong, that is saddened and wants them all to survive. One of the oldest and proudest American industries down the crapper in a mere 10-15 years. Remember the movie Gung-ho? The Japanese make cars like this, while fat American Midwesterners like Norm from “Cheers” make cars like that. Ha HA – A time of innocence.

Ok so that was a bad example. Little did we know it wasn’t so much HOW they built the cars. Sure, the quality was there and the reputation continues, even if it is more of a myth now. More important is WHAT they built – actual cars. Sure, Honda wasn’t making insane margins from Civics – maybe they were a little jealous of Ford and the obscene prices we paid for their glorified work trucks. But they resisted because they saw the big picture. Think about the movie Who Killed the Electric Car, one of my all-time favorite documentaries (a member of my “Big Three”, with The Corporation and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room). GM basically killed their electric car because it wasn’t making money, after investing a whopping $1billion in it (according to their own blog). Wow – one whole billion. They lose that now in just a couple weeks. That’s what happens when you have old-school stiffs, stock market hyenas, and penny-pinching accountants run your company – no vision, just stacks of cash going into executives’ pockets. “Are we still in the Fortune 10? Check. Are we still making 50% from every Escalade we sell? Check. Golf time”. A few more billion and some true foresight could have lead to millions of little Insights already on the road, each one a gleaming symbol of American ingenuity – a modern version of the original Ford Model T.

Instead, we’ve come to this – the Chevrolet Aveo. This is currently the only subcompact car from an  “American” manufacturer. Almost a thousand years of American automotive engineering has been reduced to an anemic, ugly jellybean that still only gets 28mpg. Oh, and it’s made in Korea. As for the compacts, don’t get me started on the Dodge Caliber or Chevy Cobalt – they regularly get dressed down by industry experts. The Ford Focus is relatively competitive, but considering it’s long history, Ford should be more than just keeping pace by now. The bottom-line is this: the only reason anyone buys an American car is two reasons: (1) They have a history with the brand, (which is becoming less and less common) and (2) they are comparably cheap. The second reason is a vicious circle – the less American manufacturers charge for their cars, the less they make, and the less they can invest in better future products. The result is the Aveo.