Re:GM's Problems are 50 Years in the Making
by potatolicious on Wednesday April 01, 2009 @11:55AM
(#542001)
I don't think you fully understand the market either. The Ford Ka is not in any way in the same league as the Smart car. IMHO the Big Three's obsession with out-competing the Japanese in the econo-car market contributed no small part to their demise.
Entire lines of "all American" cars were scrapped in favor of inferior ripoffs of Toyota creations. This continued well into the 2000s; look at cars like the Chevy Aveo, a Korean-made, budget econo-mobile that couldn't hold a candle to the Echo/Yaris' fuel efficiency nor reliability.
Ford was the first one to recover from this and reintroduce big muscle, which in the end was what the American market wanted all along (but couldn't justify).
I do agree on the interior point though. Why is it that I can sit in a Toyota and feel like I'm in a luxurious, well-appointed interior, and then sit in a similarly-priced Ford and feel like I'm sitting in someone's high school science project?
Entire lines of "all American" cars were scrapped in favor of inferior ripoffs of Toyota creations. This continued well into the 2000s; look at cars like the Chevy Aveo, a Korean-made, budget econo-mobile that couldn't hold a candle to the Echo/Yaris' fuel efficiency nor reliability.
Ford was the first one to recover from this and reintroduce big muscle, which in the end was what the American market wanted all along (but couldn't justify).
I do agree on the interior point though. Why is it that I can sit in a Toyota and feel like I'm in a luxurious, well-appointed interior, and then sit in a similarly-priced Ford and feel like I'm sitting in someone's high school science project?