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Last week the Globe ran an op-ed by Robert Kuttner. He rented a Pontiac around Christmas and was real disappointed. His account of his experience was peppered with declarations like "So what's wrong with GM? The cars. GM is famous for being run by bean counters and ad men. Toyota is run by engineers." He goes on to cite American engineering feats like the iPod as an example to support his assertion that Americans can do better – it's not a cultural thing, it's GM. The op-ed has made a showing on Digg since publication. At the time of this post there are 802 Diggs on the story and 227 comments. Most of the comments are strong supportive statements of the Kuttner's position. Perhaps this is a sign for the Globe that op-ed's can be used to express real opinions.
Who makes these bonehead design decisions? You might say I rented a cheap car, and I shouldn't expect fancy features. But the G6 is actually a mid sized, mid priced car, with a base price of $17,825, intended to compete with the Camry. Dream on.Wow. "Bonehead" and "dream on" used in the same paragraph. It's certainly a strong statement. Strong statements, however, are par for the course for those at The American Prospect. All this distain for Detroit in an article coming out of Boston – you'd think a certain someone looking for some "home state" backing in Michigan might take notice. He probably has, but will still file papers tomorrow.
Picture of a Pontiac G6, the car that spurred the editorial, with "a clunky shift-lever whose settings are unlit in the dark, pull-up door locks located in hard-to-reach places, the absence of exterior key locks on doors other than the driver's." from Flickr user ReneS
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I read the Op Ed in the Globe, and thought it poignant, but took issue with his expectations based on the this:
The sticker on our Ford Focus wagon with a upgrade package (anti-lock brakes, airbags, weather goodies (heated seats, mirrors)) was over $17k. Seriously? If you think you should be getting something Camry-comparable for $17k, your expectations are as flawed as GM's execution.
Lots of car's have only driver door key slots. Whats the purpose of putting it on other doors? My old Ford and Jeep had them on the passenger door and I think I used them a cumulative twice. Neither had remote keyless entry either, which means I've only ever used it on my Audi when my battery died (stupid me for leaving the interior light on, stupid Audi for letting this kill the battery).
Yawn... I've test driven the G6 - it's a fine car. I have no idea what that moron is whinning about but the car in comparison to the new camry and the new accord is not that far off and is very competitive imo given the price difference.
I'd prefer he has solicited some actual criticism.
Camry is a boring car anyways...
There is a disease being spread through the US market called Toyotaism. This disease is contracted by the ignorant and gullible majority of American Consumers. Other vulnerable consumers include estranged GM/Ford/Chrysler owners from the days of "I wish my car could get to 100,000 miles without breaking down."
To protect ourselves, let's be aware of how this disease is being spread by its creators. They want us to remain ignorate; in defense, let's educate ourselves. Look up the facts - even the littlest ones. Know that Lexus did not have the creative capacity to first develope swiveling headlamps as they would have us believe. Citroen, the French automaker, first used this design decades ago.
Last, stay in tune with reality. Let's remind ourselves of how repetitive marketing campaigns can easily imprint themselves in our fragile minds. Yet, we have the power to reject them, and force them out like unwanted demons. Lets keep our eyes open, and realize that Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, GM, Ford, and Chrysler have all stayed alive, and will continue to thrive with our loyalty - not by brainwashing us.
The creators and supporters of Toyotaism may possibly strengthen my point, by attempting to keep this forum down in the search engines, as they have in other forums. They wait for inactivity, at which point they know the webmaster may not be keeping a close eye on the forum. They will then post keywords and links known to be spam. As a result, the search engines will dismiss these pages as s p a m, rank them lower, and people will not find this forum unless they scroll through hundreds of pages of the search engine results. If I notice this, I will inform the webmaster immediately, so that the webmaster can remove the malignant content.
We will not entertain the primal greed behind this disease. Thank you for reading this message.