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


