TODAY’S WORRY
When I was kid (oh no, not one of those “when I was kid” blog entries!) one of the exciting times of the year was when the new car models were debuted. For weeks ahead of the debut date, teaser commercials would show the cars under sheets or whizzing by with a close-up of just a tail light. Every year it was an anticipated event. Every year there was some design change – a bigger fin, a different shape of headlight, a new color. Ah, American cars! All form, little substance.
Down here in Marco Island the cars are like a throwback to another era. You see lots of Ford Crown Victorias, Cadillac DeVilles and the like. It must be all the retirees who are still into the big American cars. But if you look out on the highways, and I’ve done this, there are probably at least 10 foreign built cars to every 1 American car. There are still a lot of American trucks but I hear that Toyota is making a big push in that direction. It’s the marketplace at work. Unless American manufacturers can turn out a better product and convince the American people to give them another try, it may be that American cars will end up going the same way as American televisions.