Car News Articles

A number of our Best and Brightest have emailed this link to The Wall Street Journal. The article seeks to reposition the American auto industry’s most recent go-go years (1999 - 2005) as a bubble: a delusional miscalculation by the industry’s movers and shakers that demand would increase, well, forever. In a sense, yes, absolutely. The Big 2.8 inflated their turnover with dodgy deals and bulk sales. And now they’re getting hammered by unsustainable excess production capacity. But it should be said that The Big 2.8 have lost market share to their rivals, as well. In other words, their fall from grace is not just a reflection of a down market; it’s a reflection of decades of competitive mistakes, misfires and misadventures. They didn’t misjudge demand as much as they misjudged everything else. And it’s not like they weren’t warned. This website has been sounding the alarm for over five years. We predicted the death of SUV and truck sales. We flagged cannibalism. We pointed our fingers at image-bleeding brands. We highlighted hybrids. We rang the alarm on cash burn. We predicted the systematic pillaging of the UAW’s multi-billion dollar Health Care VEBA (oh wait…). And TTAC will continue to ring in the changes, no matter how gruesome. The only bright spark in all of this is the fact that a blogger from GMNext has responded to a post. This is the first time Detroit’s gone online with us. Perhaps they finally recognize they need strong medicine. But probably not.  

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