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#1
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Recession and the Auto Industry
I was browsing through some magazines last night and came across this little bit of commentary on the relationship between the American automobile industry and the state of the economy. Extra points if anyone can recognize the author and when it was written.
"According to economists, roughly one out of every eight Americans is fed and housed directly or indirectly by the automobile business. This means that 12 1/2 percent of us, from cradle to grave, are supported by the whims of three major car makers and two independents. Even a fringe lunatic would be forced to concede that an automobile slump means national recession and good car-selling times mean national prosperity. "This writer owns no deed to a crystal ball but the current auto slump was forecast on these pages five years ago. . . (stuff edited out here that doesn't really get to the point) . "Thousands of potential automobile customers refuse to buy at today's high prices because of the increasingly poor workmanship of the domestic automotive product. It takes at least 5,000 miles of driving to get the bugs out of most new cars. "Management blames labor. Labor says management doesn't give them enough time - the production foremen are demanding too much extra production to allow for quality. Dealers blame both labor and management. The unfortunate customer blames all of them - and certainly no one can blame him (except his wife who says he was a fool to have bought the car.) Sloppy workmanship ... (has) reached the ridiculous point. "For example, I've had five test cars of one particular make and model in the last ten months which have all developed leaks in their power steering units, which were very costly for the manufacturer to fix. The same cars had radios that failed and all five had many parts and pieces that fell off. None of these cars had been driven more than 1,000 miles before these oddities started showing up. They were all of the same make and the product of one of our very major manufacturers. Other things happened later - but five failing power steering units and five clunk radios out of five is pretty bad. When this type of "quality" (no longer any laughing matter) becomes almost industry-wide, the little guy who bought the foreign car which never gives any trouble doesn't look quite so simple." |
#2
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My guess is it's a Tom McCahill piece from the late 50's - Pop. Mech. or Mech. Ill. (can't remember much more at my age but it smacks of his stuff.) Big 3 plus Studebaker and Nash/Hudson/Packard as the 2 independants.
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#3
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I agree with your assessment 100%.
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