Why is it even news that Toyota is expected to overtake General Motors as the world’s top automaker?
I don’t think anybody can dispute that Toyota makes better cars, or that they are the healthier company.
The market wins out, right? Besides, GM has been shooting itself in the foot so persistently for so long, they might as well switch over to shoemaking.
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Yes, GM products really suck. Awful. And shooting itself in the foot is an understatement. Toyota makes good cars.
Detroiters are especially angry with their mismanagement, since so many livelihoods here depend on the American automakers.
The best analogy I can think of – Harley Davidson. Absolutely the most archaic technology for motorcycles. Yet maintains the best resale value. And a country that thinks New Orleans should be rebuilt in the same location. How the fuck is that? Unfuckingbelievable.
Ah, but wasn’t Harley almost destroyed back in the eighties when the Japanese ‘crotch rockets’ made their way to the states in earnest? It was at that point that Harley determined that marketing, branding, engineering, quality, customer service, etc. were things that a successful company had to do better than sleepwalk through.
What’s bad is that most Americans want to like Ford and GM, but those companies seem to see little value in this beyond exploiting it for short term gains.