Now, Here's a Warranty!

The recent brouhaha over the American car makers' bailout probably didn't raise too many eyebrows. The automakers' insistence that the UAW was to blame was a smokescreen that fooled nobody except the executives of the Big Three. The fact is that Detroit hasn't been competitive in the auto business for quite a while. My dad was a Chevy guy until the day he died, though he did drive a Ford Fairlane 500 when I was a little kid. Big blocks and tailfins hung around far too long, and, I suspect, the automakers were in cahoots with the folks in the oil "bidness" to maintain the status quo...and all the while, the Asian imports were gaining more and more support because their cars were less expensive to buy and to operate, and they didn't break down nearly as much as the domestic versions. Of course, for a while, finding a reliable service technician was a problem, but that has long since gone the way of the Flivver (if you don't know, you're too young).
According to online research, the top ten cars selected to research this year were: 1. Honda Civic
2. Honda Accord
3. Toyota Camry
4. Toyota Corolla
5. Nissan Altima
6. Honda CR-V
7. Toyota Prius
8. Toyota Highlander
9. Toyota RAV4
10. Mazda3
and the top three have remained the same since 2004, though not always in that order. The Ford Mustang and the Chevy Malibu made the top 20, but that was it for American automotive design. So...what are American manufacturers doing to cope? Not much, really...oh, there's some zero percent financing things out there, and Chevy is promising the first plug-in hybrid this year (at a price reportedly in the $40,000 range!) Meanwhile, Toyota is developiong a solar-powered vehicle, and all the hybrids are trying to get more efficient, long-lasting batteries. But, I have to give the nod to Hyundai for creative advertising: the company is instituting a "we'll-take-it-back-if-you-lose-your-job" promotion in which the company will allow a buyer to return a car within the first 12 months of ownership if beset by unemployment! Actually, there are a number of reasons the company lists for accepting returns within the first 12 months! They include
1. involuntary unemployment
2. physical disability
3. loss of driver's license for medical reasons
4. a job transfer overseas
5. personal bankruptcy of a self-employed person

AND THERE'S MORE!

6. Accidental death!

Yes, it's good to know that a company would be willing to take its car back if one dies accidentally, but what happens if a person offs himself or herself? Who would the company go after for payment? Whose wages could be garnished? (not that I'm interested in personally finding out, but it's an interesting conundrum). Frankly, I wouldn't want ANY of those things to happen to me though being transferred overseas might be interesting, depending on the location; with my luck, it would be Somalia or Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Big Three offer things like Ford's "active park assist" feature which wil parallel park a car using cameras on each corner of the vehicle (a feature already found on Lexus, BTW). Nice, but who has the money to buy the Lincoln MKS to get this option? Oh yeah, all the CEO's with their bailout money.
America gets more and more strange all the time.