Posted by
EWRoss on Tuesday, June 02, 2009 8:00:00 AM
I wish I could shed a tear at the downfall of Chrysler and GM. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, my father bought a new Buick every other year. They were great cars. We loved them. I took my date to the senior prom in his 1961 Invicta; but mostly I drove my mother’s indestructible Plymouths. I went through a ’69 corvette, a ’70 Cougar, and a ’71 Thunderbird. Then the gas crisis came along and I switched to Japanese and later to German cars. Once I started driving them I figured out that they may cost more to buy, but they were better built, cheaper to operate, and lasted longer. Our second cars were Volvo station wagons and Jeep Grand Cherokees. The ’93 Jeep caught fire while my daughter was driving it and she barely escaped with her life. The Big Three have had 30 years to figure out what they were doing wrong and what the Germans, Japanese, and Swedes were doing right, and they didn’t do it. I’ll shed my tears for the American auto workers who have lost their jobs, not for the companies or the union and auto industry executives that ruined them.