Your take on the demise of the American Automobile manufacturing industry?

Been doing some research on the demise of the American automobile industry in the 1970's and eventual fall in 2009? What is your take?

The American auto industry doesn't die. It just goes into a complete state of disaster till they get their shit together for a decade of awesome cars. Then it shits the bed and will come back with another awesome decade.
1976 the american auto industry shat a brick then it got it's shit together in the late 80s and gave us the 90s. It carried over into the early 2000s then they shat the bed again. We're seeing America kick ass again. Lets see how long it last this time

80's = turd gen camaros, foxes, and trans ams.

2k = transformers meme, pigfat, and non-existant.

Please let your theory be true.

Due to my research its pretty much exactly what you said. Mostly looking at my focus due to me living in industrial ruins of a suburban town in Detroit. Going through Detroit and Gary, IN is like going through some sort of post apocalyptic wasteland. Only reason I explained this is because the domestic market of the US is roughly 45% while Foreign auto makers make up 55%.

I think the next downturn will because there is simply too many cars out already. Emissions and safety will be partly to blame. New cars are getting ugly and expensive because they have to keep engineering bullshit to satisfy safety committees with no appeal to the customer. Everyone is loving the muscle car craze right now. But most say the V8 will be gone in less than 10 years because of emissions. I have a feeling the end of muscle/true sports cars we will see a major turn off to buying new cars.

Irrational Exuberance.

Im sure the V8s will pull through. Just not as we know them. Pray mazda will save us with the new skyactive tech

Basically the result of long-term financial trends that they had no real control over. Basically, the necessary returns on investment meant that they had to decontent their product at the same time manufacturers in other countries could provide equal or greater value for less.

Those same trends have been away from the other primary auto manufacturing countries for some time now and that has leveled the playing field for the Americans and it's showing as we speak.

Ford's target audience died of old age or moved to Jap imports, GM has a chronic disorder where they fuck themselves up the ass every couple years and then masturbate onto an Impala hood, and Chrysler just fucks everything up constantly with more time spent in the shitter than out, only being not awful when someone like Iaccoca has the reigns to tell them to stop fucking around and make cars people are gonna buy and don't fall apart on the lot.

>Been doing some research on the demise of the American automobile industry in the 1970's and eventual fall in 2009?
No, I have not.

>What is your take?
Globalization of the industry of the last 10-15 years has killed off superficial idiosyncrasies an automaker used have. Every large automaker sells cars in many different markets and it just makes sense for them to build cars that would sell well multiple large markets with the minimal amount of modification to the original design so that they may pass local regulation. Automakers employ designers and engineers from all over the planet and form partnerships with parts manufacturers that are based multiple different countries.

For a large auto manufacturer to fail today it's because they are a poorly-run company and (barring any tax or import regulations) it has nothing to do with the country in which they are based.

Government funding is propping the whole system up.

First off, you have to remember that American cars have been pretty fucking terrible ever since Ford, GM and Chrysler killed off all the smaller, better car companies through price wars and expansive dealer networks.

That shit about the 50s and 60s being the height of the American car industry? That's because most of Europe and Japan's car industries were obliterated by WW2 and that left only the Americans and Russians as the big presence for about 2-3 decades following the end of the war.

The actual quality of the cars stopped being a real concern for the American giants in the 1950s, when they were selling cars like smartphones get sold today, new models every year, cars designed only to last a few years so people would need to replace their cars more often (and many people never understood basic car maintenance like oil changing or tire pressure checks, many still don't today but cars are more expensive now too so people care more about their cars lasting longer).

And most of these cars were SHIT. You wonder why the boomers never really talk much about the 4-doors with sub-V8 engines that were all over back when they were kids, but they fawn all the time over the Bel-Airs and the V8 Station Wagons? It's because so many cars were joyless tailfin chromebeasts not even worth remembering except for some pointless context about how it was so good for the company's bottom line profits.

The 60s were mostly the same story, most cars joyless and forgettable except for the fun but few muscle cars the companies made, which really ended up being more popular 15-20 years afterwards rather than in its own decade.

The 70s was finally the threshold decade when Europe (particularly Germany, Britain and France's car industries were as shitty and plagued with lack of real striving for quality like the American industry was) and Japan had rebuilt their car industries and were expanding rapidly. (cont.)

i doubt the V8 would meet it's demise so long as the market exist for those cars. in fact, it's most likely would survive even if as a niche market. People have been spelling out its doom since the turn of the century so, it's likely here to stay

While in the 60s, German and Japanese cars were mainly known in America for being quirky and cute, the 1970s brought out other perks: their small size made them fuel efficient, and the cars themselves were very well built, they were actually a good value for the money. Also with the death of muscle cars in the early 70s came the revival of interest in European sports cars in America, especially with the rising Italian sports car companies Ferrari and Lamborghini adapting their circuit racers to street legal grand tourers. And while Cadillac and Lincoln wouldn't be dethroned until the 1980s, German luxury cars were beginning to get major notice in America in the 1970s.

The American car companies, run at that time by arrogant morons who actually believed that imports would never really catch on stateside and threaten their business, instead ignored them for the most part even into the mid 70s. And with the wave of regulations that swept over the car industry following the oil crisis of 1973, the shortcomings of American cars compared to their overseas counterparts became more and more apparent, especially when Ford and GM tried their hand and making fuel-effecient compacts, which in more ways than one blew up in their face.

With the late 70s came more blows to the American car industry: The 1979 energy crisis resulted in American cars downsizing with often horrifying results, and while they were more fuel efficient than the gas-guzzling landboats of the 70s, they became more and more similar to their German and Japanese counterparts, except for the fact that the overseas cars were better built and their dealerships didn't rip them off and treat them like lowlifes. No companies ended up being hurt more by this than Lincoln and Cadillac. (cont.)

While Lincoln and Cadillac had their brand image sustained for decades by the big flagship landboats they sold, their mid-size cars were selling better in the 1970s, and with the '79 crisis, they began downsizing their big cars and focusing their business model on the profitable and popular mid-size cars. Unfortunately, this also made those cars more comparable to rivals from BMW and Mercedes-Benz, much better in quality and with widely renowned service. It didn't help that Cadillac ruined the image of their brand with the awful Cimarron, and they never truly recovered from that loss.

So in the 1980s, Germany and Japan had effectively dethroned the US car industry at every level except one: Trucks and SUVs. This would work to the advantage of the US car industry in the 1990s, come back to kick it in the ass in the 2000s, and once again be an advantage in the 2010s.

The 90s would see the peak of Japan's domination of the car world. Toyota introduced its Mercedes-fighter Lexus brand in 1989 (Infiniti would soon follow, and Acura, while beating Lexus by a few years, would only see real progress after Lexus' arrival) all Japanese brands saw record sales in this period, and they would come out with a load of import sports cars which would give the beaten-down American companies and even some of the European companies a run for their money (none more apparent than when Mazda introduced the MX-5 around 1990, a car clearly inspired by British sports cars from years earlier).

The American car companies seemed to be relegated to rental fleets, but they found a new way to dominate in the market starting in the early 90s: Pickup trucks and SUVs. (cont.)

Naturally aspirated V8's will be gone. Most sedans these days are making do with turbocharged V6's, e.g. Kia Stinger.

Laziness and hubris. They thought America would permanently maintain economic well-being and that they could build archaic landbarges forever (the whole body on frame, leaf spring, V8 setup hasn't changed since the '50s), and when the America economy did tumble and regulations did tighten they thought they could just bully foreign competition away through their political influence. The year smog regulations and crash safety came into place Detroit was honestly convinced they could get Washington to repeal the laws by implementing half-assed solutions and then crying about it. Problem was that foreign brands had no issues adapting and simply overtook Detroit in the time domestic manufacturers were busy doing zero research and instead crying to Washington a lot. Literally any hardship Detroit has experienced came down to their own inadaptability and stubbornness.

Ever since the infamous Chicken Tax passed in 1964 (and continuing to this day), overseas manufacturers hardly touched the Pickup Truck market, and since "Light Trucks" were subject to less stringent taxes and regulations than standard cars thanks to politics, a new type of car came into the fray in the early 90s: The SUV.

Appealing with its large size and offroad capabilities (rarely used by most), the cars were sales hits and powered the floundering American companies through the decade, none perhaps benefitting more than Jeep with their new Grand Cherokee. Lincoln and Cadillac even found new life with their newly introduced Navigator and Escalade luxury SUVs.

But good times eventually end. The 2000s arrived, and post-90s the American companies were almost totally dependent on Truck/SUV sales. In almost a repeat of the 1970s, gas prices began to inflate in 2003 from well under $2 a gallon to well over $4 a gallon by mid-2008. Never known for their fuel efficiency, truck sales began to struggle by around 2005/06, especially as the overseas brands began to tap into the new markets of crossovers and hybrids. Once again, the American companies were left unprepared by the rapid change in the economy (their mid-00s compacts were not at all market competitive, and crossovers were barely considered until late) and GM + Chrysler ended up going bankrupt as their sales tanked totally to the bottom.

That's a basic overview of the US Car industry from the 50s through the 00s.

Trans am was replaced by the GTO

good posts and saved them for future reference. Are there any good books or resources I should use to get a good understanding of the history of the automobile industry?

Chevy SS is the last Commo you cunts get to pinch

Lack of differentiation between models. Lack of competitiveness with VW group. Growth of Hyundai group. Japan being better at reliability and mpg, or at least getting the American populace to believe so.

What car is in op pic

>a rebadged aussie
It still couldn't save the brand

This is normal for capitalism tbqh, boom-bust with a general trend towards complete failure is how it always kinda looks

-Corporate leaders is all over the place
- Unions/suppliers
-Gov regulations
-Emasculating modern car designs thanks to numales and foreigners
-Marketing/ads have no magic like european counterparts so it does not hit us in the feels

The modern American Automobile and culture surrounding it was only made possible by the unprecedented prosperity of the postwar economic boom in the 50's.

By the 90's, whatever was left of that long run fizzled out and prosperity died, and the American automobile died with the advent of globalism. Because it's easier to sell the same thing everywhere than to sell different things here. So the industry was slowly changed to favoring smaller cars with smaller engines, aided nicely by the rise in gas prices following 9/11.

and 2008 (not 9) heralded a massive economic collapse that shook the very foundation of the country, and the auto industry suffered as well.

They asked the govt for money, and since the govt was run by leftists, that money came with strings. Namely fuel economy, more safety, basically more globalism and left wing car design.

the administration also in general, proceeded to tighten the leash on fuel economy, engine size, and safety. And the automakers realized just how much easier it was to just have a global company that sells the same thing everywhere, so no more V8 sedans, everything is mid sized, and everything has a 2 liter 4 cylinder engine that fits the govt MPG regs.

Also California. California became incredibly left wing, and since it is so huge, it control the culture of the rest of the country. As California goes, so dues the rest of the US. And they have the worst car regulations outside of Europe. So automakers pander to them, because they are the single largest car market.

if California became a red blooded conservative state tomorrow, I guarantee you would start seeing a change in cars.

Cars, on the whole, are so uninteresting and reliable nowadays that people don't need or want to buy new ones regularly.

They would, if they were more affordable, which is another problem. Cars used to be relatively affordable

FUCK YOU AMERICAN CARS ARE THE BEST ITS THE UNIONS FAULT

Not entirely. It was a team effort. Management was just as much at fault.

or are you going to tell me GM is a bastion of efficiency and proper management?

>it's muh bogeyman fault
You're probably not wrong however even if they put v8 and v6's in everything it probably wouldn't sell that well because people couldn't afford to put gas in them, they'd just buy more fuel efficient cars anyway. Thats what most people want in a car, something that gets them from one point to another reliably and cheaply with the most features.

body by plymouth soul by satan