Sorry Detroit

(Note: I grew up in the midwest, much of the time in an area where the auto industry was an important source of jobs. So it cuts a little against my grain to toss Detroit an anchor but . . .)

I drive a Chrysler Town & Country minivan — the quintessential minivan. It’s a roomy, family-friendly vehicle that is maybe one of the best innovations to come out of Detroit in decades. It can also fit an entire rock band plus equipment comfortably. Mine has the smaller six in it and I’ve never felt it underpowered even with the band riding along. It gets decent mileage, certainly better than SUVs and trucks that can’t haul half the stuff I can.
The minivan fell out of favor in the last few years as Detroit pushed its gas guzzling hemis and other examples of macho truck power. Now that those vehicles are no longer flying off the lot Detroit is begging for a bailout. I’m sympathetic to anyone working for a living in the industry, but the decision makers who created this mess ought to be run out of town.
Just this morning I saw a commercial for a Ford truck that touted its 21 mpg as some kind of astronomically great mileage breakthough. Then, the announcer quickly noted — almost apologetically — that the truck still had oodles of power to spare. Most of the commercial, save a couple of seconds on the mpg ‘breakthrough’ was still in the macho truck meme.
This is the same idiocy that nearly killed the industry after oil shocks in the 80s.
And the taxpayers are supposed to step in and rescue these fools? Insanity.