I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the Detroit Three automakers are now more competitive than at any time in the past 23 years.
Thanks to the second chance they were given by the feds’ bridge loans, General Motors has reached an industry-leading market share of 19.6 percent, according to year-end figures reported by all the car companies on Thursday.
And Chrysler, which is simply wowing the automotive industry, ranks just behind Toyota in the fourth spot at 10.7 percent of market share.
Chrysler is the same company that many congressional Republicans in 2008-09 said was a lost cause, the corporate version of a dead man walking. But Chrysler Group has come roaring back, with the Chrysler brand posting an astonishing 83 percent sales increase over the past year.
Entering 2012, Detroit’s three auto companies now hold a combined market share of nearly 50 percent while competing with 18 foreign automakers.
Here are a few things worth noting as we remember back to the days when duplicitous Southern senators trying to protect their states’ foreign-owned factories insisted that no one wants to buy American-made vehicles — and the bridge loans for GM and Chrysler would be a colossal waste of money:
* GM’s market share is more than double that of Honda, which is supposedly a company that produces superior, trustworthy vehicles. At the same time, several top-notch domestic models manufactured by all three American automakers have been outscoring the foreigners in quality and buyer satisfaction.
* The list of the top 20 models in the most recent sales figures from December features 11 American-made vehicles. While critics of the auto bailouts said the Detroit Three had become irrationally focused on producing trucks and SUVs, the December stats (part of a long, long trend) show that the top-selling vehicles in the U.S., by far, are the Ford F-series pickups and the Chevy Silverado. In fact, Ford sells more than twice as many pickups as the top foreign-made vehicle, the Toyota Camry/Solara.
* Chrysler, which was widely viewed as a terminal corporation just two years ago, emerged from the strict, structured bankruptcy arranged by the feds with 2011 sales figures that exceed numerous foreign competitors. And the jobs keep coming: Chrysler has announced an additional 1,100 jobs at the Jefferson plant in Detroit due to strong Jeep sales.
* The flashy head-turners on the road these days are the new muscle cars created by the domestic automakers – the Chevy Camaro, Ford Mustang and the much-improved Dodge Charger. The retro styling and bold presence of these cars cannot be matched by anyone in the world.
* The new Chrysler 200, made famous by that awesome Super Bowl commercial featuring Eminem and manufactured at the revived and flourishing Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, registered a respectable 9,200 sales last month.
* GM in 2011 outsold Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen, BMW, Subaru and Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) – combined. Combined. Well, so much for the idea that American consumers don’t want to buy Detroit Three cars anymore.
Take a good look at those bullet-points above and recognize this: None of this would have happened if the ideological purists in Congress would have ruled the day in 2008-09. The federal loans are in the past while the automakers are smoking their tires in pursuit of a prosperous future.
America’s declining manufacturing base would have taken a huge hit if the anti-government conservatives had their way, putting abstract economic principles above practical job-saving ideas and corporate revivals.
And, for those who favor Ford as a company that declined temporary assistance from the government, CEO Alan Mulally would be the first to tell you that Ford would have also been crippled if the congressional critics got their way, because the nation’s vast supply chain – the spine of its manufacturing sector – would have collapsed.
So, I have to ask: As we enter a sunny 2012 for the domestic auto industry, when will the head-in-the-sand senators like Bob Corker of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama admit that they almost succeeded in pushing America into a colossal mistake?
