Auto pilot down to the auto show
Staff Editorial
After dropping thousands of dollars on textbooks
and tuition, possibly the last thing that you want to do is drive your
tin can to Detroit and pay 12 bucks for a ticket to the 2009 North
American International Auto Show.
The loan requested by the
auto industry late last year seems more superfluous than ever in the
wake of Joe College’s latest economic troubles. And their
separate-corporate-jets transportation seems sickening as we drive
through the latest blinding snowstorm.
With that in mind, The
Oakland Post isn’t requesting that you go to the auto show because you
want to. We want you to go because you have to.
Regardless of
whether we’re happy to swallow $34 billion in bridge loans to the Big
Three to pay for mistakes their own management made, we’re not walking
away empty-handed.
American automakers will be using the auto show
as an opportunity to show consumers and the rest of the industry that
they can compete in the global market. There will also be more
breathing room on the showroom room floor as Japanese automakers such
as Nissan, Mitsubishi and Suzuki have all opted out of the NAIAS. But
Chinese automakers, like BYD, will have a greater presence than before.
Maybe the global competition is finally catching up with top
executives, but American automakers seem to be making an effort to
fulfill consumer demand for environmentally-friendly rides.
In
addition to supporting emerging automotive technologies, attending the
NAIAS is also an endorsement of for the men and women that still have
jobs in the American auto industry.
Auto industry layoffs
contributed to the soaring national unemployment rate that hit 7.2
percent last month. According to the Labor Department, the number of
manufacturing jobs was reduced to less than 13 million and the loss of
149,000 factory jobs helped contribute to the worst unemployment rate
since 1945. The future of the American manufacturing industry also
looks grim and it’s being held on to by a thread by American auto
companies.
The automakers need to see that their efforts to
produce eco-friendly vehicles aren’t fruitless and that they are
supported. Many of the zero emissions cars shown are still just
concepts, and may never make production if there isn’t a positive
response from the public.
It isn’t just the concept cars that
are depending on us for a future, it’s the workers too. The direction
that automakers take after the auto show could give laid off employees
the hope of someday getting their jobs back.
Finally,
attending the NAIAS is an endorsement of Detroit as the “Motor City.”
Regardless of who we want to be or who we wish we were, the fact
remains that motor oil has figuratively powered our hometown for almost
a century. Nevermind that the auto companies would benefit by your
ticket dollars, consider the models, caterers, flooring and display
companies whose paychecks are kept above water thanks to the NAIAS.
For
most of us, winter in Detroit is spent in some variation of a bathtub
for six months, whining about melancholia and trying to work up the
motivation to dig our cars out of the snow drift. The NAIAS is the one
constant in Detroit during winter that is a positive influence.
Nobody’s
going to expect that you buy the cars that will be on display. After
all, few short of the auto companies’ CEOs can afford many of them.
However,
we need to show the American auto companies that we are capable of
putting our money where our mouths are in demanding our economy back.
Our pride back.