I've only owned three "American" cars in my driving history: a 1976 Buick Sky-hawk, a 1993 Ford Escort and a 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier. All were less than stellar, though the Sky-hawk, the only one that wasn't new -- a 10-year-old rust bucket -- when I bought it, lasted the longest. I've had much better luck with two Mazda RX-7s, a Mazda Miata, all Japanese, and my current vehicle, the German-made sports car, Audi TT. Let's face it: The Big 3 automakers of Detroit wouldn't need a $34 billion bailout if we bought their vehicles.
But why should we?
Any way, not everything is American-made just because the brands say so.
For example, the Ford Escort, which I bought new, was made in Canada. It even said so under the hood.
The Sky-hawk, my first car after graduating college was a major step up from the Moped I rode in my first newspaper-reporting job. I paid $1,200 for it, and aside from new tires, ball joints, tie-rod ends, shocks, battery, gas tank replacement, fender replacement, headlamp replacements, starter, fuel pump and water pump replacements and exhaust system replacement, and major body rust patching, lasted me three years until I could afford my second car in 1989, a 1982 Mazda RX-7, for $2,500.
Two years later, I bought a 1987 Mazda RX-7, then traded it in a year later when I bought my first new car, a red 1992 Mazda Miata convertible. Six months later, I bought a second new car, the 1993 Ford Escort wagon, with the birth of my son. In 2002, the wagon as traded in for the new Cavalier, a leftover 2001 model bought in 2002, which I was led to believe was a steal at less than $10,000. The Escort got a whole $200 in trade. The Cavalier, was soon renamed the "Crapalier." The nickname spoke for itself. I had just finished paying it off -- dumped in about $3,000 in the fourth year, when it suddenly died on the interstate. The engine seized due to a problem with the cooling system.
Prior to the demise of the Crapalier, I traded in my trusted Mazda Miata and bought a 2002 Audi TT. The 5-speed turbo convertible was two-years-old and didn't come cheap at $27,000. But there's nothing like German engineering. And even though it takes 93 octane gas, it's still worth it.
I would support a bailout of the Big 3 automakers, if they had vehicles that were dependable and even worth something at the end of a 60-month loan. There's a reason why Volkswagen-Audi, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai do so well. The vehicles are better made and last longer. The fact that the three Detroit big Whigs drove to Washington in Ford, GM and Chrysler hybrids doesn't impress me the least. They showed their true colors with their initial arrival in corporate jets.
Let the marketplace dictate the future of Detroit's, over-priced union- and management-gluttony instead of putting a bailout on the backs of the American taxpayers who don't want to drive gas-guzzling macho vehicles that can't compete with the really good ones the majority of Americans are now buying. It ain't the Big 3.