Ah, Michigan
Would any of you who do not live in an area dominated by the auto industry ever see a letter to the editor like this in your local paper:
I read an opinion here the other day about a guy on his way to work who was upset about seeing a state-owned vehicle, a Michivan, that was a Honda.
The fact is, the people who are tooling around in their foreign cars haven't got a clue as to the animosity harbored by us drivers of American-made vehicles, not a clue! When I pull up next to a foreign car at a light or an intersection, I am completely disgusted with the driver of that vehicle. I frequently mutter something on the order of "sorry foreign-driving blankedy blank'' to the totally oblivious driver. Now, I am not a rarity here; on the contrary, there is a huge percentage of folks who share my views, but we are mostly silent. We aren't rude. We don't flip them off. We just sit there and wonder, "What are these people thinking?'' If they had any idea how repulsed we are, I can't help but think they would reconsider their decision to buy foreign.
I often think this person is sitting there at the light, wondering why they can't find a decent job and why isn't their house selling. Hello ... wake up and smell the coffee here, pal. Michigan's economy is based on the American auto industry; always was, always will be. Can Michiganians buying American save the domestic car companies ... no. Can your vote change the outcome of the election in November ... no. But you're still going to vote, aren't you?
This is how seriously people around here take their beloved auto industry. This area is saturated with everything and anything having to do with the auto industry, and this kind of sentiment is widespread.
I'm irritated enough by this dipwad's letter that I might just fire off one of my own (thereby continuing the Ann Arbor News' grand tradition of Letters To The Editor Wars (most common topics: abortion, evolution/creationsim, and the way the city of Ann Arbor plows or does not plow its streets after snowstorms).
I'd like to point out to this guy that if the American auto industry offered a car that got 45-plus miles per gallon fuel economy while at the same time cost less than $25,000, I might have seriously considered going American when I made my new car purchase in January 2007.
However, no American-made car can even come close, not even the much-ballyhooed Ford Escape Hybrid, and after nine years of my Jeep Grand Cherokee (a pile of true Detroit steel if there ever was one) I downsized to my VW Jetta. And I have absolutely no remorse. I'm not going to feel bad about a purchase I made that was a carefully-considered one with long-term implications. When gasoline is over $6.00 a gallon (we're heading there, I'm sure) and I'm fueling my Jetta with waste vegetable oil that I get from the local fast food restaurants, who's going to have the last laugh?
The Big Three need to get their collective heads out of their asses and make some huge and sweeping changes if they want to survive. The era of Bigger is Better may well be over. People aren't going to stand for vehicles with 20-plus-gallon gas tanks that get less than 20 miles per gallon when the price of gasoline starts going up, up, up even higher than it is now.
Makes me want to take my Jetta out to one of the UAW outposts along Michigan Avenue, the ones that have big signs that say "NO FOREIGN VEHICLES ALLOWED ON THIS PROPERTY" and do donuts in the parking lot.
I read an opinion here the other day about a guy on his way to work who was upset about seeing a state-owned vehicle, a Michivan, that was a Honda.
The fact is, the people who are tooling around in their foreign cars haven't got a clue as to the animosity harbored by us drivers of American-made vehicles, not a clue! When I pull up next to a foreign car at a light or an intersection, I am completely disgusted with the driver of that vehicle. I frequently mutter something on the order of "sorry foreign-driving blankedy blank'' to the totally oblivious driver. Now, I am not a rarity here; on the contrary, there is a huge percentage of folks who share my views, but we are mostly silent. We aren't rude. We don't flip them off. We just sit there and wonder, "What are these people thinking?'' If they had any idea how repulsed we are, I can't help but think they would reconsider their decision to buy foreign.
I often think this person is sitting there at the light, wondering why they can't find a decent job and why isn't their house selling. Hello ... wake up and smell the coffee here, pal. Michigan's economy is based on the American auto industry; always was, always will be. Can Michiganians buying American save the domestic car companies ... no. Can your vote change the outcome of the election in November ... no. But you're still going to vote, aren't you?
This is how seriously people around here take their beloved auto industry. This area is saturated with everything and anything having to do with the auto industry, and this kind of sentiment is widespread.
I'm irritated enough by this dipwad's letter that I might just fire off one of my own (thereby continuing the Ann Arbor News' grand tradition of Letters To The Editor Wars (most common topics: abortion, evolution/creationsim, and the way the city of Ann Arbor plows or does not plow its streets after snowstorms).
I'd like to point out to this guy that if the American auto industry offered a car that got 45-plus miles per gallon fuel economy while at the same time cost less than $25,000, I might have seriously considered going American when I made my new car purchase in January 2007.
However, no American-made car can even come close, not even the much-ballyhooed Ford Escape Hybrid, and after nine years of my Jeep Grand Cherokee (a pile of true Detroit steel if there ever was one) I downsized to my VW Jetta. And I have absolutely no remorse. I'm not going to feel bad about a purchase I made that was a carefully-considered one with long-term implications. When gasoline is over $6.00 a gallon (we're heading there, I'm sure) and I'm fueling my Jetta with waste vegetable oil that I get from the local fast food restaurants, who's going to have the last laugh?
The Big Three need to get their collective heads out of their asses and make some huge and sweeping changes if they want to survive. The era of Bigger is Better may well be over. People aren't going to stand for vehicles with 20-plus-gallon gas tanks that get less than 20 miles per gallon when the price of gasoline starts going up, up, up even higher than it is now.
Makes me want to take my Jetta out to one of the UAW outposts along Michigan Avenue, the ones that have big signs that say "NO FOREIGN VEHICLES ALLOWED ON THIS PROPERTY" and do donuts in the parking lot.