Kane's Pledge

Here is MY pledge:

I will buy a new vehicle from the first American auto company to enter bankruptcy--when they can make a car better than my BMW !!!

And my pledge:

I will never buy a car from a company that got bailed out.

I'm on the list. My mail to Tim:

"I’ll make this pledge. I’m in the market for a new car anyway, I tend to prefer American cars, and I like economic experiments."

Know what I drive now? A 1999 Oldsmobile, bought used (after a previous driver's two-year lease) when GM announced it was being discontinued. Fearing an inability to get parts, people avoided them, and prices plummeted. I haven't had any trouble at all getting parts, but ten years is roughly the useful lifespan of a car and model years tend to be a year ahead of the calendar, so it's about time to replace it.

Bryan.

You could always use that GM-employee discount on the Vibe, the GM version of the Toyota Matrix.

Toyotas are more reliable than GMs in general, but not across the board. I'm sure there are certain GMs that are more reliable than certain Toyotas.

Also, these days the differences are fairly small -- even a GM rated 'average' is not much worse than a Toyota rated 'somewhat above average'.

I won't bother with my anecdote about how my new GM has had zero problems over its first 5000 miles.

An onslaught of Japanese vehicles wiped out most of their US competitors in the 1970s and 80s. The Europeans survived initially by retreating to niche high performance or highly styled luxury machines and now compete across all styles.

After suffering its first blows, bankruptcy and the liquidation of various manufacturers, Harley revived the US competition and is now the Camry of motorcycles (it has ~50% of the +750cc market).

Does anyone miss Indians, Victories, Sears, and Cushmans? (Yes I know some labels have been resuscitated as niche nostalgia brands).

[Comment removed pending confirmation of email address. Email the webmaster@econlib.org to request restoring this comment. A valid email address is required to post comments on EconLog.--Econlib Ed.]