Dan's Papers - July 11, 2008

Politics, sex, big oil and little cars. It's all happening now, several times a day on TV in your own living room. Frankly, I'm getting a little tired of television news. Just today the big story is that crude oil has hit a new high of $143 per barrel. Yesterday the big news was that it had hit a new high of $140 per barrel. Now, oil price-per-barrel reports go hand and hand with the daily weather reports.

One thing is certain, it's certainly getting expensive to drive a big, starving SUV from Manhattan to the Hamptons. Makes one want to take the Hampton Jitney, which by the way is a forty foot bus made by Prevost of Canada that only gets six miles per gallon, but at least it holds about forty suntanned hungry pilgrims and their designer luggage. To make matters worse, last week a representative from OPEC said that it's quite possible that within a year the price of crude oil per barrel could double. That would bring the price of gas up to eight dollars per gallon, which is what it costs in some major European countries. Read this and weep.

What a lot of people don't realize, especially the auto executives in Detroit, is that the best selling cars of all time have been economy cars. These buying habits go back to the beginning of car time. People bought the $400 1909 Model Ford in droves because it was truly inexpensive in comparison to other cars of the era. It was not only cheap to purchase, but financially viable to maintain. Next in line for really big automobile sales was the $1,600 1948 Volkswagen Beatle, which also was incredibly low priced, and super dependable. The air cooled Beatle was an economical buy although, at forty cents per gallon, good gas mileage wasn't a priority. A car called the Corolla put the struggling Japanese company Toyota on the map in the early fifties. It too was a relatively small car that was inexpensive to buy and maintain. The Toyota Corolla went on to become the best selling car of all time.

All of these facts seem to be lost on the geniuses that have run the big three car companies. Again, the news today reported that General Motors stock has fallen to its lowest point in thirty-three years. Sad, because GM was and is one of the great American car manufacturers. I've said this before and I'll say it again, all of GMs top management should be replaced. They have failed their stockholders miserably, leading a great company into near bankruptcy. One of Henry Ford's most famous quotes went, "History is bunk, because people keep doing the same thing over and over again."

So where does America go from here? Obviously, more fuel efficient cars are part of the solution. What we really need are updated Chevrolet Corvairs, Ford Falcons, Henry Js and Crosleys. These were all unsuccessful, economical American cars that were built and sold poorly because fuel economy wasn't a concern. They were all very interesting automobiles built by Detroit automakers. The Corvair was a Volkswagen/Porsche clone, although it was far from a Porsche in build quality, it certainly was an engineering tour de force for General Motors. The Kaiser Jeep corporation's 1950 Henry J was an early economic champ that was ahead of its time because of its cost of ownership. It certainly was a pretty little thing. Most folks never heard of a Crosley, but it could be considered the American Mini. It was a really diminutive car built in the fifties with a small 750cc motor. The engine was a little jewel. The Crosley didn't sell well, but the engine gained fame as a race car motor that was utilized in many class winning small bore race cars of the period.

The point I'm trying to make is that America can build small, fuel efficient and sexy, yes sexy, small cars. Why do I say sexy?...because sex sells, even in cars. The sexiest cars on the planet are sports cars, and man, they are small. Why not produce really efficient cars that turn buyers on. The Mini Cooper S costs twice as much as a Honda Fit, and probably isn't as trouble free, but who reading this would rather be seen in a Honda Fit rather than a Mini Cooper? The Mini is sexy-cute when compared with the Honda. You know what I mean. The only other real economy car that can compete with a Mini in a beauty contest is the newly minted Italian Fiat 500. Sexy-cute is in. Once the new Fiat enters the American marketplace, you will want one.

America's strong point is creative car design. Put Corvair engineering ingenuity into Corvette industrial design and you will have a winner. In the 1960s, the Ford motor company was rebuffed by Enzo Ferrari when they offered to buy his company. For spite, within the next three years, Ford designed, built and raced one of the greatest winning race cars of all time, the Ford GT-40. They beat Ferrari at their own game, because Ford was motivated to win. American car companies today have to be motivated not only to survive but also to win a global sales race. They can survive by building truly excellent, smaller cars that get decent mileage. The best way to cut ones' gas bill in half is to purchase a vehicle that gets twice the fuel mileage. Now that's sexy.

Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com