A Good Year for the Outlaw

I’ve watched the demise of a major part of the American auto industry with equal part sadness and anger these past few months.

Without getting too much into politics, who’s to blame, who’s not to blame, and how to fix it, I just want to add one segment to the list of folks who should shoulder some of the blame here, and to my knowledge none has been accepted: The new auto magazine industry in this country.

Specifically Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Road & Track, and to a lesser extent the new kid on the block, Automobile Magazine.

These magazines played no small part in the current situation facing General Motors, Chrysler and Ford.

How? Well, for years, the above mentioned “journalists” have lived high off the hog with Japanese manufacturer money, all in the interest of ensuring that Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Nissan, Mazda, and even the wicked stepchild of Japanese car makers, Mitsubishi, get glowing reviews in their mags, winning side-by-side comparisons with American-designed counterparts, and receiving false claims of superiority.

The fact is American cars, specifically Ford, have been world class in quality and workmanship and relability for many years now, and Chrysler’s years spent as part of the Mercedes Benz umbrella served them well, as they now build high quality rides. GM has been more of a mess, but in the past few years had made significant improvements in quality and reliability to the extent that Buick and Cadillac are among the highest rated cars for reliability.

The fact is, American cars generally blow away their Japanese competition in side-by-side performance tests (when the dollars are equal), and fact is the American cars are significantly closer to their predicted gas mileage figures and cost to repair figures than their Japanese counterparts, sometimes embarrassingly so. I’ve YET to see a Japanese car tested by ANY of these magazines meet their expected mileage figures, but they don’t mention that in their reviews. They consistently print the cost-for-service figures for Japanese cars, and they’re disgustingly high, but they put it in the fine print specs, and never mention it in the body of the review.

I’ll bet you’ve not heard hear about this, have you? You continued to hear about (and subsequently buy) overrated Toyotas and Hondas and then are shocked at the cost of a simple oil change, but afraid to be “uncool” and say something bad about these two vaunted (why, I don’t know, but they are) automakers.

I know many folks who haven’t even ATTEMPTED to test drive an American car in 25-30 years. Some will say, “they made their beds”, but I say bullshit. 25 years is a long time. Things change. Hell, even the Cubs have had a few winning seasons lately.

But, back on point. When are the Motor Trends of the world going to stand up and take blame? Forget Road & Track, they’ve been Euro- and Japanese-centric for years now, they’re beyond hope. They’re the snobby, pipe-smoking, stuffy, GOP-loving CEO-types of the car mag world, and Car And Driver has been creeping that way for years. But C and D, Motor Trend, Automobile, and all the rest need to take a long look at how they’ve been part of the problem for the past quite a few years.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for any apologies, though.