culture & cars

Detroit is in big trouble. US automakers have slept on Japan for so long, it is now coming back to bite them:

"The domestic auto industry is as healthy as it has ever been," says Eric Noble, president of Car Lab, an industry consulting firm in Santa Ana, Calif. "The names on the plants are just changing."

From Business Week online: Good News About U.S. Auto Industry

With Toyota making beauties like this among many other reliable cars, the day is coming eventually when Fords and GMs are made in Mexico, and Japan uses skilled US workers to make Hondas, Toyotas, etc...

American cars will then be good, solid cars, but will be missing something tangible (like reliability) and intangible, much like the Mexican-made Fender Stratocaster. The Mexican-made version gets the job done just fine (I own one), but doesn't have the "it" power that an American-made Strat carries (wish I owned one).

Japan cars made in the US, US cars made in Mexico and elsewhere -- a very odd chain of events that the big 3 never saw coming.