Bad News From the Front

Our auto industry continues its sad decline. The dollar is getting near peso levels and we still can't compete with Europe and Japan. Apparently our styling sucks, our engineering sucks - it all sucks. If I had to make a wild-ass guess of where to pin the blame, I'd look at our competetive corporate environment being inimicable to long-term investment. Management is not interested in profits 5-10 years out. But you need to plan ahead about 5-10 years to come out with an attractive, well-designed car. So they come out with a new model and throw in some piece of shit engine - like no one's gonna notice.
But my favorite part of the article is about two thirds of the way down: "'You want to put money into something you'll get return back from,' said Nathaniel Nix, a 37-year-old pastor at a church in the Detroit suburb of Ypsilanti, in an interview this week at a Toyota dealership. Mr. Nix, who was a car salesman for both Ford and Toyota more than a decade ago, said..." now there's a nice career segue - selling cars in the 90's and Jesus in the 00's. Hope he's not doing as much lying in his new job.