READER MAIL

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E waste.

I Love cars. I love driving them. Everywhere and anywhere. I love working on them... Well, not always! After 2019, it's an arguable proposition that cars have become increasingly unreliable and difficult to work on. Without thousands of dollars in specialized computer diagnostic tools, it's impossible. The mechanic's trade is in difficulty, not enough skilled practitioners.

My politics are 100% opposed to PMD.

So? It's a free country! I welcome his point of view.

I am pleased that silly EPA regulations have been rescinded. The bigger issue with EVs apart from fantastic torque and effortless maintenance is the economics and environmental impact. Five to ten years on, the cost of a replacement battery exceeds the value of the car.

What now? E waste.

John Powell
Blackstock, Ontario, CANADA



The most human.

You succinctly said it all, what the automobile means to all of us gear heads. That first solo drive, the first car one owned that made, and still holds, such an indelible impression on us (for me, a 1965 Corvair Monza 140HP four-speed coupe "sports car" with which I discovered the joys of controlled power drifting through tight corners in 1971). What amazes me to this day is how an assemblage of 10,000 separate parts results in such a variety of distinctive and unique driving experiences stemming from the design philosophies of the vehicles' creators. The characteristics of every model, good and bad, reflect the personality and talents of its creators. This in my mind makes the automobile the most human of all our industrial creations.

Kevin Bishop
Victoria, British Columbia, CANADA



Ingrained in our lives.

PMD, my wife and I had a conversation the other day about how cars are ingrained into our lives. We form lifetime memories around them. Times in our lives can be linked to a car, good or bad. Times when we were poor and drove beaters. And times of great delight, like buying a Corvette or Mustang. The connection formed can be so intense you keep a car for a lifetime. And if it’s deteriorating, spend more than it’s worth restoring it. Because nostalgia and a bond mean more than monetary value. As we advance towards appliances as vehicles, the connection will be lost. Because no one talks about their first washer. Automobiles are the only disposable object people attach their lives to. The companies that embraces this will be the ones to survive the next 20 years.

JRR
Plymouth, Michigan



Freedom.

I'm reassured by your faith in the future of automobiles, including, I hope, a future for GM and Ford. I'm always surprised at how many people see car companies as stupid for misjudging EV demand. I try explaining that stupid, they're not They must make billion-dollar decisions years in advance, often facing policy shifts driven by regulators who are unfamiliar with and skeptical about the industry, and dogmatic in their belief that they are doing good. This year alone, we went from effectively banning internal combustion engines to permitting emission control removal, which is unlikely given technological advances and investments in today's lean engine families. Today’s computer-controlled cars offer great performance, excellent drivability, and low emissions. The automobile symbolizes freedom exactly as you say, and our freedoms threaten those who would control us and regulate cars out of existence. My favorite words from any car commercial ever are from a 1974 Chevrolet commercial from Campbell-Ewald: “It’s a better way, it’s the feel of freedom, When the wheel belongs to you, the road goes anywhere you say,” as indeed it should. We all must continue the struggle.

Joe Folz
Bonia Springs, Florida



Henley.

I love Don Henley's songs; they always have a political, economic, or social point of view. "Boys of Summer" is bittersweet as many can relate to losing a lover to those with money or status. The video with the boys of summer on the other side of the volleyball net is the divide between the haves and have nots, the proverbial train tracks. His best satire is "If Dirt Were Dollars". Boy does that song apply now about 1 million times more than it did in the eighties.

DG
Berwick, Maine



The impact of the automobile.

Regarding the impact of the automobile on America culture, I believe it is the great reinforcer of America's hyper-individualistic values. (I use 'hyper-' because most of the rest of the world does not share these values to the same degree as the USA. Other countries hold a stronger sense of national or social community than we do. But I digress.) As a Baby Boomer, I was immersed in America's auto culture in the '50's, '60's and '70s, enhanced by the fact that my father took his Bachelor's degree at the General Motors Institute - now, Kettering University - in Flint, MI. I have strong memories of my first car, my favorite cars and those I wish I had never purchased. The road trips, daily commutes, and a few near-death experiences are also part of my memories of driving over the decades.

And, yet. I also have enough of a sense of community and shared responsibility to recognize that our use and dependency on cars has high social costs. Pollution, wasted time in traffic, injuries and deaths, tax dollars on road repairs and the rest take from all of us, including those who do not drive - children, seniors and rapid transit riders. So, anything that will help reduce the 'externalities' of the auto industry is something I want to consider. The difficulty is that the industry doesn't want to include external costs (pollution, safety, etc.) in the cost of the car - they'd prefer to dump it on society. Only the government can raise the bar for all manufacturers by standardizing such things as pollution controls, safety devices, etc. Now, we know that the government - especially a democratic one - is neither a fast nor consistent beast. Yet, it's all we've got to deal with those externalities. So, I look forward to the day after the Trump administration where we can return to a fair, open and public debate on where the auto industry goes from here. If I have one more car in my future, I sincerely hope it's electric, and lighter (and easier on the roads) than the current crop of EV's.

CAE
Palm Springs, California



Complaints.

CAE’s recent letter implying the automobile industry or the government or both should somehow compensate society or something for the negative externalities of automobile usage is likely the most fallacious argument I can remember seeing.

The fallacy stems from him ignoring, as if they don’t exist, the positive externalities of the auto use and the many industries its use either creates or supports. The true economic equation would cover both sides of the issue and come up with a net value of automobiles and their use.

While doing a comprehensive and therefore valid evaluation of the auto’s contributions, negative and positive is vastly beyond a letter to ed. We can get a rough idea with a simple mind game.

Imagine a world:

A. Where automobiles had never been invented.
Or
B: Where the current world is to magically have all automobiles as well as their trappings (Ford, GM, filling stations, road system and so forth) removed.

Would anybody wish a world of A or B? I doubt it.

We don’t tolerate automobiles despite the trivial cost in pollution or loss of life; we celebrate them because the tradeoff of benefits for those losses is vastly on the plus side. We in 2026 are living in an extended Golden Age due to many things with transportation a prime one of those elements contributing to that gold.

It’s not glass half empty or glass half full but rather a glass almost overflowing. Still people complain.

Paul Cassel
Near Harper, Texas



Gordie Howe Bridge... not open yet?

Oh, there's an explanation all right. Seems the owner of the Ambassador Bridge, Matthew Moroun, called his friend, Howard Lutnik, about it. Howard, then, reminded trump that Mr. Moroun is a republican donor with very deep pockets and a need to retain his monopoly. For all we know, he's bought trump's meme coins as well.

Explanation in two words: crony capitalism.

Dave G.
Portlandia, Oregon

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Exactly. -PMD



Saying what has already been said.

As a multi-decade reader, I'm tiring of your TDS, and finding it increasingly difficult to even read the page. I'm far from being a Trump boot licker, but blaming Trump for the state of the current automotive industry is misplaced anger. How about going back decades to many prior administrations, and developing global internet with US tax dollars, allowing our tax dollars to develop off shore industries, to US union workers making wages at global noncompetitive levels, to clueless CEOs being paid unconscionable amounts of money while destroying companies. Maybe if the CEOs had kept their supply base onshore, we wouldn't be dealing with the tariffs. I'm familiar with one supply chain issue, where the OEM's manufacturing staff were overseas looking at the entire supply chain on a problem part. Tier 1, nice modern plants. Tier 2, adequate mfg. Tier 3, and the report was appalling. The report I read, said it was at best household garage with zero quality control. Everybody focused on Tier 1, and said their QC was up to OEM corporate standards... and yet the OEM continued to have issues with parts from that supplier. It was a cost increase to move that particular product back onshore... and guess what, the quality improved.

The demand that industry move to electric, when it was clear it wasn't affordable, wasn't ready for main stream, and we didn't have a grid to support it was ridiculous foley in stupidity. CEOs chasing after an unobtainable narrative, like Bill Ford Jr stating they were going to pivot away from trucks... and yet trucks still provide a huge profit margin. Or the MPG requirement that was literally a physics impossibility. Or stupid stuff like start-stop, that even industry rags said didn't save fuel in the real world. How about the ethanol fuel that literally costs more oil to make than you gain from the ethanol? Fuel systems, had to be upgraded at higher costs to handle the aggressive acidic nature of ethanol fuel. Even then, the MPG with ethanol fuel is generally lower than pure gas.

Auto Auto industry leadership is filled with self-proclaimed experts exhibiting extreme narcissist behaviors. For some reasons these people make it to the top of the food chain, and make horrible marketing and product decisions. Throughout my career, I had exposure and access to some of the most ridiculous decision making. One small example, sitting in a meeting, where the management team was talking about Honda's QC level on a competitive vehicle, and what it would take to "meet" that quality level. I asked the question, why are we setting a "stretch" goal of meeting that level? Why don't we set our stretch goal of exceeding that QC level? Absolute dead silence for several moments. Don't get me started on cost reductions. I asked a director of safety how many recalls and/or campaigns were due to cost reductions, and he replied, "all of them." I don't care which "big three" OEM you look at; they all operated the same.

Stupid stuff like, demand suppliers reduce their costs by X% every year for a 4-year contract. Guess what, that supplier will raise their price by 4 times in their initial quote. Simple math, business 101. On the other side of the coin, as we have decimated US based manufacturing, China was buying CNC and other manufacturing equipment for 10 cents on the dollar, and with their cheap labor under cutting US (and most) global supplier on stamping dies, and even parts. I was dumbfounded when I saw most stamping quotes coming in from Chinese suppliers almost exactly 10% under all other global suppliers. That actually bothered me; why was it almost always 10% less? Remember driving down Gratiot Avenue or mound road in the 80s and 90s? All those shops, gone, equipment sold at auction for pennies.

PJH
Former SE Michigan

Editor-in-Chief's Note:This reader covers ground I have been writing about for almost 27 years. As for the TDS comment, that's unmitigated bullshit. Anyone who actually thinks Trump's capricious tariffs based on hoary notions from the 80s haven't completely decimated the auto industry, or this country's greater business environment, is sadly mistaken and misinformed. I have a new term for all of the Trumpists out there: You are all officially guilty of DTI, for Defending The Indefensible. And you will look back on your misguided fervor for The Orange Fool with abject embarrassment. Oh, and by the way, if you don't like what I have to say here, please go somewhere else. -PMD



Here's to the tragically misinformed and the serial wishful thinkers.

Now that Ford has admitted their mistakes, both Farley and Mr. Bill Ford Jr. will move forward at a fast pace to prove people like you wrong about Ford. Ford will not only survive under their direction, they will strive and leap past GM.

Jackie
Detroit, Michigan