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The Big Three Live On
Published on January 13, 2009 By jdkeepsmiling In Automotive

The Big 3 are not dead. That seems to be the overriding theme of the Detroit Auto Show this year. In fact, as one reporter put it: "Their collective push is to tell America what a good investment it made." Gone are the glitzy introductions, and movie star introductions. Instead we are treated to a no nonsense GM announcing the Spark, a sub-compact that gets 42 MPG will be available here for 2011. Ford introduced it's 2010 Fusion hybrid that will have best millage in it's class, beating out the Camry and Accord. This on top of the fact that the Fusion already has a better quality rating in Consumer's Report then Camry or Accord.

Hopefully the message that comes out of this show is that the Big Three are still relevant. All those people out there who think the Detroit based automakers just don't get it, should just read any report about the auto show. Check out The Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press for ongoing information. As Bob Lutz, Chief Designer at GM recently stated "You can't look at the array of cars that we've brought up on stage today and say these guys don't get it, these cars are ugly, and these cars don't perform."


Comments
on Jan 13, 2009

So it takes a national disaster to get companies like the Big 3 to introduce cars that should have been on the roads years ago but instead chose to make SUV's and gas guzzling vehicles like Camaro's, Mustangs, Corvette's and GTO's?

on Jan 13, 2009

Charles,

   What people people unfamiliar with the auto-industry don't seem to understand is that a new model represents anywhere from 2-4 years of development and a cost of over 1 billion dollars. The cars that are being presented in Detroit this week started being engineered in 2005/6. So no, it has not taken a disaster to get them to introduce small cars. Also, the big 3 aready offer small cars. The best selling compact in the US is a Chevy.