WI the Japanese car industry never made the rapid and stellar advances in the US auto market? How would this affect the US auto industry and American economics as a whole? How would this effect the size and weight of cars? Would Americans still have developed a desire for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles in the oil-crunched 70's without access to efficient Japanese models? POD after 1960.
WI No Japanese Car Invasion
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Then Fiat or some other company that makes small cars would swoop in, honestly without a fundamental seismic change in the American auto industry their is absolutely no way for it to have remained dominant since it Kept producing over-size highly inefficient vehicles even though it's not what people were wanting.
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David S Poepoe
Banned
At some point the Unions would have contributed to the demise of the American auto industry anyway.
I'd doubt that. The problem was the gas shortage in the 1970's. American cars were big, bulky gas guzzlers because we thought we could afford it since gas was cheap and endless. Japanese designs were efficient and didn't hemorrhage gas like the US designs, hence Detroit died. If the American car was to survive, it needed to be more fuel efficient. It could keep up some frills and add good advertising (ala when they changed the name of Diet Beer to Lite Beer) to ensure people didn't think it made them Eunuch's, but they needed to be more fuel efficient, and Unions wouldn't have done anything to drag down the industry. They'd existed before, and they'd exist after.
I love the DS. The berline is most beautiful. Its styling is an artistic masterpiece and timeless. But I think that it was too advanced for the American populace, especially the hydropneumatic suspension. Back then the corner American garage would have had no idea how to repair a Citroen. Until the Japanese invasion, most corner garages serviced American cars and Volkswagens most of the time.
There were European imports that sold well: the Volvo Amazon (known in the US as the 122S) was popular here in the 60's, but I think it was because it was very conventionally designed with a simple four-cylinder engine, conventional suspension and gearbox etc. The BMW 1600/2002 series did well also for the same reasons.
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One of the major things the Japanese did right was pay attention to Edward Deming.
Americans built cars, and who cared if they worked or had 10 defects coming off the factory floor. The Japanese instituted quality control measures and took them seriously. Once well built quality Japanese cars started arriving in the US, I think the writing was on the wall.
Certainly, the gas crisis helped them, but it wasn't just that.
Americans built cars, and who cared if they worked or had 10 defects coming off the factory floor. The Japanese instituted quality control measures and took them seriously. Once well built quality Japanese cars started arriving in the US, I think the writing was on the wall.
Certainly, the gas crisis helped them, but it wasn't just that.
Good call. The 50's Beetles were excruciatingly slow even by the standards of the time. Ditto the Renault Dauphine, which was just as slow but rotted faster. So it would seem for a time that indeed European imports would flop. But eventually the Beetles got stronger (1300 engine Super Beetles), and became stronger competitors. Actually I'm convinced that VW introduced the 1300 because of the power-sapping semiautomatic transmission, but that's my view.
MacCaulay
Banned
That's a good point. One thing that Libertarian PJ O'Rourke once noted (which I thought was very perceptive) was that "if there wasn't foreign competition, we'd still be driving Studebakers with fans on dashboards."
Obviously, he was overexaggerating, but the point stands: competition is better for everyone. It forces folks to heighten their game to keep up. And without more competition, Ford, GM, Chrysler, (and for all we know) Studebaker, and the others don't have to heighten their game as much.
The ironic thing is that the early Japanese mechanical designs were pure Detroit copies. Toyota's first automatic transmission, the 'Toyoglide', was nearly a direct copy of GM's 'Powerglide'. It just took longer for Toyota to develop a three-speed automatic. So, yes the Japanese forced innovation, but it can't be forgotten where they originally got the ideas from.