The automotive industry’s value-destroying addiction to capital (2015) [pdf]
wow.  Five years ago?  the thunder on the horizon was all the way back in 2002 when Japanese automotive manufacturers began ripping apart the luxury market with Lexus&#x2F;etc...<p>Lee Iacocca tried to help and really did in a lot of ways, by consolidating Chryslers various drivetrain and option specifications into tighter platforms...i believe at  the time his strategy was likened to Taco Bell&#x27;s toppings.  Its exactly what Japanese automakers pioneered for their dive into Luxury.  Take an existing platform and powertrain, and &quot;goose&quot; it with a few luxury features.  Then, break the bank on marketing (which is all luxury brands really are anyway these days.)  switches and buttons for seat options came prewired into the base models, but were built out in the luxury models, so this saved a lot of time and money.  regular shocks, coilovers, struts, etc...were swapped for primo, and the seat design was slapped up with leather instead of cloth.  you <i>can</i> do this and it <i>does</i> work.<p>Fast forward to 2015 and the auto industry learned bupkis from their crow dinner at congress begging for handouts in 2008.  Chrysler basically blocked the memory out entirely, dove hard off the deep end  and came out with garbage like the hellcat.  Its not even in the top 20 fastest cars, and most importantly its a loss leader with custom engine work, custom drivetrain, custom paint, etc...that is shared by <i>no model.</i>  people want reliable cars with good gas mileage and good performance like the Ford Focus and its ST counterpart which were well executed.  Ford of course then immediately turned around and wiped out their car divisions entirely under the assumption all americans will drive SUV&#x27;s and trucks forever.  maybe so, but the electric mustang crossover is dead on arrival at sixty grand if its still getting its doors blown off by a used model S with a &#x27;baby on board&#x27; sticker.<p>Bureaucrats didnt help this capital addiction either.  You could argue this &#x27;ignore the real problems&#x27; stuff started in 2008 when boomers in congress shook their fists and demanded Pontiac die, and Buick get to live, when Pontiac was clearly a stronger company with a better offering for customers than Buick who at the time was living off fumes from the Lucerne and Lacross, two virtually indistinguishable cars which were getting creamed by Cadillacs CTS and V platforms that targeted a younger and hipper trend.  Pontiac basically prayed at the altar of Iacocca with the G6, the G8, and the Solstice, and their willingness to damn the consequences and innovate was already on display with the Aztek...whereas Buick was still hucking 80&#x27;s designs around their Lucerne.  Look at a 2008 Honda dashboard, then look at a 2008 lucerne dashboard.  Buick is alive solely thanks to geriatric politicians.