DETROIT: COMEBACK! BUT NO OBIT!
The Motor City has become the butt of many TV, Cable and Twitter jibes since admittedly taking a tumble in the 2005-2010 timeframe.
But the NY Times’ page one story 9/23/13, calling the 500-year-old city a “charity case”, is a crock full of snide miscues and death wish remarks.
Bylined by hometown writer Bill Vlasic, the piece dwells on Motown’s setbacks, but loses its balance when it comes to the plusses aimed at turning the downdraft into the plethora of u-turns which now are being applied hands-free and all plugged in.
With kickoff 10/1/13 of the 2014-model year, the Detroit based domestic auto makers will see production and employment hikes at most of their plants in southeastern Michigan and across the swift-flowing Detroit River in friendly Windsor, Ontario. From this vantage point are assembled Jeep Grand Cherokees, Chevrolet Cruze cars and Ford F-150 trucks and Mustang cars and Chrysler/Dodge minivans.
With proximity of the UAW headquarters in Detroit, the initial-quality index on all of these “Detroit-assembled” units has spurted to nearly 100% better than most transplant foreign-owned plants in the Southeast U.S.
What’s more, it is noteworthy that the Japanese Big 3 and Hyundai/Kia have located U. S. R&D facilities near or in Detroit and in Ann Arbor, MI, Ypsilanti, MI and Marysville, OH. Detroit moribund? Nonsense. Too many cars born a century ago have observed milestones – despite all the setbacks – to pack it in as 2014 approaches.
After all what could be better to drive or sell than a Cadillac, Lincoln or Town and Country FOB Detroit?
P.S. as for the Times’ piece on Detroit’s being a “charity case”, it was federal bailouts, which saved Chrysler and GM in 2005-10, setting precedents, which could be Detroit’s lifeline through future credit crises.