The extremes of American engineering

I was recently in Detroit, which gave me an opportunity to reflect on the state of the American automotive industry. Fortuitously for me, I was there while one of the three remaining manufacturers declared bankruptcy, and while another decided to shed a brand which has existed in the 1950's.

So, Chrysler is gone now. Or maybe it will re-emerge in Germany as a subsidiary of Fiat, while Fiat sheds Opel to be picked up by the Swedes who are protecting their treasured Volvo from an American bankruptcy judge. Confused? You should be. Personally, I applaud the decision to reorganize in bankruptcy court. Remember, Chrysler, unlike GM and Ford, is not a publicly held company. It is owned by a venture capital firm, which, when the government was handing out bailout money like ice cream on a hot day, was eagerly holding its hand out, while secretly making Dr Evil type gestures:



Am I being callous? Do I wish for hundreds of thousands of car related employees to lose their jobs? No. However, there is something to be said for the two-faced brand of 'capitalism' we have been promoting lately. Do we want to emerge as an efficient, competitive manufacturing force again, or are we going to let our manufacturing abilities lapse, only to engage in protectionist posturing? There is no doubt that American minds can produce efficient, competitive, useful products. One only has to look here, at the list of the most promising American social entrepreneurs to know that these products can be made with a minimum of fanfare and sold to benefit many.

Yet, American engineering has a darker side. If we want to call it that. When staying in Detroit, I had the unfortunate experience of living inside the GM headquarters. In some ungodly pairing, the Marriot hotel and the GM headquarters share a structure, that looks like something from outer space. It is confusingly built, ugly, and has, at its center, a GM showroom of new 09/10 vehicles.

Among these, is the new Yukon Hybrid. The Yukon is a beast of a truck. I drove one a few weeks ago, thanks to my kind neighbor who let me borrow his. I felt very powerful. Evil, almost. And, no doubt, the beast gulps fuel as though it is going out of style. Therefore, the idea of a Hybrid beast is a good one - if men continue to have the need to boost their masculinity through large vehicles, at least they should be socially conscious about it.

But here is where it gets ludicrous. The Yukon Hybrid advertises itself as being able to do 20MPH City / 20 MHP Highway.

enough said.