With the General now in bankruptcy court and a ward of the federal government, it is impossible not to think about my Dad and his beloved “55.”
It was a two-tone, two-door, 55 Chevy sedan, black in front, white on top and on the hind quarters. Under the hood was a 265, Chevy’s first over-head valve V-8, the world-famous “small block” that has powered more auto race winners than any other single powerplant ever.
The 55 model-year Chevy is a prized collector car now, thanks to fresh, clean styling that recalled early 1950s Ferraris, an affordable sticker price, and performance that was so good for its day that only a Chrysler 300, the original “hemi,” could beat it.
Nearly two million “55s” were bought by Dad and his generation. It was his first new car purchase, and it remained in our family for nearly 400,000 miles, two engine swaps and one repainting. It was my family’s main car until a 66 Pontiac Star Chief Executive supplanted it. But the 55 was always the favorite.
Those were the days when GM meant style, quality, technological sophistication, and value. GM, the biggest of Detroit’s Big Three, routinely sold more cars than rivals Ford and Chrysler combined. So many Chevys were sold that by the early 1960s, the Justice Department murmured darkly about anti-trust violations.
I was elated when Dad let me drive the 55 to college for my senior year, then gave it to me as a graduation present. But the college years went by, I got married, headed off to graduate school, and started a career and family. The day came in 1976 when I thoughtlessly sold the 55. Without calling Dad first.
He never said much about it, just a wistful “I wish you would have let me buy it back from you.” But I knew Dad and I knew he was hurt. I still wince at my thoughtlessness and what I did to Dad.
In the years since, cars, motorsports and the auto industry have remained among my perennial passions. I was fast enough on the track to win a semi-professional sports car competition license at age 37, and sufficiently adept at writing new product reviews to drive every new model sold in America for nearly three decades.
In short, I know cars and I know GM. Or I knew GM. Somewhere along the way about the time I lost the 55, GM got seriously off track. Arrogantly assuming they would always be the world’s biggest automaker, GM executives began producing throw-away, cookie cutter, look-alikes of dubious quality and doubtful value.
As quality faded and Caddys and Chevys became barely distinguishable, GM managers routinely caved to the unceasingly unreasonable demands of the United Auto Workers. Thus, the costs of producing more and more cars of less and less value and popularity soared year after year. It was a death spiral.
When GM managers finally woke up by the late 1990s, they had less than a third of the U.S. market and a permanently damaged product image defined by countless former customers who vowed “I’ll never buy another GM product.”
It takes time to turn such things around in the car business. The sad irony today is that GM has made much progress more recently. Buick and Cadillac, for example, have been repeat winners in the annual J.D. Power quality ratings normally dominated by Lexus.
And the Corvette is a technological tour de force and an outstanding performance value, as is the Cadillac CTS-V. As for the Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords that have become America’s favorite family cars, the Chevy Malibu is a genuinely superb product and a revival of the GM tradition of appealing design, solid quality, excellent performance, and high value for middle America.
But it came too late. When the market fell apart in 2008, bankruptcy became a near certainty, barring unexpected miracles. Had it been filed last year instead of now and without the TARP fiasco, odds are nobody would today be making wry jokes about “Government Motors.”
Sometime in the next decade, after hundreds of billions more tax dollars are wasted, countless hollow promises from predatory politicians are made and broken, and politically correct products designed by government committees repeatedly fail to sell, GM will finally, mercifully, be shut down for good.
And hardly anybody will remember the GM my Dad and I knew many years ago, the GM that once ruled the automotive universe. It didn’t have to be this way.
Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott’s Copy Desk blog on washingtonexaminer.com.
UPDATE: Please, God, don’t let GM screw up the Corvette before I get one
That’s the reaction of Michael Habenstab to the GM bankruptcy. It’s a great column and you should read it. I know there are legions of guys out there like Michael and me who have great memories from GM’s glory years. I’ll link to them here as I become aware of them. If you find one you think worthy, send me the link at: [email protected].
HT to Ann Althouse, who is filling in for Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.
