Automakers from around the world gathered in the Motor City this week for the North American International Auto Show. The annual event used to be a very big deal because the United States was the largest auto market in the world. But now that China has eclipsed the United States as the most important market, and only Ford remains healthy among the once-mighty Big Three, the Detroit show has lost much of its luster. But that doesn’t prevent top auto executives from using the gathering as an opportunity to make statements designed to influence customers and politicians alike. Sometimes, though, their statements say as much or more about them as they do about their industry’s positions on great public policy issues.
Take, for example, Government Motors’ product czar Bob Lutz, who complained to journalists Monday about the fickleness of American consumers: “Every time gas prices go back down, everybody starts buying big stuff again. Gas prices go up a buck, the big stuff is unsellable and everyone wants small cars. Go figure. It’s like the collective memory is about three weeks long. We can’t run a business that way.”
