If you've studied automotive history...well, congratulations! You're among a depressingly elite group of people in today's world. Regardless, if you know your history you know that big changes in the automotive marketplace tend to come in cycles. Two of the most dramatic occurred in the 1960s and the 1970s. In the '60s performance ratcheted up as domestic automakers got into a horsepower war; a war that resulted in the most powerful production vehicles of the era. Then, in the early 1970s, a combination of factors aligned to not only end the horsepower war but punish the combatants (both at the manufacturer and customer level). Between political, environmental and safety concerns it was suddenly much cooler (or at least more socially conscious) to drive a Vega than a 'Vette. In case you haven't already noticed, we're on the brink of a similar shift.
Exhibit A comes from a Wall Street Journal story that has Bob Lutz verbally sparring with politicians and environmentalists ("Which is which?" you may be asking yourself...). Congress wants GM, and every other automaker, to improve fuel efficiency by 4% a year over the next 10 years, while Lutz insists that horsepower sells far more effectively than gas mileage (social consciousness be damned). Who's right? It doesn't really matter because, ultimately, politicians are more powerful than captains of industry (even the really charismatic ones). Lutz admitted in this article that GM has put the rear-drive Impala on hold because it can't predict which way the political and regulatory winds are going to blow over the next five years.
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