March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Revving their engines

As President George Bush and his posse of chief executive officers head for their trade showdown with Japan this week, they’re ignoring the fact that most of their problems are back at the ranch. Despite what trade inequities Japan allows, the U.S. auto manufacturing, in particular, will benefit more by what it repairs at home than by any overseas concessions.

What began as a planned goodwill visit by President Bush to ease some of the tension in U.S.-Japanese negotiations has become an opportunity for election-year swaggering. The CEOs, chosen predominately from the auto industry, want Japan to ease restrictions on the flow of autos and auto parts into Japan, and President Bush is eager to be a part of a team that appears to be working to help the country’s economy.

But there lies the difficulty, the Japanese repeatedly have pointed out. These captains of industry say they want to strengthen the economy, but they act largely for the short-term gains that will ensure them large salaries. While Japan automakers have found success year after year producing high-quality, mid-priced cars that get good gas mileage and need few repairs, U.S. manufacturers have been unable to shed their image as producers of overweight repair-jobs-in-waiting.

Amid the current spate of Japan bashing, Dodge’s presentation of its 10-cylinder, $55,000 Viper is the epitome of why the big automakers are in financial trouble. The 400-horsepower two-seater is as impractical to the American consumer as a bunch of millionaire CEOs complaining that Japan is not sensitive to U.S. needs are to reviving the auto industry.

U.S. automakers need to make cars that Americans can afford and on which they can depend. That has nothing to do with yelling at Japan and everything to do with making long-term investments in modernization, cutting corporate fat from the top rather than production jobs at the bottom and figuring out how to recapture an American market that has grown to prefer foreign cars.

These problems will be awaiting the CEO posse when it returns from Tokyo.


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