GM's America

I was reading a NY Times article that was discussing the transfer of Chrysler from bankruptcy to Fiat ownership and I noticed an unremarkable headline that read "Readers' photos of G.M. cars". I followed the link and was treated to images of GM's more triumphant automotive endeavors such as Z28 Camaros, a '67 Impala SS, and a '65 Corvette Sting Ray. Next to every image there was a small anecdotal caption detailing the significance of the vehicle, the setting, or some combination thereof. One example was a gentleman who had purchased a used 1956 Buick Special in celebration of his college graduation. He acknowledged the vehicle's single-digit MPG and admitted further that despite his affection for the machine, it was the last American-made car he ever purchased.

A lot of the stories featured vintage vehicles enabling its owners to explore a vintage America. From Ohio to California and back in a 1952 black Chevy. Up and down the Black Hills of South Dakota in a Chevy station sedan. As the year of manufacture got larger, the number of submitters shrank. But the evidence was there; GM used to run America. Where Americans needed to go, GM took them, and it took them in style. It didn't always take them all that efficiently or all that reliably, but such things weren't of tremendous concern, besides, alternatives were still somewhat foreign.

GM was the car company that America grew up with in the Combustion Age, and it was the car company I grew up with as well. My father has worked for a GM subsidiary all throughout my life and every vehicle that I can remember my family owning (except for an egg-like '90 Dodge Omni) was a GM product. So in a way, GM paid for my food, it paid for the room in which I slept, it paid for the clothes I wore, and it paid for half of my college tuition. So I'm very grateful to GM and to this day I have an irrational predisposition towards GM products. But, as time wore on and competitors were introduced into the market, America's automotive expectations changed and GM failed to change with them. So as language such as "America's outgrown GM" gets used and my pa's place of business gets sold to supplement GM's equity, I just sigh and wait for better things to happen. But when I'm visiting beautiful downtown Fortville over the weekend and it gets revealed that my folks had stopped by a Toyota lot just to check things out, I can't help but laugh to myself.

-Ryan