Howard_T

Ten Cars That Could Save Detroit

The GMC Acadia is not the savior for anyone. I rented one a few months ago, and while it ran well and had lots of nice "bells and whistles", a fundamental flaw soon came to light. I was using the vehicle for work on unimproved roads and hills in desert terrain. I had a tire go flat, and found that the vehicle not only did not have a full-size spare, it had no provision for carrying one. Even though GM promised that the donut spare could go several hundred miles at moderately high speeds, once the spare was on, the vehicle would not handle correctly at low speed, and anything more than 30 mph was out of the question. Oh, by the way, jacking up the vehicle to put on the spare was even more frustrating. The jack is built so that the handle is nearly on the ground, and it is not hinged in any way. This meant that one can only get a half-turn on the jack before having to remove and re-insert the handle.

The whole experience tells me that the stylists and bean counters have kicked the engineers out of the automobile industry, and the traditional American auto makers will soon become extinct. Once auto makers (and sadly, many other American industries) begin to design and build useful and reliable products, the US will again become competitive in the world's markets.