Let's Make American Cars Great Again, While Remembering That Some American Cars Are Already Great

by Jack Baruth

Published: July 4th, 2016

let s make american cars great again while remembering that some american cars are

Make America Great Again! It’s a dynamite slogan, simultaneously implying that America has fallen a little short of greatness lately and that a return to said greatness can absolutely be accomplished in short order. It’s a winner’s slogan, and it did wonders for that noted repeat winner, Ronald Reagan. By contrast, “I’m With Her,” the current slogan of choice for Mrs. Clinton, sounds like something a henpecked live-in boyfriend would tell a too-inquisitive salesperson at the Pottery Barn.

Whether or not Mr. Reagan truly made America great again is a discussion for another time. I will say, for the record, that I am on a particular side of that discussion, and the quasi-musician known as “Jello Biafra” is on the other.

What cannot be denied, however, is that the Reagan era saw the arrival of some truly great American cars. The C4 Corvette and its third-gen F-body cousin. The 225-horsepower Mustang GT. The Dodge Rampage 2.2. The list goes on and on, although you wouldn’t think that it does from the fact that I got to the Rampage 2.2 so quickly. I would also definitely include the Plymouth Turismo 2.2 in the list, although it would be after the Rampage because the Rampage had more cargo capacity.

Could a Trump presidency spur another era of great American cars? Or would Mrs. Clinton be the right choice to unleash a new generation of “superpredator” sports cars on the American public? While we wait for the American motor-voter to decide, let’s take a look at some of the current lows, and highs, in the domestic-brand arsenal of democracy.

Some American cars are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them, and some of them are not great at all. Many of the vehicles in the latter category are made by Cadillac. Put the V-Series cars aside for a moment; most of them have been great factory hot rods in the best American tradition, even if they weren’t particularly good at delivering what the public expected from an automobile that bore the wreath and crest.

What was the last new Cadillac that truly delivered what the customer wanted without excuses or compromise? I’m thinking it was probably the 1979 Eldorado, which set the sales charts on fire and was completely unashamed about being a razor-edged front-wheel-drive personal luxury coupe. That fine vehicle made its debut 38 years ago around this time, which means that slightly more than half of the Americans who are alive today cannot remember a time when Cadillac fielded a competitive luxury car.

Surely this can be fixed. My suggestion: Take the “Art & Science” F-117 Nighthawk styling out back and shoot it in the head. Make Cadillacs long, low, wide, and unapologetically flashy. Give the cars names, and the more dangerous or titillating the name the better. How about a 210-inch-long sleek sedan called the “Cadillac Indulgence Brougham”? Some people would laugh, but they’re already laughing at “CT6”, and at least they’d remember the Indulgence Brougham.

Truth be told, the Chrysler 300C HEMI is a better Cadillac than any of the actual Cadillacs on the market. Perhaps that’s because FCA has neglected their small cars for so long. Compass. Patriot. Dart. Even the Chrysler 200, as much as I personally like it, isn’t winning the hearts and minds of anyone. In order to buy a compelling product from Chrysler or Dodge, you need to step up to the rear-wheel-drive sedans or the new Pacifica. This is all well and good as long as gasoline is $2/gallon. Since we all know that won’t continue forever, it’s absolutely disgraceful for FCA to have such lackluster small-and-medium-vehicle offerings.

At least FCA has the excuse of not trying very hard. Ford took a very good car — the incomparable Flex — and turned it into the loathsome Explorer. It’s probably fair to say that no nameplate currently on the market has quite the uninterrupted history of cynical crappiness that the Explorer has maintained since 1992 or so. First it was a Ranger four-door. Then it was a Ranger four-door that rolled over and killed people. Then it was a bland box that seemed to be made entirely of plastic. Finally, it was a fat-assed Flex with a cavern-dark interior that seems to specialize in having interior space without any corresponding notion of spaciousness. The current customers for the Explorer? Police, idiots, and idiotic police. Meanwhile, the Flex has gone eight years without a significant upgrade. Inexcusable.

Alright. Enough sour grapes. Not all American cars are bad. Some are brilliant. Take, for example, the Toyota Camry. No, it’s not a domestic brand, but it’s chock-full of American content and it has set the standard in the mid-sized sedan segment since 1986 or thereabouts. The 1995 Camry was one of the finest cars in history. The new one is also very good. Try the XSE trim.

There is, however, no escaping the fact that the Camry is an immigrant. If you want a good American sedan with traditional American roots, why not consider the aforementioned Chrysler 300C? It’s the most American of cars, being a vague relative of both the Eagle (Renault) Premier and the W210 Mercedes-Benz, built in a Commonwealth country by a firm under Italian control. It’s all very melting-pot, and the funny thing is that it absolutely works. The first two generations of the car had the right attitude but it took the most recent revision to get the interior correct and to give you the option of matching the most luxurious equipment levels with the perfectly satisfactory Pentastar V6. The only way the car could be substantially better would be if you could get a 300C Hellcat. Call it America’s answer to the E63 AMG.

The Ford Mustang is a vehicle to which Europe has no answer, which might be why it’s lighting up sales charts in both the EU and Britain. It could stand to be a few hundred pounds lighter, but as a supple GT or manic GT350 there’s enough power to make the weight almost irrelevant. The chassis stands up to comparison with the very best from overseas, the interior is decent, and the price is right. It might be the best American car in history, combining the traditional virtues of the rear-wheel-drive ponycar with a modern approach to refinement and quality.

Unless, of course, the Corvette, in naturally-aspirated C7 Stingray guise, is the best American car in history. Like the Mustang, it keeps all of its predecessors’ virtues while significantly ameliorating their faults. It’s effortlessly fast and taut like the original C4 Z51, but it also has tolerable interior noise levels. You can get it with a tinted transparent roof in the best Boogie Nights tradition, but you can also choose a solid top, a restrained color combination, and a set of Competition seats that match the best from Porsche. It will do a 100 racetrack laps in an afternoon at a pace to break the heart of every BMW ever made, without boiling over; it will also carry you from New York to San Diego nearly as well as a Jaguar XF would. It can be serviced anywhere in the country and, if you don’t go crazy with the options, it is eventually affordable for a disciplined saver earning slightly above the median American income. It’s so good that it makes you wonder why GM can’t make all of its cars to the same standard.

Last but not least, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the American car with the largest heart, the one that most truly approaches greatness in the classical sense of being exemplary but not without flaws. This is the last year for the Dodge Viper, at least for now. Since its introduction 28 years ago, the Viper has been outrageous and restrained by turns. It has failings that any child or moron could point out, and it has dynamic qualities that only the most subtle and capable of drivers can dream of touching. There is nothing like it for sale from any other manufacturer anywhere in the world. It is unique, solitary, exceptional. Quintessentially American. So if your favorite candidate wins the election this year, you could do worse than to celebrate by placing a last-call order for a Viper. It’s the greatest American car of all.

#AmericanCars #Camaro #Camry #Corvette #Fca #Ford #GM #MAGA #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Malibu #Mustang

Jack Baruth

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Dal20402 on Jul 05, 2016

Let's have a dose of obvious reality. If Clinton is elected, not much is going to change. We'll still have CAFE, we'll still have state-level alternative fuel mandates, and the forces shaping the current auto market will keep doing what they're doing. We'll get a slowly increasing number of EVs and PHEVs (and they'll slowly get better). ICEs will continue to shrink and become ever more complex in pursuit of an extra MPG or two. We'll be moving toward a future of electrified transport for typical urban and suburban travel, with fossil fuels being reserved for missions where their strengths are especially important. If Trump is elected, there will be a short-term recession as consumers and investors alike wait to see what the fallout of electing such an unpredictable maniac will be. If he stays within the constitutional system, then things will slowly return to normal, but with some added trade wars (shrinking economic growth) and more conservative environmental policies (likely making CAFE a bit more lenient). The trade-affected economy will reduce demand everywhere but especially at the high end of the market. State-level alternative fuel standards still won't change, and EVs/PHEVs will still be big business, just not quite as big. If he tries to circumvent the constitution as he occasionally suggests in his off-the-cuff speeches, then all bets are off. Instability in the US political system would be the worst thing to happen to the world economy since World War II, and it's hard to predict what the fallout would be.

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- 28-Cars-Later on Jul 05, 2016
  
  A recession is inevitable no matter which candidate is selected. http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2015/02/when-will-the-u-s-have-its-next-recession/
  
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- Dal20402 on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later Of course. There's always going to be a next recession. The difference is that if Clinton is elected it will be part of the normal business cycle and if Trump is elected it will happen immediately, as business largely gets put on hold until it becomes clearer what is going to happen with him in office. Businesspeople really, really, really don't like uncertainty and unknowns. Trump is literally the biggest unknown in the history of American presidential politics, because of his combination of unpredictability and a complete lack of relevant knowledge or experience. (If he took office, he'd be the only president in American history without high-level government or military experience.)
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @dal20402 I agree business prefers predictability but I disagree on the exact timing. Personally I see it more likely in 2017-18. I also don't think Trump is unknown as some think, he's already started back-peddling on some things much to my chagrin. We also must remember the current President had no real qualifications to assume the post to which many rightists criticized, yet we are still here. Unless President Trump truly went batsh*t crazy, things wouldn't change as radically as some think. Deport some illegals? Wow enforcing existing statutes, shocker. Tariffs? Wow attempting to fight cheap foreign goods and maybe create jobs. I don't think he'd get a wall because its not realistic. I can't think of too much else he's demanded of the top of my head. Here's another tidbit from my own experience. In 2012 my then g/f, who was an IT contractor for Thermo Fisher, was cut along with all other contractors on her project the Friday after the election. I don't recall the stated BS reason, however it was implied to her "We lost the election and needed to cut back" (which I realize is hearsay but was probably true). I expect the same this time around no matter who is selected because there will be no real winners. I only hope my company isn't suddenly sold between now and November as rumors here suggest, as then I'll be set to ride through the turmoil through to next year and possibly start looking.
  
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- Dal20402 on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later The whole problem is that what he proposes changes from one day to the next, and there's no way to predict which scenario happens, or even if he stays within the system. "Deport some illegals?" Depends on whether it's the same record number of "some illegals" that the current administration has been deporting, or 3% of the US population. Deport 3% of the population, unequally distributed, and a whole lot of businesses will need to defer investment (if they can stay alive at all). Tariffs? Now we're talking. Depending on what tariffs were imposed, that could cause substantial bits of our export economy to disappear overnight. For example, impose a tariff on Chinese consumer goods and watch the Chinese government cancel all of our aerospace business there and hand it to Europe. In my area, that alone would cause a substantial loss of well-paying union blue-collar jobs and a real hit to the local economy. And then there's his incoherent and wildly self-contradictory talk on finance. If I were a banker, I'd be petrified of his election. With Clinton, you know what you're getting: most likely no change, but with a Democratic congress maybe higher capital requirements and a few more regulations governing risky trades. With Trump, you wouldn't have any idea. There would be no way to make a coherent business plan, and the most likely response would be to curtail all but the bluest-chip lending until the picture was a little clearer.
  
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- Highdesertcat on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later 28CL, business people I know are already in the process of adapting or adjusting to whichever candidate gets elected in Nov, although most anticipate Hillary to be the one. The same happened when O got elected. Before he was sworn in, many had already made major adjustments to their business, finances, and lifestyle to offset the disastrous effects his "spreading America's wealth around" would have on their assets.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later I see what you're saying, but I seem to recall Obamacare changing somewhat frequently in the run up to its passing. Now perhaps it wasn't a near daily change, but the ideas of it were not the original ones discussed. Flip flopping is nothing new, but perhaps in Trump's case it is too frequent. I am not an attorney as you are, but my basic understanding is if Federal statute called for a deportation of 10% of the entire US population should they be illegal aliens, then not doing so would be a violation of the law, correct? The fact X% of the population is already illegal has already demonstrated the failure of branches of state and federal government to comply with the written law. Complying with already written law is not rocket science. Now if this was actually achieved and Trump went further, I see the concern. The trade deficit stood at $531.5 billion in 2015. This number will continue to grow until the cart is tipped over unless something is done about it. I do not doubt it will require a wholesale approach as opposed to just something as simple as a few tariffs, but I do know the GATT treaty (later WTO) has eviscerated the US economy. From a consumer products standpoint, US buyers may be better off with more expensive but better made goods than cheap Chinese throwaways. I assume you're referring to Boeing vs Airbus, I don't know enough about the situation to effectively comment. I do wonder however those few thousand existing jobs fare against the hundreds of thousands of US jobs not being created as the result of globalism. I also have no doubt the Pentagon or some other "ally" would automagically place an order for military aircraft should Boeing legitimately fall into dire straits. Here's where we may diverge, bankers are a big part of the problems we face as a society. They should be afraid, and many of them should already be in jail for actions in 2008. They own HRC, and with respect to them nothing will change. We the peons need something to change for the better which the Obama administration has not wrought. We need the necessary evil of banking to scale things back a bit. We need to get out of ZIRP. We need jobs beyond server-level. We need a Justice department to enforce the law. We also need our government to level off its spending problems and scale back the psychopathy a tad. I don't know if any of those things could occur with Trump, but I do know none of them will occur with a career criminal such as HRC.
  
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- Dal20402 on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later When a statute as written cannot practically be put into practice 100 percent of the time, the law has ways of adapting. That is a pretty common situation with regulatory statutes, which include the immigration statutes and lots of others from food safety to traffic rules to consumer protection. One common way the law adapts is to acknowledge that the executive branch has to pick and choose where to focus its enforcement resources, and recognize as valid those types of executive decisions. Just think as an analogy about what it would take to enforce every traffic law, every time. You'd need a video camera covering every foot of roadway, a software system that could detect every little misstep shown on the camera, and the manpower to review each thing the camera flagged and handle the monumental volume of violations. Signal 98 feet in advance instead of 100? Get a ticket. Drift over the double yellow slightly to safely pass a bicyclist rather than staying behind him for miles? Get a ticket. Turn into the far lane? Get a ticket. Stop two feet over the stop line? Get a ticket. Obviously that's never going to happen. You'd be wasting monumental amounts of public money and employing huge numbers of people for fairly minimal public benefit. Deporting every person who entered the country illegally would require an effort of similar intrusiveness, for a similar lack of benefit. There is literally no way to find them all except to conduct a simultaneous, nationwide house to house search while enforcing checkpoints on the street. The logistics and cost of that are obviously impossible to handle. And beyond the logistics, just imagine how that would make American citizens feel about their country, and how badly it would betray American ideals. All this so that otherwise law-abiding people who mostly pay taxes and contribute to the economy can be kicked out (we already do a decent job of kicking out the non-law-abiding ones). So instead we have court decisions that say the executive has the discretion to forbear deportation in individual cases. Whether he can do so for entire classes of immigrants is the question at issue in the litigation over Obama's executive orders, but no one disputes he can do it in individual cases. And, practically, that means he chooses to ignore millions of cases completely. Not doing so anymore would be a seismic policy shift and create overnight the largest project the United States government has ever undertaken.
  
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- Dal20402 on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later Also, "career criminal" is an awfully strange way to describe someone who has never been charged with a crime despite being the subject of one government investigation or another for pretty much her entire adult life, mostly by investigators who had strong political or career incentives to find some way to charge her.
  
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- DenverMike on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later Deport 10 million, and you've got a vacuum for 10 million others. Never mind the logistical nightmare, but won't we have to stop hiring them, somewhere along the line? Why not start there in the first place? They'd deport themselves, like millions did when the economy and housing boom, hit the skids.
  
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- VoGo on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later If we stop hiring migrant workers, and no citizens are willing to fill the gap, then our food will rot on the vine, our houses will be a mess, and diapers will go unchanged. Yuk. Also, you're assuming that undocumented workers come to the US for the jobs. Maybe they just like raping.
  
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- DenverMike on Jul 05, 2016
  
  @28-Cars-Later The raping is just part of the deal. A signing bonus? But illegal immigrants get raped too, especially the women. Or do you really think the immigrant groups/races that came before the current Hispanics didn't have a similar share of rapists, just because they happen to be in the US legally? They probably had a higher rate of raping before it was a real crime with hard time. It probably wasn't reported as much, if at all.
  
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Ihbase on Jul 08, 2016

Jack Baruth, BTSR, Mustang assembly quality, and "Trump." There is some real synergy in this group. Totally on par with TRUMP steak and Trump wine. -Michael

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NJRide Let Cadillac be Cadillac, but in the context of 2024. As a new XT5 owner (the Emerald Green got me to buy an old design) I would have happy preferred a Lyriq hybrid. Some who really like the Lyriq's package but don't want an EV will buy another model. Most will go elsewhere. I love the V6 and good but easy to use infotainment. But I know my next car will probably be more electrified w more tech.I don't think anyone is confusing my car for a Blazer but i agree the XT6 is too derivative. Frankly the Enclave looks more prestigious. The Escalade still has got it, though I would love to see the ESV make a comeback. I still think GM missed the boat by not making a Colorado based mini-Blazer and Escalade. I don't get the 2 sedans. I feel a slightly larger and more distinctly Cadillac sedan would sell better. They also need to advertise beyond the Lyriq. I don't feel other luxury players are exactly hitting it out of the park right now so a strengthened Cadillac could regain share.
CM Korecko Cadillacs traditionally have been opulent, brash and leaders in the field; the "Standard of the World".That said, here's how to fix the brand:[list=1][*]Forget German luxury cars ever existed.[/*][*]Get rid of the astromech droid names and bring back Seville, Deville, Eldorado, Fleetwood and Brougham.[/*][*]End the electric crap altogether and make huge, gas guzzling land yachts for the significant portion of the population that would fight for a chance to buy one.[/*][*]Stop making sports cars and make true luxury cars for those of us who don't give a damn about the environment and are willing to swim upstream to get what we really want.[/*][*]Stop messing around with technology and make well-made and luxurious interiors.[/*][*]Watch sales skyrocket as a truly different product distinguishes itself to the delight of the target market and the damnation of the Sierra Club. Hell, there is no such thing as bad publicity and the "bad guy" image would actually have a lot of appeal.[/*][/list=1]
FreedMike Not surprisingly, I have some ideas. What Cadillac needs, I think, is a statement. They don’t really have an identity. They’re trying a statement car with the Celestiq, and while that’s the right idea, it has the wrong styling and a really wrong price tag. So, here’s a first step: instead of a sedan, do a huge, fast, capable and ridiculously smooth and quiet electric touring coupe. If you want an example of what I’m thinking of, check out the magnificent Rolls-Royce Spectre. But this Cadillac coupe would be uniquely American, it’d be named “Eldorado,” and it’d be a lot cheaper than the $450,000 Spectre – call it a buck twenty-five, with a range of bespoke options for prospective buyers that would make each one somewhat unique. Make it 220 inches long, on the same platform as the Celestiq, give it retro ‘60s styling (or you could do a ‘50s or ‘70s throwback, I suppose), and at least 700 horsepower, standard. Why electric? It’s the ultimate throwback to ‘60s powertrains: effortlessly fast, smooth, and quiet, but with a ton more horsepower. It’s the perfect drivetrain for a dignified touring coupe. In fact, I’d skip any mention of environmental responsibility in this car’s marketing – sell it on how it drives, period.  How many would they sell? Not many. But the point of the exercise is to do something that will turn heads and show people what this brand can do.  Second step: give the lineup a mix of electric and gas models, and make Cadillac gas engines bespoke to the brand. If they need to use generic GM engine designs, fine – take those engines and massage them thoroughly into something special to Cadillac, with specific tuning and output. No Cadillac should leave the factory with an engine straight out of a Malibu or a four-banger Silverado. Third step: a complete line-wide interior redo. Stop the cheapness that’s all over the current sedans and crossovers. Just stop it. Use the Lyriq as a blueprint – it’s a big improvement over the current crop and a good first step. I’d also say Cadillac has a good blend of screen-controlled and switch-controlled user interfaces; don’t give into the haptic-touch and wall-to-wall screen thing. (On the subject of Caddy interiors – as much as I bag on the Celestiq, check out the interior on that thing. Wow.)Fourth step: Blackwing All The Things – some gas, others electric. And keep the electric/gas mix so buyers have a choice.Fifth step: be patient. That’s not easy, but if they’re doing a brand reset, it’ll take time. 
NJRide So if GM was serious about selling this why no updates for so long? Or make something truly unique instead of something that looked like a downmarket Altima?
Kmars2009 I rented one last fall while visiting Ohio. Not a bad car...but not a great car either. I think it needs a new version. But CUVs are King... unfortunately!