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Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Introduction","2005 Pontiac Aztek","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090701-2005%20Aztek-hmed.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "251", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
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By Dan Carney, contributor
Introduction
The glittering titans of American industry, Detroit’s “Big Three” car manufacturers, have fallen into disarray.
Ownership of Chrysler has been passed from Mercedes-Benz to Fiat. General Motors has just exited bankruptcy protection after 40 days in the wilderness. Ford escaped the same fate only because it had the good fortune to run out of cash before the credit crunch arrived, allowing it to mortgage all its assets in search of the money needed just to keep the lights on.
How did all this happen? There are plenty of potential culprits: management, the unions, the government. Or was it unfair competition from government-subsidized foreign manufacturers? Is Wall Street to blame? Greed? Stupidity? Hubris?
How about terrible products? The symptoms of Detroit’s current troubles may have been sitting in dealers’ showrooms for decades. If there were such a thing as corporate pride, these embarrassing products would have gravely wounded it.
So here’s our top ten list of the cars that helped to kill Detroit. In many cases, they’re terrible cars. Others are not too bad, but they symbolized some underlying problem that contributed to the fall of the “Big Three.”";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Chevrolet Vega","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090701-VEGA-hmed.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "273", "420", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "1. Chevrolet Vega
Half the cars on this list are from GM, which is perhaps a reflection of its larger market share, or it could be a symptom of the automaker’s hubris.
In the case of the 1971-1977 Chevrolet Vega, it may have simply been an example of the company’s ambition to further its technical prowess. Sadly the sunny optimism that sired the Vega crashed on the hard rocks of reality. The result was another blow to GM’s reputation just as Japanese car makers were gaining a foothold in the U.S. market.
GM has a reputation for being a stodgy, technically timid company, but this wasn’t always true. It developed the air-cooled, aluminum-engined Corvair in the late 1950s. And after a bad experience with the tricky handling characteristics of rear-engined cars (Porsche 911 partisans, hold your fire), GM opted for a front-engined replacement -- the Vega.
The Vega’s engine was water-cooled, but a corporate decision to forgo durable iron cylinder liners in the engine’s aluminum block doomed the car’s engine to an unacceptably short life. At about the same time as GM stubbed its toe on the Vega, the company was also struggling to master the rotary engine, a program that it ultimately cancelled.
The failure of the Corvair, the rotary engine, and finally, the Vega blunted whatever appetite GM had for innovation and risk, dooming all of the company’s products to bland conservatism.
GM eventually mustered the guts to build a limited run of battery electric cars (the EV1 project) to learn the fundamentals of electric drive and was rewarded for its trouble with a starring role in the 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Cadillac Cimarron","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090701-1987Cimarron-hmed.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "265", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "2. Cadillac Cimarron
Speaking of chutzpah, we cannot overlook the dismal 1982-1988 Cadillac Cimarron. It was little more than a forgettable, unimaginative Chevrolet Cavalier dressed up to look like a Cadillac (and about as convincingly as one of those VW Beetles that some drivers used to mount with mail-order Rolls-Royce-style grilles).
Cadillac’s once-unrivaled reputation was taking enough of a beating from downsizing in the name of fuel economy, a move to front-wheel-drive and the V-8-6-4’s failed attempt at cylinder deactivation a couple decades before the technology to make it work was even invented. Foisting off a lame Chevy as a Cadillac was the coup de grace.
When recently retired GM vice-chairman of product development Bob Lutz led Cadillac back to its position of esteem it was from scratch, much like the creation of Lexus by Toyota. Its reputation had become so tarnished it only sold cars out of sheer inertia to Sun Belt retirees.";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Pontiac Aztek","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090701-2005%20Aztek-hmed.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "251", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "3. Pontiac Aztek
Once GM truly lost its way, there was some discussion by management about the best path back to relevance. Upon reflection, the automaker’s managers decided that making its mainstream brands appealing to young consumers was the answer. While this was a shrewd concept in practice, the idea was garbled in execution, like a room full of kids playing the telephone game, passing on a message that eventually loses its meaning.
Management ordered up an adventurously styled crossover SUV for Pontiac, the GM brand with the youngest customer demographics. But what emerged was the most uniformly pilloried vehicle since the Edsel: the 2001-2005 Pontiac Aztek.
With time running out on its finances, and just as the crossover SUV boom was taking off, GM missed its chance to convert a new generation of buyers to its cause by producing a car design that repulsed its target audience. Instead of capturing the imagination of America’s youth, the Aztek has gone down in history as one of the ugliest cars ever made.";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Chevrolet Citation","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090701-1980Citation2-hmed.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "200", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "4. Chevrolet Citation
When it debuted in the spring of 1979, the 1980 Chevrolet Citation was touted as the first 1980s car with tautly crisp lines, flexible hatchback body styles, space-efficient front-wheel-drive and an all-new 2.8-liter V6.
The mid-size family sedan was joined by nearly identical siblings from the Pontiac, Buick and Oldsmobile brands, which explains the beginning of the problem with the Citation.
Aside from a genuine technical issue resulting from the too-grabby rear brake shoes that made the car prone to spinning in emergency stops, the Citation and its clones were very good cars, especially when outfitted with the V-6 engine and four-on-the-floor manual transmission.
But not only did the Citation sire three near-identical children, GM also kept recycling the same basic hardware for years, leaving more upmarket brands like Buick to compete with aging Citation underpinnings.
Too much similarity between numerous models and overreliance for too many years on obsolete hardware left consumers justifiably confused and skeptical of GM’s claims that its brands were unique, or that its products were truly the best work the company could muster.";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Dodge Aries","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090702-dodge-aries-brill.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "273", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "5. Dodge Aries
It was the same story across town at Chrysler, where the company rolled out its line of front-drive family sedans for the 1981 model year.
Solid contenders at the outset, the Dodge Aries and its K-car sibling the Plymouth Reliant, weren’t given the benefit of timely retirement. Years after these cars should have been replaced with all-new models they were supplying the underpinnings of virtually the entire Chrysler product line.
The once-prestigious Chrysler LeBaron became the butt of jokes when the company had the nerve to apply that name to a (only slightly) glorified K-car. The name Dodge Daytona once froze the blood of competitors on Nascar’s high banks, but in the hands of 1980’s-era Chrysler it became just another K-car, dressed in low-slung hatchback bodywork.
Eventually, the K-car became synonymous with “cheap,” an association that left Chrysler uncompetitive after years of relying on its reputation.";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Ford Fairmont","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090701-1981Fairmont%20-hmed.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "273", "360", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "6. Ford Fairmont
Ford topped its Detroit rivals for sheer longevity of dependence on a single, obsolete platform. In this case it was the Fox platform of the 1978 Ford Fairmont.
A thoroughly conventional rear-drive, solid axle car, the Fairmont was lighter and more spacious than its predecessor, and it moved Ford’s family car architecture out of the stone age with the introduction of rack-and-pinion steering, coil spring rear suspension and cheaper MacPherson strut front suspension.
However, rather than treating the Fairmont’s Fox platform as a good first step, Ford made it the company’s mainstay, building the sporty Mustang, luxurious Thunderbird, prestigious LTD and eventually even the Lincoln Mark VII personal luxury coupe on it.
While Fox was completely up-to-date when the 1978 Fairmont debuted in 1977, it went for 17 years virtually unchanged as the Mustang’s foundation until a much-needed revision for the 1995 model year.
That upgraded variant carried on for another decade, until the Fox-based Mustang was finally put out to pasture in 2005.
In an era when the lifespan of a new car model is commonly six years, with a major revision after three years, the Fox endured for 27 years.";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Chrysler TC by Maserati","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/2009/July/090701/090702-maserati-brill-1p.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "191", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "7. Chrysler TC by Maserati
What was Chrysler doing when it should have been pouring the cash it earned in the 1980s from K-car and minivan sales into development of fresh, competitive products? It was wasting money on ludicrous ventures such as the 1987 purchase of Lamborghini and the 1989-1991 Chrysler TC by Maserati, a prestige convertible built in Italy using the economy car drivetrain from the K-car.
Chrysler savior Lee Iacocca evidently fell victim to a bout of Italiaphilia. He squandered time and money Chrysler didn’t have by toying with Italian boutique brands when the company needed to be shoring up its existing products, designing their replacements. Here’s where Chrysler missed its chance to break the boom-and-bust cycle that has kept the company on the margins for decades.";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Jeep Cherokee","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090702-Jeep-Cherokee-84-brill.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "273", "353", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "8. Jeep Cherokee
Chrysler also spent its cash buying American Motors, for the purpose of acquiring Jeep. Jeep’s Wrangler was a well-known entity, but the surprise was the 1984 Cherokee. Sales of the little 4x4 station wagon grew through the 1980s, as more people began to notice it as an alternative to a car. Here was a potential family vehicle that had some style and some attitude. The four-door version quickly outsold the two-door model, and its popularity overshadowed the Ford Bronco II and Chevrolet S-10 Blazer, which were only available as two door models.
Conventional wisdom to this point was that customers who bought what were then called “four-wheel drives” were young and, like sport coupe buyers, were more interested in sporty two-door styling than rear-seat practicality. But families discovered the Cherokee and rivals noticed the trend. Ford quickly prepared the four-door Explorer and the industry raced toward its switch to truck sales because the Cherokee saw unexpected demand for a new product -- the SUV.";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Ford Explorer","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090702-Ford-Explorer91-brill.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "273", "386", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "9. Ford Explorer
If, like the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California, the Jeep stumbled upon the rich SUV vein waiting to be mined, the actual SUV gold rush came in the form of the 1990 Ford Explorer.
Once Ford introduced its roomier and more refined alternative to the Cherokee, families that had reflexively bought minivans switched seemingly overnight to the Explorer. It quickly became the unofficial vehicle of suburban sports practices nationwide.
Federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy discouraged carmakers from building large station wagons, and consumers were always uneasy with the “I’ve surrendered to parenthood” image of the minivan. The Explorer was the first intentional and hugely successful circumvention of both those obstacles. It put consumers into a vehicle they liked, setting the model for family use of vehicles that were really just converted trucks.
But tall off-road trucks are so high off the ground that they are prone to tipping over in a spin or emergency maneuver, which apparently came as a surprise to some SUV owners. Worse, the Explorer was fitted with Firestone tires that were intolerant of low pressure and heavy loads, a common circumstance for Explorer owners who were more concerned with getting the carpool to practice on time than they were with fiddling with air pressure gauges in the garage.
The resulting rollover crashes precipitated the firing of then-Ford CEO Jac Nasser from his job and began the slide in Explorer sales. Ford misjudged consumers’ switch to crossover SUVs and failed to move the Explorer to a car platform. Consumers left this one-time Ford profit center behind.";
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i++] = new Array("","Ford Taurus","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090701-1996Taurus-brill2.hmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "", "Ford", "Wieck", "271", "423", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
Biz_Detroit_killers_0907[i-1].body = "10. Ford Taurus
Finally, there is the 1996 Ford Taurus.
The third-generation Taurus was not a bad car, but it was too expensive to sell profitably. It was also too daringly styled at exactly the time consumers started looking at the Explorer as replacement for the Taurus they had been driving. Worse yet, those drivers who still wanted cars rather than trucks found that when they visited their Honda and Toyota dealers the Accord and Camry had grown up to Taurus-like dimensions.
Like the progeny of a working-class parent who strikes it rich, the Taurus sought to leave behind its humble roots, but in the process of transformation it lost its way entirely.
The Taurus disappeared from the scene in 2005, when Ford ended retail sales of the car. But after spending some time in celebrity rehab Taurus is staging a comeback, chock-full of self-improvement notions and hoping to reclaim past glory with a new 2010 version.";
// END editorial data