The Changing U S Auto Industry

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The automobile has shaped nearly every aspect of modern American life. This text documents the story of the automotive industry, which, despite its power, is constantly struggling to assure its success.

Over one million Americans are employed in manufacturing motor vehicles, equipment and parts. But the industry has changed dramatically since the U.S. "Big Three" motor vehicle corporations (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) produced the overwhelming majority of cars and light trucks sold in the United States, and directly employed many people themselves. By 2003, most passenger cars sold in the U.S. market were either imported or manufactured by foreign-based producers at new North American plants (so-called "transplant" facilities). The Big Three now dominate only in light trucks, and are also now being challenged there by the foreign brands. The Big Three have shed about 600,000 U.S. jobs since 1980, while about one-quarter of Americans employed in automotive manufacturing (nearly 300,000) work for the foreign-owned companies. It is clear that the U.S. automotive industry has undergone many drastic changes that have had a net adverse effect on American interests. This book examines the causes of these changes. Congressional acts, increasingly stringent emission laws, the effects of NAFTA, labour unions and globalisation are all within the scope of this book.

This book offers a comprehensive look at an industry that plays a growing role in motor vehicle production in the United States.

Analyzes the reasons for the failures of the American auto industry to compete with foreign imports and to make use of modern technology and styling.

In Comeback, Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White take us to the boardrooms, the executive offices, and the shop floors of the auto business to reconstruct, in riveting detail, how America's premier industry stumbled, fell, and picked itself up again. The story begins in 1982, when Honda started building cars in Marysville, Ohio, and the entire U.S. car industry seemed to be on the brink of extinction. It ends just over a decade later, with a remarkable turn of the tables, as Japan's car industry falters and America's Big Three emerge as formidable global competitors. Comeback is a story propelled by larger-than-life characters -- Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, Don Petersen, Roger Smith, among many others -- and their greed, pride, and sheer refusal to face facts. But it is also a story full of dedicated, unlikely heroes who struggled to make the Big Three change before it was too late.

Amid the gloom, indeed the despair, that prevailed among auto industry spokesmen during early 1981, the University of Michigan held the first U.S.-Japan Auto Conference. With all the uncertainty that accompanies a march into new territory, the conference very much resembled a call to arms as industry, union, and government officials sought to comprehend and respond to the Japanese challenge. In the subsequent two conferences in 1982 and 1983, the concerned parties displayed an impressive willingness to roll up their sleeves and get on with creating the conditions for a renewal of the industry. Yet success seemed to elude their efforts, and frustrations mounted as the national recession lengthened and deepened. It was not until the March 1984 conference that definite change in tone became apparent. By this time, it was clear that the industry was beginning to reap the fruits of its efforts. As Paul McCracken notes in his remarks, the market for new cars was manifesting its traditional high-geared response to improved business conditions, and the voluntary trade restraints were contributing to the ability of the industry to take advantage of this renewed prosperity. In addition, those who know the industry well knew that the major improvements in quality and productivity had been made, and many of the changes responsible for these improvements seem unlikely to be reversed. All this was much on the minds of speakers and participants during the March conference. The various speakers presented an image of people who thought that they were pretty much on the way toward addressing successfully their internal problems of productivity, quality, and marketing. All that remained was to dispose of the external factors that prevented the, from competing on that well-known if elusive "level playing field." [ix]