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Optimism can be a precious commodity. One needs only to have been part of the automotive or housing industry in the recent 18 months to have borne witness to that. Automotive sales in the United States were barely more than 10 million units for 2009, down 21.2% from an already dismal 2008 and lifetimes removed from the days when Americans would buy 16 million or more cars a year.
David Booth
Jan 12, 2010 • May 19, 2021 • 4 minute read
The introduction of the 2011 Lincoln MKX, center, during the press preview for the world automotive media at the North American International Auto Show in Cobo Center January 12, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan.
DETROIT • Optimism can be a precious commodity. One needs only to have been part of the automotive or housing industry in the recent 18 months to have borne witness to that. Automotive sales in the United States were barely more than 10 million units for 2009, down 21.2% from an already dismal 2008 and lifetimes removed from the days when Americans would buy 16 million or more cars a year.
Nevertheless, compared with last year's North American International Auto Show where one expected auto executives to be hanging from the ceiling of Detroit's Cobo Hall, this week's gathering of the automotive world was fairly brimming with good cheer. Never mind that December's much-lauded boost in sales was still far below historical norms or that it was only one month amid a year of gloom. Ignore even the fact that the U.S. is no longer the biggest automotive market in the world, having surrendered that accolade to China early in the year. It was an uptick, however modest, and the beleaguered auto industry will grasp at any straw that promises even a hint of sweetness.
What a difference a year makes Back to video
After all, optimism costs nothing. It helps sell cars, it makes for far better advertising and a healthy car industry and, as governments around the world have recently proven with their bailout dollars, is necessary for a healthy economy. And, take my word on this, confidence makes for far better speeches from auto executives, who are at the best of times practically devoid of personality.
It's little surprise, then, that Detroit in general and the auto show in particular have grasped the news of December's dramatic bump in sales like a drowning man does a life preserver. So, when Bill Ford trots out the new Focus to near universal acclaim, with pundits and executives alike predicting the new subcompact car will account for a third of the company's worldwide sales, we dare not remind him that five short years ago Dearborn had all but abandoned the family car in favour of then-higher-profit SUVs and pickups. Never mind, Ford is riding a wave of good news. Sales were up 33% in December and the Blue Oval company swept this year's North American Car and Truck of the Year awards with the Fusion Hybrid and Transit Connect. So, forecasting that the Focus is Ford's strategy for stemming the Asian wave has to be greeted with at least a scintilla of respect. We even clap when Ford announces there will be an electric version as well.
Highlighting the unusual circumstances surrounding the 2010 show was the sight of the classic Ford/General Motors duel being fought over fuel economy. Equally optimistic, at least outwardly, was that the General was making much the same boast — i.e., class-leading fuel economy and world-class driving dynamics — for its Chevrolet Cruze. Odd is the vision of U.S. auto executives expostulating about pokey econoboxes with the same teary-eyed fervour they used to reserve for gas-guzzling trucks and muscle cars. Yet, both companies are convinced they can finally build smaller cars — the Fiesta and Focus for Ford and the Aveo and Cruze for GM — at a profit, something considered a complete impossibility but a few short years ago.
Nor was such wide-eyed optimism the sole purview of North American automakers. Volks-wagen plans to double sales in the next three years and wants to hit 800,000 units stateside by 2018, a four-fold increase from the 213,454 vehicles it sold there in 2009. Stefan Jacoby, head of the company's U.S. arm, sees a sales rebound to 11 million to 11.5 million units this year and as much as 15 million annual sales by the middle of the decade, an almost 50% jump from the doldrums of 2009 but still nowhere near the 17.4 million vehicles Americans scooped up in 2000.
Of course, nowhere was the optimism running more rampant than along Cobo Hall's Electric Avenue, a 37,000-square-foot homage to the electron. Far from an industry resistant to change, automakers have completely embraced the electric car despite lingering doubts about their acceptance and the complete lack of an infrastructure to feed them. For instance, Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales, announced that the world's No. 1 automaker will launch an all-electric vehicle in 2012 and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle by 2015, noting that both products will require an all-new refuelling infrastructure to be made viable. Exactly where the money for these new multi-billion-dollar boondoggles will come from was conveniently (a kinder soul might say optimistically) not discussed.
But perhaps the most succinct and telling summation of the different mood emanating from this year's auto show was captured by Ford of Canada CEO David Mondragon. In response to a query about which of the many Ford accomplishments in 2009 gave him the most satisfaction, he said: "I'm most proud that our people — that is our managers, our employees, our customers — welcomed this New Year confident there would be a Ford for the foreseeable future." Added the normally unflappable 24-year Ford veteran, "That wasn't necessarily the feeling at last year's auto show."
Share this Story: What a difference a year makes
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