The global financial crisis is suffocating the Detroit automakers, but the problems at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have been festering for years -- even when the mighty "Big Three" were earning billions. Aging factories, inflexible unions, arrogant executives and shoddy quality have all damaged Detroit. Now, with panicky consumers fleeing showrooms, catastrophe looms: Without a dubious federal bailout, all three automakers face the prospect of bankruptcy.

There will be plenty of business-school case studies analyzing all the automakers' wrong turns. But, as they say in the industry, it all comes down to product. So here are 10 cars that help explain the demise of Detroit.



Ford PintoFord Pinto
This ill-fated subcompact came to epitomize the arrogance of Big Auto. Ford hurried the Pinto to market in the early 1970s to battle cheap imports like the Volkswagen Beetle that were selling for less than $2,000. Initial sales were strong, but quality problems emerged. Then came the infamous safety problems with exploding fuel tanks, which Ford refused to acknowledge. Message: The customer comes last. "The problems for the domestics really started in the '70s when they were offering cars like the Pinto up against higher-tech, better-built Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics," says Jack Nerad of Kelley Blue Book.



Chevrolet CavalierChevrolet Cavalier
GM sold millions of Cavaliers in the 1980s -- and decided the thrifty car was so successful the company didn't need to update it for more than a decade. To milk the model, GM even added some lipstick and high heels and tried to peddle the upgrade as the Cadillac Cimarron -- a legendary flop. Honda and Toyota, meanwhile, were updating their competing models every four or five years, and grabbing market share with each quality improvement. A new Cavalier came out in the mid 1990s -- then languished for another decade, while GM put most of its money into big trucks and SUVs. GM has since improved its small cars. "But they have to be miles better than the imports for Americans to forget how bad their small cars used to be," says Jamie Page Deaton of U.S. News's Rankings and Reviews car-ranking site. Even if they are better, many Americans wonder why they should give Detroit a second-or third-chance.



Chevrolet AstroChevrolet Astro
While Chrysler, Toyota, and Honda were refining their minivans in the 1990s and coming up with innovations like hideaway seats and electric sliding doors, GM was offering an old, truck-based van gussied up with carpeting and cupholders. "It showed GM's repeated failure to market competitive products based on styling and packaging," says Tom Libby of J. D. Power & Associates. The Astro drove like a bread truck, and consumers noticed. It also earned the worst safety ratings in its class. Before long, GM was effectively out of the minivan segment. No biggie -- those were just mainstream American families the automaker decided to ignore.



Ford TaurusFord Taurus
Try to explain this logic: After its 1986 debut, the Taurus became a perennial bestseller. So for the next 20 years, Ford let quality decline and neglected the family sedan, while pouring love and money into trucks and SUVs. By early this decade, the Taurus had become a dowdy, rental-lot staple. So Ford simply retired the Taurus in 2006 and replaced it with the 500 sedan -- which went on to set records as one of the most short-lived models ever. A year later, Ford revived the Taurus name and applied it to a bastardized 500. But by then, the damage was done.



Ford ExplorerFord Explorer
This breakout vehicle helped launch SUVs and drove record profits at Ford in the 1990s, as Americans flocked to big utilities that could take them off-road if they ever got adventurous. It also blinded Ford to the future. "Executives could not see beyond the green piling up at their feet," says David Magee, author of How Toyota Became No. 1. "The Explorer helped create an addiction that lasted 15 years." GM and Chrysler followed right behind, with SUVs like the Chevy Trailblazer and the Dodge Durango -- lockstep moves that reveal how the Detroit automakers focused on each other rather than the broader marketplace.



Jaguar X-TypeJaguar X-Type
Ford bought the British luxury brand Jaguar in 1990, when all three Detroit automakers were seeking ways to expand their global reach. Eventually, Ford decided to build an entry-level Jaguar starting at around $30,000 for people looking to move up from, say, a Mercury Marquis. The down-market move "represented everything that Jaguar is not," says Libby of J. D. Power. The X-Type was built on an ordinary sedan platform from elsewhere in Ford's lineup, and the front-wheel-drive system underwhelmed enthusiasts used to rear-drive European makes. Jag purists were horrified, and aspiring luxury buyers shunned the X-Type in favor of BMWs, Lexuses, and Acuras. After fumbling the luxury brand for nearly two decades, Ford sold Jaguar to an Indian conglomerate in 2008.



Hummer H2Hummer H2
It sure seemed cool back in 2003, when gas was less than $2 per gallon. And it sure seems gaudy now. This supersized SUV clearly had a heyday, but it also helped paint parent company GM as an enviro-hostile corporation that sold only gas guzzlers. Sales collapsed as gas prices rose toward $4 a gallon in mid-2008, and GM has been trying to sell the division for six months -- with no takers, so far. "GM wanted to make Hummer a signature company brand," says Magee. "Instead, it showed the company was out of touch with the needs of the 21st century."



Toyota PriusToyota Prius
While GM was spending $1 billion to build up the Hummer franchise, Toyota was spending $1 billion to develop a high-mileage hybrid -- even though gas prices were still low. After the Prius debuted in the United States in 2000, GM execs seized yet another opportunity to display their intimate knowledge of American consumers, arguing that hybrids didn't make economic sense and that only environmentalists would buy them. Today, Toyota can barely keep up with demand for the Prius, and it has plans to start building them in the United States. GM, meanwhile, is scrambling to rush hybrids and other high-mileage cars into dealerships -- far too late.



Chrysler SebringChrysler Sebring
Did Chrysler engineers set out to build the world's most boring car? Of course not. Yet Chrysler still produces this blandmobile to keep assembly lines running and maintain a presence, however weak, in the sedan market. In the new Darwinian auto industry, this model seems destined for extinction, since the only way to sell marginal cars is with steep discounts, which money-losing automakers can no longer afford. In fact, if Chrysler ends up being carved into pieces and sold to competitors, as many analysts expect, most of its passenger-car lineup could get the axe, since there's little to distinguish it. Besides -- what's a sebring, anyway?



Jeep CompassJeep Compass
Quick, what's the difference between the Jeep Compass, the Jeep Liberty, and the Jeep Patriot? The bosses at Chrysler, which owns Jeep, could explain, but the real answer is that Chrysler has oversaturated its strongest brand lineup in a desperate attempt to boost sales. "The Compass is not needed," says James Bell of Intellichoice.com. "Just the Liberty, please." The Compass has the same mechanical underpinnings as the Dodge Caliber, which helps illustrate one of Detroit's favorite tricks: Create multiple versions of every product under a bunch of different brand names, hoping that if buyers shun one, they'll take a more favorable view of another. Message to Detroit: Consumers aren't that stupid. Give them a bit more credit, and you might have a future.

The Compass has the same mechanical underpinnings as the Dodge Caliber, which helps illustrate one of Detroit's favorite tricks: Create multiple versions of every product under a bunch of different brand names, hoping that if buyers shun one, they'll take a more favorable view of another.

Honda Acura Nissan Infiniti Toyota Lexus?

Yahtzee!

No kidding right? No a G35 isnt a 350Z!

both models are based off elements the Nissan FM platform..."along with the Japanese skyline" so yeah! almost the same car...

I love my little Cavalier. Jinxie was the best!

Do you name every car? I just call mine a POS...?

Yes I do. I had Jinxie, Hertsi, Wilbur, and CatchUp.

Agreed! I loved my Sunfire, even though I didn't fit in it to save my life. They were very dependable cars

Interesting.. I'm gonna call mine Hurricane betty cuz its the tits.

I just meant that theyre on the same playform.. Thats like trying to argue a Capri and a Mustang arent on the fox chassis

Good deal!

i named my car(91 LX) after my wife.......

^haha

If I did that mine would be called bitch lol sorry Fina!

i hope something good happens with jaguar

hold up, why is ford in those posters? its the only one that hasnt taken any money from uncle sam.

one hell of a point there, i think it was just more directed at the US automakers

Guilty by association.
Ford was just trying to back the industry.
Ford doesn't need the money right now,but does have some connection to the fall of the industry as a whole.
If Ford would have stayed out of it,people would be putting them on a pedestal right now.
I wonder if it was a bad decision for Ford to get involved.They may have jumpstarted Ford sales if they had just sat on the sidelines.


Hindsight is 20/20

damn those other two loser brands, bringing ford down with them.

damn GM to hell

lol! if i was to name all the cars i have owned i would need one of those baby name books. i have had way too many cars

dont see the Vega or Edsel on the list...those cars are on every list ..lol

jesus christ was there a need to dig up a 2 year old thread holy crap?

I think that GM is by far the major culprit here. Granted, Ford has made mistakes, but any business makes mistakes. They dealt with it in stride and came back from it. And, as it has been mentioned, Ford did not need to take the bailout Money that GM and Chrysler did.

Chrysler has been struggling for years due to unimaginative designs and basically a stale feel to their cars. Mechanically they aren't great, but they aren't the worst either. The started to do the retro design, took it too far by making every car in the line have that look, offered nothing that people actually wanted, and it just went downhill from there. At this point all that is keeping chrysler afloat is Jeep and their Minivans.

Now, on to GM. As I said, GM is really the major culprit here. They for years have been decreasing quality and raping the customers. I have yet to find a GM car that is truly worth buying that isn't a specialty product or costs over 60k. And even then, I don't think that i would want to spend that kind of money on a GM product. Their cars are cheaply made, and expensive to buy. For a while it worked for them, so Ford and Chrysler looked to the GM formula and began to copy it. However, the other 2 got smart and moderated how far they would let their quality drop whereas GM did not. And lo and behold, GM is the company that needs the most bailing out. GM is single-handedly responsible for destroying the economy of Detroit (and MI as a whole really).

Rather than the government getting involved by bailing out GM, I say have the government force GM to break up and sell...let car companies who can actually make a decent product make GM cars from now on. Fuck GM, Fuck their execs, and Fuck what they have done to the city of Detroit, the State of Michigan, This country, and the world.

Although I think Chrysler makes the worst products out of the Big 3, I do agree that the Great Motor City and the state of Michigan has fallen apart due to the epic fall of GM. CJ's family worked for GM for years and she can attest to what has happened to that company and how MI has fallen into misery.

I'll never forget the look on Alan Mullaley's face at the congressional hearing.
It was like a light went on.
**Fuck..these guys are really in big trouble**
**We're not doing that bad.I think we can do some PR work on this one.**

Comes his turn to speak.
"We're not doing that bad,we just want a line of credit"
"Ford is working on top of the line technology in fuel mileage,Horse Power,safety and durability."
Ford is blah blah blah blah.



guy's a genius!

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stor...25/daily48.html

I feel the same way and I own a GM KARR. I feel betrayed by GMs arrogance. GM Killed my beloved Pontiac and Oldsmobile. They first made them build cars that people did not want to by or denied them the tools for success.

But the UAW and the government had a role play in the fall of Detroit

The UAW- they got outrageous healthcare benefits which equals legacy costs (when you retire from GM you got a free all expenses paid Cadillac healthcare after you retire from GM. GM was completely stupid for agreeing to this )

The government- by putting heavy CAFÉ and emission standards on the big three when times are tight. They could of let the free market take care of it or wait until times got better like the 1980's.


GM can burn in Hell for all I care

when you dance with the devil you will get buirned

..not just the UAW and the Gov. but also the the top people at GM helped too, The company was in the hole and they still gave big money to the top managers knowning
GM was the sinking ship...

i agree entirely and i wanted to add to what RSX2nr posted

GM has been run by moronic bean counters since the 1960's that drove the company under

the UAW, morons at the helm at GM, and the government acted as a triangle of death for GM

May GM burn in hell

when you dance with the devil you will get burned

A body replacement ftl