Oh How the Mighty Fall

Remember the "Big Three"? You know, those three American powerhouse car manufactures, each with their many subsidiaries, which dominated the automobile world?

Now, you probably have a good idea on where this article is going, and you may be wondering, ‘why write about this now, isn’t it last year’s news?’ To an extent, yes you’re right. This entry however comes on the heels of General Motors announcing that Hummer, their iconic SUV brand, is getting the axe.

From what we’ve been told, GM shopped around the sale of Hummer initially. I mean, who wouldn’t want to own one of the most recognizable truck brands around? Well, apparently no one. I guess these are the times. Everything now must be green, smaller, more attainable, everything that Hummer is not.

However I digress. I can write something entirely on green sustainability in the future.

Let’s continue with General Motors then. Once the largest car company in the world, now a company that is only still alive because the American and Canadian governments bailed them out of bankruptcy.

Quite the turnaround.

They are starting to ‘get it’ though. Their products in the last year or two have been of improved quality and design. Reliability has been on an upward trend. They may finally be seeing what the Japanese and Germans are doing right, and following suit.

But at what cost? We’ve already been over Hummer: Dead. Last year brought the demise of an actually improving Saturn. And Pontiac! The company that produced its first automobile over one-hundred years ago in 1907: Dead. That one was a shame. Then came the brands that GM had no business owning in the first place. Saab: if it wasn’t for a last minute pitch from Spyker, they too would have been given the axe. All of Sweden would have revolted. Let’s not forget Oldsmobile and Daewoo, both killed of years ago.

So, I suppose the larger question in all of this is: Was it worth it?

Was it worth it to become so big and so powerful that, much like Rome, it would all collapse? That all those iconic car companies would be simply killed off?

And it’s not just GM. I’m not forgetting about Ford, a company that had to rid its self of its entire Premier Auto Group and settle for Lincoln and Mercury (not entirely sure why they still exist) as it’s only two subsidiaries. And Chrysler, now a subsidiary themselves of parent Fiat. Ouch.

So really, was it worth all that Power?

I don’t really know.