Japanese Cars - There Should Be No Backlash

I came across this article about the dominance of Japanese cars in the US market, and how the Japanese car manufacturers fear some sort of trading backlash if they continue to kick our butts. I had a couple of thoughts on that.

First off, there should be no backlash. If the Japanese can produce a better car and sell it for less, then we need to kick the tails of our over-compensated, under performing unionized factory workers, and get them producing more for less cost.

However, it is not just a problem of a lousy unionized work force. A lot of the problem that I think the US manufacturers are having comes down to one of simple design. For example, we have two cars, both Pontiac. One is the Vibe (which is really a Toyota Matrix with a different name). The other is a Sunfire (which is true GM all the way). The pretty much Toyota through and through Vibe is a far, far better designed vehicle than the Sunfire. It is way more ergonomic, the interior bits are all of a higher quality, the general build quality is far better. Heck, even the seats are way more comfortable. Lest one think that it is just because the Sunfire is pretty much the entry level Pontiac, we also test drove other Pontiacs (Iike the Grand Prix) at the time we got the Vibe. There is just a world of difference in the quality of workmanship and design that went into the Toyota built Vibe over the standard GM fair.

So, bottom line, if the American cars can't compete, they really need to look dealing with their unionized labor problems, and at getting some designers who know what the heck they are doing.