The following is an excerpt from 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney. The commentary was broadcast this past Sunday December 11, 2005.
When I was a kid, we often went on long trips in our car and I used to pass the time by counting the different kinds of cars coming in the other direction. There were always a lot of Oldsmobiles, Plymouths, Durants, Buicks, Studebakers, Fords and Packards.
Kids couldn’t play that game anymore because every brand of car has several different names. You don’t pass a just plain Dodge. It’s a Durango, a Ram, a Dakota or a Charger. How do they come up with these names?
Can’t you just imagine ten executives sitting around an office in Detroit. One vice president says “How about calling it a Durango.” One of the guys who works for him says “Hey, great, Chief. What a perfect name for a car. Durango! I wish I’d thought of that.”
One full page ad says “Milan Can Kick It Into Another Gear When The Competition Can’t.” Do you know what kind of a car a “Milan” is? I never heard of it. It’s a kind of Mercury apparently. Mercury is some kind of a Ford, of course. They also sell a Mercury Mariner, a Mercury Mountaineer and a Mercury Montego. Who would have decided “Montego” was a good name for a Ford car? Full Story
Naming cars was one way to pass the time while on long car trips, but a better more fun game was to try to find a liscence plate from every state. Can’t do that any more as most every plate is white. They used to be colorful and could be identified by the uniqueness of the design.
By BJM. January 2nd, 2006 at 11:47 amOk, here’s the question nobody seems to be able to answer in a way that satisfies me. In what area are the American auto manufactureres so far behing the imports in quality? Fit and finsh?….I see no difference. The Japanese cars rust just as badly or worse here in the salt belt as the domestics. The mechanics?…..The Big 3 have made great strides to improve performance along with fuel economy. Their cars are certainly the equal of or superior to the foreign cars in this catagory. So what the heck is this “quality issue”? Not enough cup holders, inferior seat warmers or some other triviality that has nothing to do with automotive quality. Granted, I live in an area that depends on the auto production for it’s existence, so there are fewer imports sold here than say in California.
As to names, I’ll grant that Ford has done a worse job of naming it’s new models that any other manufacturer. “Fusion” sounds like a laboratory experiment, “Focus” sounds like what one does with a camera, “Mariner” sounds as if you should be able to drive it on land and water etc. But who really cares?
By Jan. January 1st, 2006 at 9:17 pmRooney doesn’t know jack about automobiles.
By Smelt. December 26th, 2005 at 6:59 pmWhile his point is salient- American Auto makers are still behind in quality- Rooney glaringly shows he is in no way a car guy. Even when he was young and identifying the cars by the manufacturer, all those models had names. He did just not know them or care to know them. Yes, the Big Three need to invest more into build quality, but how a vehicle looks, it’s name and the advertising used to promote it are a big factor in sales- more so initially. Quality will improve repeat buyers and the ever-so-important word of mouth advertising that you just cannot buy.
By Langley. December 14th, 2005 at 3:57 pm