Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 13, 1992 TAG: 9201130011
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN FLESHER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
U.S. AUTOMAKERS FINDING LITTLE SYMPATHY AT HOME
The editorial cartoon depicts a huge, hulking football player with "Detroit" emblazoned on his jersey."No fair! He keeps hitting me!" he whines to the referee, a George Bush look alike.
The big guy points toward an undersized but trim player wearing a "Japan" jersey who scampers across the goal line, triumphantly waving the ball.
It's typical of the ridicule heaped upon the chairmen of the Big Three U.S. automakers by the Japanese media during their visit last week.
Except that this particular dart wasn't thrown by the Japanese. It was the work of a Chicago Tribune cartoonist.
And it underscores a big problem for the U.S. auto industry and its congressional allies in their struggle to knock down Japanese trade barriers and stave off further Japanese gains in the American auto market.
The problem is: The Americans haven't convinced enough of their fellow citizens, let alone the Japanese, that their grievances are legitimate.
Japanese car sales in the United States have risen steadily for decades, and they now claim about 33 percent of the U.S. market. The Big Three's share has fallen from 100 percent in the mid-1950s to around 60 percent today.
And U.S. automakers face continued sluggish sales, increased competition and more red tape in the coming decade, the University of Michigan said in a bleak industry forecast.
Only modest growth in the North American market is expected in the next 10 years, according to the annual report scheduled for release today by the university's Transportation Research Institute.
The U.S. passenger car market is expected to grow just 1.1 percent annually over the next 10 years, the institute said. By contrast, demand for import models will grow by 2.1 percent.
The university based its forecast on surveys of executives and engineers at North American automakers and their suppliers, who discussed industry trends in materials, technology and marketing.
The Big Three grudgingly acknowledge their quality fell in the 1970s and early 1980s and the Japanese took advantage of it. But the American companies say those days are over, and industry analysts agree that U.S. quality has improved.
But buyers have been slow to respond.
"If you bought a clunker six years ago, the product today may be terrific but your impression of what they're doing is based on a 6-year-old experience," said Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute, a research group partially funded by the automakers.
During the visit to Japan, editorial writers and commentators of all ideological stripes lambasted the chairmen of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors and belittled their complaints of unfair competition.
"Blaming Japan, particularly, for our problems is a national pastime," wrote conservative columnist George Will.
Liberal columnist Richard Cohen echoed Japanese criticism of the Big Three chairmen for their million-dollar salaries - far more than their Japanese counterparts are paid.
Meanwhile, U.S. companies are posting billions of dollars in losses and laying off thousands of workers.
"Americans look on with both dismay and anger as things get worse in this country but corporate pay goes up and up," Cohen wrote, suggesting that the executives who accompanied Bush to Japan stay there awhile. "They could learn something."
The U.S. automakers have themselves to blame for the lack of sympathy from their compatriots, says Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. Her group for years has criticized the industry's resistance to tougher fuel-efficiency and safety standards.