These clips are not from 1975 but from yesterday’s Globe and Mail:

Toyota Canada Inc. outsold Ford last month and came within a whisker of nudging the Chrysler group out of second spot.
   Sales of Civic compact cars by Honda Canada Inc. totalled more than sales of Ford and Chrysler passenger cars combined.

It’s not just about the wrong type of cars, but about brands that have failed, consistently, to look after customers anywhere nearly as well as the Japanese companies’. While SUVs were doing well, customer service wasn’t job one among the US Big Three. Finding ways to create more fuel-efficient vehicles was not on the radar. Meanwhile, in a repeat of 30 years ago, the Japanese were making cars that spoke to consumers’ interest in social responsibility long before gas prices hit a new high. They might not have thought hybrids would ever become mainstream, but they have been rewarded with good karma. Toyota itself might have been able to overcome the bad karma of being part of the Japanese war machine in the 1930s. (Honda never was.) Both are poised, once again, to win a new generation of consumers. posted by Jack Yan, 9:51 AM  permalink