GM Executives Should Read This NOW!

One of my first cars was a 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI (which was rusty red in color). I bought it off of an old mechanic in the early 90’s (sorry, I can’t pinpoint the date closer; all those years seem like a blur to me. God, I miss those days) and it had like 180 thousand miles on it. What the heck was I thinking, you ask? Why would I buy a car with this much mileage on it? Well, I was young and didn’t know any better (plus, my older brother and dad didn’t seem to care about helping me find something better. Jerks). Anyway, this began my back-in-the-day, solid love affair with everything VW made!

This sweet little car of mine took me everywhere and anywhere (the second Woodstock, up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and many other fantastic voyages that I don’t have the time to go over now, or care to explain to the police [4:20 time, anyone? Just kidding! Or am I?]). Not only that, but it never “asked” me for a thing in return — not once did it ever say, “Hey Pete, can you change my alternator?” or “Man, I could go for some brake work!” My buddy was a well-oiled, and solidly built machine — in fact, the only things that I ever had to change on Peter’s Rabbit (yea, that’s what I called him. Stupid, huh?) were the fluids, the two back tires (which were super cheap for this tiny car) the wiper blades and the serpentine belt (after it started to get really raggedly looking).

Other things I did in this car: I taught my sister, Mandy, how to drive in it (even though we got pulled over in the process, and were forced to pay a couple of hefty fines for not obeying the traffic laws). It also moved my sister Christie’s whole dorm room full of stuff back home when she graduated (this small hatchback was filled to capacity). When my favorite car’s time was up (with over 284 thousand miles on the odometer) it ended so tragically, I could cry now! In the same week that it caught fire, and finally died, I had kicked out a thieving roommate (who was stealing our rent) and broke up with a serious girlfriend. You do the math (my calculations were that I would still have my Rabbit if I never met these two)!

Why am I telling you this story, you’re probably asking yourself? Well. I was sitting at a traffic light today at lunchtime, and what pulls up next to me other than a beautifully rusty, ’84 rabbit GTI? Then all those good time memories started to roll through my mind, while I was now stuck in a newer, less fun to own (and American) car that must have work done on it almost constantly (I’m pretty handy with a wrench so it saves me a lot of money. That’s not the point though!). As I look over into this little dream maker, I see a young guy with the biggest smile on his face, and I vaguely remembered how that felt — a long, long time ago, it seems (too long, in fact)!

My message to the American auto industry (that is heading towards bankruptcy if they don’t pull their heads out of their asses) is this: why not make your cars more reliable so that we can have them longer, cheaper to own so more of us can afford them and most importantly: Why not make cars that can put “that” smile back on all of our faces (to be totally honest, you haven’t for a while now. I guess your profit margins and corporate salaries got in the way!).