Motorists pulling for Big 3, but will they buy the cars?
So what’ll it take to get drivers behind the wheel of an American car?
That’s the $20,000 (or more) question after President Obama leaned on Detroit this week to start churning out leaner, meaner and hybrid-happy vehicles as the antidote to plunging sales and financial catastrophe.
Judging from conversations with several dozen drivers at gas stations around town Tuesday, most people want the U.S. auto industry to succeed. But nearly all of those now driving foreign cars said Detroit would have to dazzle if it wanted to win them over.
“People want to buy from General Motors,” said Scott Hilchey, 44, as he filled the tank of his BMW. “They want to buy from Ford. They just don’t want to have to deal with cars that are unreliable. They want to buy something decent.”
That’s the U.S. auto industry’s biggest hurdle -- the perception, fair or unfair, that GM, Ford and Chrysler turn out inferior vehicles compared with their Asian and European brethren.
“American cars aren’t as good,” declared Raul Lopez, 37, while gassing the Ford van he drives for work. His personal vehicle, he said, is a Toyota minivan. “Toyotas are better and less expensive,” he said.
But ask people how they’d feel about buying American if gas again topped $4 a gallon, and they’re suddenly a lot more flexible.
“I’ll be looking for the best bang for my buck,” said Dayna Ditria, 39, while fueling her Volkswagen. “It’s all about the miles per gallon.”
According to AAA, the average regular gas price nationwide was $2.048 a gallon Tuesday, up 8.2 cents from a week earlier. The California average was $2.256, up 9.4 cents from a week earlier. And the peak summer driving season hasn’t even begun yet.
Kimberly Ashton, 32, drives a Volvo station wagon but also has a Toyota Prius at home. If gas creeps anywhere near $4 a gallon again, she said she’d be in the market for another hybrid.
“I would look at the guys with the proven track record -- Toyota and Honda,” she said. “But if there was some kind of incentive, like a tax incentive, that could get me to buy American.”
Others say they’re prepared to pay top dollar for a state-of-the-art American hybrid, but only if Detroit can stand up to its overseas rivals.
“I’m ready to give the American car industry the benefit of the doubt,” said Marc Mertens, 31, as he filled up his Audi. “But they have to convince me that they can make a car that runs as well as a German car.”
This isn’t an unreasonable goal, he added.
“Apple is an American company, not a Japanese company. I don’t see why we couldn’t have an Apple of the automobile industry.”
One of the few drivers I came across who was already driving American was Tony Hosek, 28, who owned a sporty Chrysler Crossfire.
“This is a great car,” he said. “It’s sad that more people don’t think this. People just don’t have confidence in American cars.”
I’m with Hosek. I traded in a very used Toyota RAV4 a couple of years ago for a less-used Chrysler PT Cruiser. I feel like I got a lot of car for my money.
Obama wants to save Chrysler by pushing the company into a shotgun marriage with Italy’s Fiat. Meanwhile, GM’s new chief executive, Fritz Henderson, said Tuesday that a bankruptcy filing was “more probable” after Obama gave the company 60 days to come up with a more aggressive survival plan.
One decision GM still has to make is whether it will be selling or folding its eco-unfriendly Hummer brand.
“I’ll be a sad guy if they kill the Hummer,” said Shawn Boroomand, 35, as he pumped (and pumped) gas into the 23-gallon tank of his big, black Hummer H3. “I’ll be in mourning.”
Boroomand is an unrepentant lover of SUVs, and he adores his Hummer. “This is L.A.,” he said. “You are what you drive.”
But what if gas tops $4 a gallon? Surely he’d want to consider a hybrid.
“Yeah,” Boroomand agreed. “There’s a nice Cadillac Escalade hybrid.”
The more-than-$60,000 Escalade hybrid gets about 20 miles per gallon, which is better than the 12 mpg of its nonhybrid cousin but nowhere close to the 50-mpg Prius.
Look at it this way, though: That’s at least one sale Detroit can count on.
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Bye-bye card fee
Of the various credit-card industry practices I’ve written about in recent weeks, none has drawn more fire from readers than JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s $10 monthly fee for cardholders who have carried large balances for more than two years.
Now even Chase seems to realize what an unfair move that was. As of today, the company will no longer levy the fee and will start refunding all such charges made since November.
Stephanie Jacobson, a Chase spokeswoman, told me the decision to end the fee was made “based on customer feedback.”
But New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement saying he had compelled Chase to stop charging the “illegal” fee and to refund $4.4 million to more than 184,000 cardholders.
“My office will not sit back and allow banks to promise one thing in solicitations and agreements with consumers, and then when times get tough, change the deal, leaving consumers holding the bag,” Cuomo said.
Jacobson said the fee had been imposed to push cardholders into paying down their balances, not to gouge them.
“Customer satisfaction is important to us,” she said.
Of course it is.
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David Lazarus’ column runs Wednesdays and Sundays.
Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.
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