Toyota's troubles evoke Chevy guy's sympathy

Photo by Patti Keyworth
Flint is proud of its designation as Vehicle City. I’m standing in the rain (it always rains) with my father during a recent visit.


Besides baseball and bad weather, growing up in Michigan was all about cars.

Detroit, after all, was the Motor City (from whence came Motown) and my hometown of Flint was known alternately as the Vehicle City and Buicktown.

Most of my friends parents worked in the car factories. My dad was a tax assessor for the City of Flint – in charge of assessing taxes on the car factories.

No small task, because Flint had a dozen or so factories producing cars or parts. Besides Buick plants, there was Chevrolet, AC Sparkplug and Fisher Body.

As the car industry went, so went Michigan – and Flint was right in the thick of it. As kids, we were almost as excited when the new models were introduced each year as we were when the snow melted enough for us to play catch in the street (the ballfields wouldn’t dry out until weeks later).

During economic downturns, they closed off Saginaw Street, the main drag through downtown Flint, and turned it into a massive car lot with all the local dealers represented. Just to jumpstart car sales.

And we went downtown and bought cars. Because what was good for the car industry was good for us. I remember buying a brand new white Pontiac Tempest on Saginaw Street one year – even though I have always abhorred white cars.

In Michigan back then, you were either a Chevy guy or a Ford guy. Since we were a GM town, most of us were Chevy guys (pronounced “Shivvy” in our finest Midwestern accent) – despite the occasional Tempest or Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon. At least they were General Motors cars.

Most of the Ford guys lived in the Detroit area, where most of the Ford plants were located. It was a very real rivalry, but also a good-natured one. Because the real enemy was anything made in Japan.

There were rumors running rampant that if you drove around Michigan in a Japanese car, it was fair game. You might come back to your vehicle in the shopping center parking lot to find your tires had been slashed.

But more than that, it was a simple matter of loyalty.
I remember looking at the first Toyotas and Datsuns (now Nissans) to be sold in the U.S. in the early 60s. They had the same reputation that some of the Korean cars do now – cheap pieces of junk. I left and went to an American dealership.

It was hard for Japanese cars to get any respect in those days. Remember how Tex Earnhardt – even though he sold them – would refer to Mitsubishis as Mitsubitsies in his “No Bull” commercials.

Of course times changed and the Japanese cars gradually became known for their quality and reliability. They were no longer a laughing matter. In fact, they came to dominate the market.

Until recently.

And I have to tell you, no matter how loyal I am to “Shivvies” (we currently own two), General Motors and American cars, I feel sorry for Toyota and what they’re going through.

In part it’s because a lot of Toyotas are now made right here in the USA. (That wasn’t the case in the early days.)

Anyway, Toyota is going through one amazing string of bad luck. Millions of recalls have been followed by claims that the company has still not fixed the stuck gas pedals and other problems. There are congressional hearings. Some people have even wondered why the head guy doesn’t commit suicide – in that grand Japanese tradition.

I also feel sorry for them because it could happen to any car company. And as much as I want to see General Motors take advantage of this lapse in the image of Japanese vehicles, I can’t help but believe that Toyota stills builds very good cars – and they have made the American car companies a lot better in the process.

But I kind of miss the good old days back in Michigan where you were either a Ford person or a Chevy person, and I find it very Interesting that here in the Rim Country we have one Ford dealer and one Chevy dealer. Oh, they may sell other stuff, but they are basically Ford and Chevy dealers.

How appropriate that one is in Payson and the other in Star Valley. Because now that they’re not fighting with each other over water, and now that Toyota has proven that Japanese cars are vulnerable, maybe we can reignite a good old Ford-Chevy feud.

Star Valley could set its photo enforcement cameras to nail Chevys at a couple miles per hour lower than Fords.

Then the Town of Payson could retaliate by putting a toll fee on all Fords entering town – at least all Fords entering town from the east. Might help reduce that glaring budget deficit.

This is, after all, the Wild West – where sheep and cows and water have always beein fightin’ words. And there are a whole lot of old Midwesterners like myself living here in the Rim Country with long memories.

The nostalgia of it all.