“Isn’t it painful watching the U.S. teams get beaten in a game that we used to own? And I’m not talking about basketball or golf; I’m talking automobiles,” Dale Dauten writes for King Features Syndicate.
“The U.S. auto brands are running up a historic losing streak. Where will it end? Project it out on a graph, and the U.S. auto industry is . . . is . . . wait a minute, where did it go? Oh, there it is – on the carpet,” Dauten writes. “Could the American auto industry disappear? Impossible. But then, that’s what I would have said about American brands of televisions a couple of decades ago.”
Dauten writes, “We need a hero, a giant. I don’t think the new guy who’s going to run Ford is the one, but let’s hope. (Alan Mulally is from Boeing, which is not a hopeful sign. If you want to make a Pinto seem like a bit of heaven, get into one after coming off an airplane.) No, we need Steve Jobs to start an auto company. Hey, Steve, come on. You’re probably a bit bored with Macs and iPods and Pixar, so give it a shot. I’ll place an order for one of your cars right upfront, and I bet there are plenty of others like me.”
Dauten writes, “I’m begging you, Steve Jobs, to start a car company. You understand that it’s not about being the cheapest; it’s about being the coolest by being the most functional and a joy to use. We need less Detroit and more California, and you’re the one for the job. I don’t want a Gates or a Trump; I want a Jobs. Let me know, and I’ll send a deposit check.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: No better time than now to trot out the old chestnut (slightly updated):
If Microsoft Built Cars…
1. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you’d have to buy a new car.
2. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you’d have to restart it. For some strange reason, you’d just accept this, restart and drive on.
3. Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you’d have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you’d just accept this too.
4. Apple would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive–but most people wouldn’t know it or believe it.
5. Apple car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
6. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single “General Car Fault” warning light.
7. People would get excited about the “new” features in Microsoft cars, not knowing that they had been available in Apple’s cars for many years.
8. Microsoft cars would come with 5-year-old Apple car paint jobs, but they’d be the same crappy Microsoft car underneath.
9. The airbag system would say “Are you sure?” before going off.
10. If you were involved in a crash, you’d have no idea what happened.
There are more, but we’ll spare you.
They need Ives as well
RE: “it’s about being the coolest by being the most functional and a joy to use.”
uh, they’re called BMW, Volvo, Mercedes, etc…
While not “American” companies, more of these cars are manufactured/ assembled in the US than US models these days.
no. 5 looks wrong. Shouldn’t it be Microsoft car owners??????
11. Sometimes slamming on the breaks will stop the cars. Other times the car will instead accelerate
12. To start the engine you would have to open the door and pretend you are leaving
13. To stop the engine you would have to turn the ignition key, get in 1st gear and accelerate all at same time
It’s not Ives, it’s Ive. There’s just ONE of him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_ive
Volvo is now an American company.
Why would he need to “start” a car company? With its current bank account, Apple could probably buy (or become the majority shareholder in) a smaller car company and make “Apple cars.” Actually, there are no “small” US car makers, so they should make a deal with GM and Toyota to use part of the capacity of the NUMMI plant in nearby (to Cupertino) Frement, CA.
That would be pretty cool, actually.
Yes image (branding) goes a long way in selling a product but first you need a quality product. Honestly I just don’t believe American cars are of the same quality as most of the foreign cars. I have several friends who need to buy a new American car after 5 or 6 years because of the start of some major problems. I on the other hand am still driving my 12 year old poor man’s Lexus (94 Toyota Camry) which does have a few minor problems – but the engine and transmission are still going strong.
Peace.
If apple made cars:
1. You could only fuel up with Apple Gas @ Apple Brand Gas Stations (due to use of a mag-safe fuel nozzle system)
2. If someone made allow rims for your car, they’ve have to pay a royalty to Apple.
3. A few people who drive them would incur road rage from other cars, because of zealotry and arrogance.
4. While doing some intensive task, your beachball-coloured icon on the dash would start spinning and you couldn’t operate any other program without waiting until it was done.
5. It would have a really powerful engine, but since it would overheat in their subcompact cars, they’d switch to the tried and true INTErnaL Combustion… Apple would pass this switch as a Good thing.
6. It would be available in one color and design. white, minimalist. You could pay more for black though.
7. The Steering wheel wouldn’t turn. (It’s a touch-sensitive click wheel)
8. If the car is idling for too long it would go into sleep mode. To wake it up you’d have to hope you didn’t have any non-apple electronic things like a stereo… or you’d have to restart the car.
9. There would only be one pedal. Gas. To brake you hold down the command button on the click steering wheel and stomp on the gas. (Two pedals is too hard to figure out)
10. Beachball coloured Airbags
Have you all missed:
http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1
To Lurker_PC,
I tend to agree, but here I think its Microsoft thinking in the US auto industry.
Develop something and then try and sell it to the public.
Change something old that used to sell well, make it cheaper and hope people will think its the old car.
Never try anything new that solves a customer problem. That risks the companies money and who needs customers anyway.
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And repeating number 1, make what ever crap you can make cheap and make lots of money on, then try to sell it to the customer. They are stupid, they will buy anything.
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JMHO
N.
“Isn’t it painful watching the U.S. teams get beaten in a game that we used to own?”
Not really…no.
Most “American” cars are mostly foreign parts anyway. There’s nothing really “American” about a Ford Focus or a Chevy Cobalt. Just read the window sticker and see he percentages of foreign vs. domestic parts. And most “American” cars aren’t built in the United States anyway.
By “American” they mean “American”…not the “United States”.
I’ll bet Steve Jobs gets all kinds of crazy requests like this.
@gorufo
Ok, some of that was funny, some of it wasn’t, and some of it is no longer applicable or makes little sense.
Let’s use the proper sillygisims here.
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Dale Dauten “Dull-ten” is having a s…l….o….w news day! Stupid idiot, the car thing has been done to death before! At least try something new to bore us!
@gorufo:
That’s what happens when one of you people tries to be funny. Like that dumbass comic strip “Mallard Filmore.”
Thanks MDN–oldie but goodie
That car company is already there, tiny, it’s name is -Tesla- in Silicon Valley …
As long as it’s all wheel drive like a Subaru–I’m in! Put me down for one.
Its called globalisation – get used to it.
In fact, take a plane trip to another country and see that there is a world of nice people out there who buy lots of other American stuff and also make cars.
Would Micro$oft call their car a “Zoom?”
Whatever they call it, you know it would come to a screeching halt in the middle of the highway–dead, and not start up again without rebuilding the motor.
Plus it would be built with no locks on the doors and the key permanently in the ignition so anybody could steal it.
To gorufo…
Hey, you must be some of those “OAXACAS” people that bites the hand that bites them…
Even if what you say is true, would it be worthy to pay “apple” products only if they are really cool and they really work well? or do you prefer to buy expensive useless devices even if they do no t work just to be contrary to a company? then you really have a problem in your head, you must be like those people on the Oxaca conflict in mexico, they do not know why they are fighting, they just do because some one whose is in a expensive hotel room told them to do that. That is exactly you,, you do not know why, but some one told you to do so and you just do it. Don’t you think that is great to use your own brain?
@gorufo: Some of yours made me laugh. It’s true: Apple does have their own quirks and annoyances.
@MDN take: Would have been clever if it had been more original.
The American car companies are getting hammered by unions, flooded by subsidized steel (hello, China), and screwed by an American economy that despite growing well is still anti-competative. Look at how much of a burden business pays with covering Social Security and Medicade for all of its workers, not to mention healthcare. So it’s time to innovate guys. The Tesla company is doing that. Too few visionaries run car companies anymore, and that’s the problem — even losing millions of dollars a year doesn’t convince them to change.
Dodge almost had it, for a while.
STEVE JOBS:
Where is my APPLE Rewards Visa Card? Other LOYALISTS have SONY Rewards Visa Card: DISNEY Rewards Visa Card: ESPN Rewards Visa Card!
Actually, I suggested such a thing on this forum about three years ago. If Jobs and Ive started designing a Mac car I would pre-order one in a flash knowing it would be more spectacular than all the boring look-alikes that clutter our roads now.
IdiotBustedHisSkull sez :
The American car companies are getting hammered by unions, flooded by subsidized steel (hello, China), and screwed by an American economy that despite growing well is still anti-competative.
Ahhh, that must be why Honda, Toyota, Mercedes and BMW all have hugely successful manufacturing operations…in the United States.
Hell, every Honda Accord *in the world* is made at their Ohio and Tennesee plants.
Nothing at ALL to do with GM and Ford’s over-reliance on gas-guzzling SUV’s and government handouts. Nothing at ALL to do with lackluster, me-too design and craptacular fit&finish;.
Good lord, you would THINK that these dumbasses could remember at least a few years back…this is 1979 all over again for them…what’s next? The new and improved (it would have to be!) K-car?