Assorted Afflatuses

While I hope Senator Barack Obama becomes the next President of the United States, I have long held that his policy vis-à-vis trade takes too projectionist a stance. The New York Times ran a great piece this morning that picked apart some of Senator Obama's statements on trade.

One of those assertions concerned the South Korean auto industry. As the senator correctly notes, the US imports far more cars from South Korea than South Korea imports from the US. Of course, as the Times article explains, South Korea imports very few cars to begin with, and US automakers — well-known for making cars with big engines — suffer from South Korean restrictions designed to minimize the country's environmental impact. European and Japanese automakers, attuned to their domestic markets' demand for small, gas-sipping vehicles, fare better.

But, more than anything, I was shocked that the South Koreans even imported American cars in the first place. In my mind, the American automobile occupies an ugly gray area.

Most cars from Japan or South Korea have stellar reliability, though offer only an adequate driving experience. Cars from Europe, meanwhile, are a dream to drive, but tend to have subpar reliability and cost a bundle to maintain. Of course, the Japanese — especially Toyota's Lexus division — have made huge improvements in their car's handling, and the Europeans, save perhaps Mercedes-Benz, have made reliability improvements.

The American car offers neither amenity: it usually has mediocre reliability and offers a flat, unremarkable driving experience. At the same time, the car usually costs more, lacks essential safety features and has a generally unfinished, cheap feeling. Even people in America seem to agree. Last quarter saw Asian automakers, led by Toyota, sold more cars in the United States than our domestic corporations for the first time. In the high-end market, US consumers clearly view domestic luxury cars as inferior goods, as only now, faced with skyrocketing commodities prices, are they so much as considering the purchase of an American vehicle.

With such a mediocre product on offer, it surprises me that American manufacturers manage to sell cars in the first place. American automakers would probably fare better internationally if they actually produced a product people wanted to buy. People in emerging markets dream of owning an Audi or a BMW, but I have never heard a rising Chinese businessman lust after, say, a Lincoln.

It would take a miracle on the order of The Loaves and the Fishes to convince me I should buy a Ford. Unless some brave American engineer starts her own car company, making remarkable, lust-after-able vehicles I actually want to buy, I doubt I shall ever own an American car.