GM and Ford have announced they are getting out of the car business.
Although they sell hundreds of thousands of these vehicles each year, somehow
they are not desired by the public, passed over by SUV owners, or too expensive
to produce, per GM. After May of next year, such iconic names as Taurus,
Impala, and some Cadillac models will be gone. It seems 75% of the vehicles
sold are trucks, with the market for cars shrinking. It seems that Ford has
chosen to be smart and is keeping the Mustang, but an SUV model is rumored. A
Mustang with a usable back seat? Also no word on the Camaro, although its sales
are dipping too. No word from FIAT who owns Chrysler and is selling all the
Jeeps it can make and is bringing out its own small truck in the spring, as is
Ford, bringing back the Ranger. Even my wife the Mustang convertible driver
said if looking for a new car, er vehicle, would want to sit up, but won’t give
up her Mustang. So maybe a hint for you car owners, think ahead, in 20 years
your sedan of today will be collectible for no other reason than they don’t make
them anymore. How will you explain to your grandkids you used to drive a car
once? “Grandpa, what’s a trunk? They really had one of those?” Are we
witnessing the ending of our horse and buggy era?
But still want a car, with a trunk to hide things, Toyota and Honda have
assured you they are staying in the car business. “Oh what a feeling” may only
come from across the pond anymore, as American made will mean trucks and foreign
cars. Now I have had a few trucks in my time, for cutting wood, and what
motorcycle owner can do without one, but still like a car. Maybe showing my age
or ignorance, pulling up in a sports car on convertible on a warm summer night,
top down, and V-8 growling, gets my attention. Trucks are still a truck to me,
but then I ride motorcycles, and cannot fit any of my bikes in the trunk of the
Mustang. So without being practical or agreeing to disagree, we need cars.
They are our heritage, our history, and I hope still in my future. But maybe
some names may give you an insight as to who they are, as opposed to what they
are.
Harley Davidson, Ford, and even GM are all Motor companies, says so right
in their names. Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and the Motor Company.
They just make forms of transportation, and at the heart of it all I quote
Alfred P. Sloan, who was the architect of GM, and its CEO and President in its
heyday. “GM is not in the business of making cars, but in the business of
making money.” And there you have it. Finally, it is all about the money, and
if they can make more money on trucks, you get trucks. When looking your choice
is what is on the lot, and trucks it is. Go to a Toyota store, it’s car, then
trucks. Same with Honda. Looking for an economy car, for our economical
needs....start thinking used. So much for Henry Ford who said “it is a poor
company that makes only money.” But poor companies don’t make it.....
So as we are encouraged to jump on the truck bandwagon, it is harder to
tell the brand apart. They all begin to look alike, with exceptions like the
Raptor, that sell for $20-30 thousand over list, no dickering, or the short
wheelbase work truck. Shopping for a four door, look at a new sedan truck.
With one thing missing, the trunk. Oops, and the don’t fit in the garage, too
tall. Which in So Cal doesn’t matter, no one uses their garage for cars anymore
except me. You ought to hear the comments....another anachronism right before
our very eyes. So vehicles choices soon will not include cars, only in religion
will we find more choices....
There was a time when it was either Gentile or Jew. With no other
choices. Then religion came along, using the word Christian to describe it, and
it was either Catholic or Protestant. But today with dozens of denominations
reaching out with their version of God, in too many cases he is not available.
Churches have become a place to make a political or social statement, neglecting
Jesus. It is hard to go by a strip mall without some new fellowship popping up,
promising to do it better that those that came before, as they pass the
collection plate. Seems some things are just to hard to give up. But how God
sees things is more telling, and his truth will set you free, if you let him.
God loves us all equally, while still sinners he sent Jesus to die for us, but
he sees us as saved or unsaved. No middle of the road. In him you get
everything, in religion you only get what they offer. So why is it so hard to
make the right choice?
Jesus came to separate the sheep from the goats. Not to unite us with each
other, but to reunite us with God in heaven. As I get the bulletins via email,
most asking for money, some advertising selling trees, or other holiday goodies,
I wonder where Jesus is? But then remember he is at the right hand of God, the
most favored position, but he left his spirit, who is readily denied. But with
the only power and ability to reunite us. The Bible tells of a day when the
lion will sit down with the lamb, we get the Lions playing the Rams. But Jesus
tells us churches are to be judged, as are the individuals in them. It will not
be what the market bears, but who Jesus is and who they choose to serve. You
may live and breath a religion, a denomination, or even a belief, only knowing
Jesus will get you to heaven. Yet in a market driven economy, how popular is it
to be a Christian?
AAA may tow your car, the dealer may honor a warranty, but who will you
honor and honor you on judgment day? Cars change, who would have thought
driving a truck would be fashionable? Not June Cleaver, who had a fit her boys
rode in one. Is what you drive more important than whom you believe in?
Consider Jesus today, there was a time when there was no substitute for cubic
inches, or no replacement for displacement. But there has never been a
replacement for Jesus. He is the still the way, no matter what you drive or the
size of your payment. Forgiveness never goes out of style, or does mercy and
grace. The only choice we don’t have is that we will all take our last ride in
the same vehicle, a hearse. But who is behind the wheel and where it is going
will make all the difference. Who drives you makes all the difference. And no,
the disciples were all in one accord, not stuffed into one! With apologies to
the Grateful Dead, “truckin’, got my chips cashed in...”
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com