An Ode to the Motor Vehicle

I contemplated writing an obituary for Pontiac when GM announced that the make was being cut a few months ago. The truth though was that it had died long ago. Pontiac had been making unmemorable cars for almost 20 years. The Firebird, the GTO were long gone, belongings of a bygone era. "A failure of leadership “from Washington to Detroit” over the years has led the industry to the brink of collapse", paraphrases the New York Times on Obama's ultimatum to the US car industry. He speaks not just of mismanagement of finances (unsustainable pension payments) but of the production of gas-guzzlers that are expensive to drive (read oil prices exploding last year) and costlier still on the environment. There is little to say on their mismanagement that has not been said already.

The public sacking of Rick Wagoner is long overdue but that it has had to come from the President of the United States shows the sort of mess the company is in. Wagoner saw it coming and was making appearances on the Colbert Report advertising the Chevrolet Volt which was supposed to make all the pain go away. Colbert's jokes about plugging the Volt into his Hummer led to an unnatural laugh from Wagoner. The Damocles sword has clearly hung over his head for too long yet I cannot feel any sympathy for him. Men like him have destroyed the car, making it an expensive means of conveyance rather than a work of art as it used to be. He along with others have betrayed the legacy of industry stalwarts from Henry Ford to Enzo Ferrari and John DeLorean to Lee Iacocca. What must Iacocca be thinking when he sees the company he led through an exhaustive bailout in 1979 being commanded to merge with Fiat? Fiat itself has been run into the ground by the latter generations of the Agnelli family. Why should they survive as one entity? Mercedes Benz and Chrysler was a disastrous marriage just 10 years ago. Few have the right to hold their head high in this fiasco.

I am incensed most that the car as we have known it is dying out. Vehicles like Tata Nano dominate the Indian news while other hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic have been doing the rounds for some time. For all their worldy benefits they do not make the heart skip a beat. The curves were lost some time ago. Cars used to emote from every line. The Jaguar E-Type was the definition of sexy for the 1960s with icons such as George Best closely associated with its buxom shape. There is no grill like that of the Corvette Stingray, no doors like those of the Gullwing, no unbridled roar like that of the V8 under the hood of the GTO. For all the world's GPS satnavs there is no technologically groundbreaking car like the Citroen DS with its headlights that moved where you wanted them to and a hydraulic suspension system that is still marveled at. I don't think I can fall in love with a car in its first scene in a movie like I did with the Alfa Romeo in The Graduate. Nothing to change the English language as the Duesenberg did in the 1920s spawning the word 'doozy'. And in some cases, words cannot do justice to the ephemerality of the Mercedes-Benz 500 K Roadster. Maybe that is why I love it most and always will.



There will be the Porsches churned out year after year, mechanical precision inside and out. Ferraris will always come out red and the Aston Martin will try to remind us of days gone past. Audis have managed to turn simplicity into style. They give me some hope. The trend though has been one of ugly cars that beg to be remodeled after 3 years and to fade away in junk yards. They do not hold any magic that would appeal to an enthusiast to have them restored. Masses of Corollas and VW Golfs ready to be compacted. Even the progress of technology only serves to highlight how the vintage cars I treasure now may not be around in 30-40 years. Every car that comes with a processor is now serviced by computers more than by people. I requested a car restorer to give me an apprenticeship to restore vintage cars at his shop. He told me bluntly that I was not an artisan and it is only they who can do the very specialized jobs of moulding these aged beasts back in one piece. Every year there are fewer and fewer skilled men with the ability and willingness to work on them. It leaves me with a heavy heart to know that something I love so may not be around for too much longer. I feel bad for future generations who may be left with derivatives of the Tata Nano and little else because of choices that leadership, management and millions of others made on vehicles without souls. Any number of ultimatums from Obama will not roll back the clock. I am lucky, as apparently it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.