The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 40
The Worm Turns
Ironically, however, I believe that it was this exalted position that
led to their inconceivable plummet.
The gasoline profits allowed General Motors to become a
bloated, inflexible entity, incapable of - and disinterested in meeting the challenges of new designs, technologies, demographic shifts, societal attitudes about the environment, and the up-start band of oil-dictators
called OPEC. As the years passed, and as new faces came onboard, the
knowledge of this gasoline-profit advantage was lost. They thought they were
invincible…they thought they were successful solely because they built a better
car.
Normally a strong market competitor will strive to set a pace via product improvement that catches the competition off guard. Typical marketing thrusts
would be to announce new and improved formulations that deliver more for the
consumer’s money, or a longer-lasting ingredient, or better for your health. Up
until the mid-1970s, when it was too late, General Motors only promoted “bigger” or “more powerful” vehicles. And, of course, “bigger” and “more powerful”
translated to more gasoline used. American brand competitors followed the
lead, tripping over the low bar set by GM. Where GM survived and prospered
because of the billions in gasoline profits the other car makers had to try and
survive only on product features and benefits, but it wasn’t enough for even the
most creative auto makers and most innovative efforts.
(The GM team of Kettering and Midgley also invented Freon for refrigeration. Kettering
patented a refrigerating apparatus to use the gas; this was issued to Frigidaire, a whollyowned subsidiary of General Motors. In 1930, General Motors and DuPont formed Kinetic
Chemicals to produce Freon. This invention and accompanying profits added to GM's
financial stability.)
Now, I will agree that most Americans probably wanted bigger and more powerful vehicles in the ’30s, ‘40s, ’50s, and 60’s – much as we still do today during
the gasoline-price crisis. However, GM did little or nothing to deliver the bigger,
more powerful vehicles while at the same time consuming less fuel. Again, up
until the mid-1970’s GM mostly scoffed at the smaller more fuel efficient vehicles that were coming from Europe and Japan. If they designed a small sporty
car to compete with a foreign import it was still more powerful and it used more
gasoline.
