My How Things Have Changed

    by Chis Olliff, Senior Editor

When I moved to Detroit just 7 years ago, things were different. Besides the fact that no one knew about Bluetooth, IPODs, self-parking vehicles, ect….The auto industry was actually a fun, exciting place to work. I remember as a “welcome to Michigan” event, my good friend Steve brought a fleet vehicle from GM for us to take on an off-road adventure. There were many fun rides in different vehicles from the GM competitive fleet, such as my memorable ride to Frankenmuth in the back of a BMW 740IL traveling up I95 at 100mph. Uh……I mean…..75mph. And, who could forget sloshing around in my first Michigan winter in an Audi TT with summer tires….who could know that a car with ABS could slide all the way through an icy intersection…

Fast forward to 2006…. Gone are the vast and fun multi-brand competitive fleets at GM and Ford in the name of cost savings, and gone are the big team lunches we would all go on. Heck, I hear that you can not even get a Ford fleet vehicle to take home if you work there.

Besides all of the missing perks, the main thing that has changed is passion and excitement. No one seems to be excited to work in the industry anymore. With all the talks about big financial losses, layoffs, and buy-outs, it seems that most folks in this town are more focused on survival than more motivational factors. And this is not limited to the general level. It seems now that, instead of an overall attitude of “making the best products out there”, many engineering and design meetings are now about how to keep costs in line and get the cheapest solution. Granted, fuel and material costs have put a damper on things, but the passion and drive has definitely been lower of late. I guess a big sign of the of the times is the large number of die hard workers who have signed up to take a package and move out of the industry.

I think through all of this, one of the main things I have learned is that you can be passionate about something and not have to work in that industry. No one around here loves cars more than I do, but I have lost my interest in working in the industry. Yes, the ideal situation is to do what you love, but sometimes things change and you must adapt accordingly. Just ask the guy on the assembly line who has poured his life into building cars and now must either go back to school of find a new job in a new state.

Perhaps, in the next five or so years, the industry will pick up and the cycle will start again. There will be others to follow in our steps, and we can only hope that their road has less bumps than ours…

Comments

[ed hardy uk]

Gone are the vast and fun multi-brand competitive fleets at GM and Ford in the name of cost savings, and gone are the big team lunches we would all go on.