I'm currently in process of determining which car to purchase or lease in February. That's when my lease on a 2006 Honda Accord expires and despite incentives being offered by the Honda dealership, and by a competing Toyota dealer, I was seriously considering an American car.

Back in '06, I had narrowed my choices down to a Camry, an Accord, and a Chevy Impala. The Chevy salesman helped me cut my picks down to the two Japanese makes when he invited me to give an Impala a test drive. This particular model had more bells and whistles than I would ever use or could ever learn how to use.

Nevertheless, even though I'm generally more a meat and potatoes than glitz and glamour car guy, I decided to give it a shot.

The salesman, Mr. X, was very upfront as I slid behind the wheel on a heated leather seat. "Someone already bought this car," he said with a wink and some amusement, "but I'm sure he wouldn't mind your giving it a test drive."

His chances of making a deal went flying out the tinted windows with that candid confession. Unbeknownst to the new owner of the car, this salesman was willing to turn a new vehicle into a demo simply because it was available on the lot. I thanked him for the offer but passed on a test drive and told him why. He was visibly shocked.

Now, I'm well aware that Mr. X was not a member of the UAW but it struck me then that his blase' attitude toward a buyer who had paid him a handsome commission was symptomatic of the domestic auto industry three years ago.

Frankly, Mr. John Q. Public, they didn't give a damn.

It's all very patriotic to buy American and keep our bucks stateside rather than sending them to Japan or Germany or Sweden or (soon) to China and I've more than done my bit in that regard. I've purchased new American vehicles- a 1971 Mercury Cougar, a 1977 Dodge Aspen wagon, a 1983 Oldsmobile Omega, and a 1986 Ford Country Squire. With the exception of the Cougar, my last pre-K (pre-kids) car, every one of them was a pig to one degree or another.

The Aspen was the sister to the Plymouth Volare which Lee Iaccoca called the worst car Chrysler ever built, which had to have been an understatement. The misnomered Omega, GM's version of its worst car, featured rack and pinion steering which literally fell apart. The Ford had starting issues and when it did start it raced and refused to bow to the braking system.

As they might say, thrice burnt, once shy so I've refused to buy an American car for a generation even though Detroit finally wised up and now turns out products which are fairly competitive in quality to those of foreign manufacturers.

With the economy in the doldrums and the Big 3 automakers on the verge of bankruptcy, I figured this time around I'd do my patriotic duty and allow a Ford, GM, or Chrysler product another chance. That is, until I read some figures and heard stories about the Motor City and its employees. They convinced me that Mr. X's attitude still prevailed and was still the order of the day with Detroit's rank and file.

They still don't give a damn.

The recent, disgraceful bailout of the Big 3 which, along with the other excursions into profligate socialism, the bailouts of AIG, Wall Street, and the American banking system, are said to be imbalanced and unfair efforts to help the elite to the detriment of the little guys, which is largely true.

However, one huge group of little guys, the membership of the United Auto Workers, seems to be doing pretty darn well. Uncle Sam's generosity simply cemented in stone their outlandish work rules and perks. CNSnews.com reported on the financial well being of the UAW, estimating that union's net worth at $1,500,000,000. That sum includes "a $27 million woodland resort and a $6 million eco-friendly golf course" and $730 million in United States Treasury notes: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=41355.

That's all very nice and a tribute to the UAW's success and strength even if most other union workers cannot avail themselves of country clubs and U.S. Treasury securities. It's not too shabby a bottomline for UAW head honcho, Ron Gettelfinger, and his 465,000 members. That's a number reported by the UAW for 2007, a far cry from its pre-foreign imports heyday thirty years ago of 1.5 million when the domestics held a monopolistic stranglehold on American car buyers.

Not incidentally, the UAW enthusiastically supported Barack Obama for the presidency. I hear that President-elect Obama often mused about the working man as he cavorted in his multi-million dollar rental pad in Hawaii.

I'm a committed advocate of capitalism and free markets and not disdainful of most unions and I hale from a working class background but whether the UAW is characteristic of the working class or the ruling class has become debatable. Some few members of that union may still get their hands dirty as they labor but whether that qualifies them for true working class status is debatable.

Tales of UAW abuse of its employers are legion. Remember the admonitions about never buying an American car if it came off the assembly line on a Monday or a Friday since it was very probable that a substitute worker finished the job because the regular guy or gal was enjoying an extended weekend? Recall the less-than-affectionate nicknames for FORD? Fix Or Repair Daily and Found On Road Dead?

The abuses of quality and allowable time off as well as many other abuses ultimately resulted in the abuse of the American car-buying public in the form of higher auto prices for defective goods, prices needed to fund the lavish lifestyle of many UAW members, their exorbitant wages, and their virtual hiring-to-the-grave bennies.

Absenteeism, work rules which give members 90% of their salaries even when idle, the right of refusal to work in another plant if they don't wish, and pay/benefit scales which dwarf the average workers', have been responsible for Detroit's decline and malaise.

The UAW's cohorts in extortion, that same Big 3 whose CEO's flew to Washington in corporate jets to beg for money from Congress, have mismanaged their companies in every way possible but their kowtowing to the UAW, that corporate malfeasance, has to be the leader of the pack. The philosophy seems to have been, Give the UAW what they want to insure labor peace and so what if foreigners turn out better and cheaper cars?

That narrowminded view of the market has put the Big 3 and the UAW in a pickle and the UAW, accustomed to its perks, has refused to do its bit to de-pickle the mess. For elaboration, see http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/editorial-the-truth-about-the-uaws-legacy-costs/.

I somehow doubt that there is anything unique among the robber barons of Detroit, although the UAW may be unique as the Union Barons Who Destroyed the American Auto Industry.

I'm buying a Honda next month.

Gene Lalor, http://genelalor.com/

Comments: + Add Rating and Comment

I agree, the UAW is selfish and out of touch with reality and largely to blame for the Big 3 trouble. They have been riding the gravy train for 30 years, its all they know how to do now.