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The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car Market
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Sales rank 472,901
Customers rating (based on 44 reviews)
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An in-depth, hard-hitting account of the mistakes, miscalculations and myopia that have doomed America’s automobile industry.In the 1990s, Detroit’s Big Three automobile companies were riding high. The introduction of the minivan and the SUV had revitalized the industry, and it was widely believed that Detroit had miraculously overcome the threat of foreign imports and regained its ascendant position. As Micheline Maynard makes brilliantly clear in THE END OF DETROIT, however, the traditional American car industry was, in fact, headed for disaster. Maynard argues that by focusing on high-profit trucks and SUVs, the Big Three missed a golden opportunity to win back the American car-buyer. Foreign companies like Toyota and Honda solidified their dominance in family and economy cars, gained market share in high-margin luxury cars, and, in an ironic twist, soon stormed in with their own sophisticatedly engineered and marketed SUVs, pickups and minivans. Detroit, suffering from a “good enough” syndrome and wedded to ineffective marketing gimmicks like rebates and zero-percent financing, failed to give consumers what they really wanted—reliability, the latest technology and good design at a reasonable cost. Drawing on a wide range of interviews with industry leaders, including Toyota’s Fujio Cho, Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn, Chrysler’s Dieter Zetsche, BMW’s Helmut Panke, and GM’s Robert Lutz, as well as car designers, engineers, test drivers and owners, Maynard presents a stark picture of the culture of arrogance and insularity that led American car manufacturers astray. Maynard predicts that, by the end of the decade, one of the American car makers will no longer exist in its present form.
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| Publisher | Broadway Books | | Release date | 09/2003 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
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Running Out Of Road: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car Market (@ Business Week)
The end of Detroit: For the first time in August, Toyota sold more cars in America than Chrysler. Can anything be done? (@ The Economist)
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 A great study in business leadership as well as the auto industry
This book is not only well written but is a good read for more than just car buffs. Maynard lays out a detailed case for not only how Detroit lost its hold on the auto industry, but the leadership philosophies that have made Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and BMW such dominant and growing forces in the industry.
His case again Detroit begins with a case study of how Ford let the Taurus, once a leader in its class of cars, languish while pursuing pick-up trucks and high-profit SUVs. He makes a strong case that in their pursuit of short-term profits, Detroit's Big Three ignored the car market and the basics of putting quality talent against all of their models.
But the most interesting part of the book for me concerned his look into the leadership philosophies that have made Toyota and Honda such dominant forces in the industry. This section is a wonderful study of leadership in general and would make the book worth reading even if one could care less about cars. His outline of Toyota Development System and Honda's operating philosophy are well articulated and detailed.
This book has something to offer everyone and should be read by anyone interested in the auto industry, leadership and business.
 Too much opinion interjected amongst fact
While there are some interesting stories about the various car companies, the author adds her own opinion in far too many situations. Her prediction of the automotive landscape in 2010 in particular displays a lack of understanding of the financial aspects of the industry. There are better books out there.
 Not the best for research papers
The End of Detroit looks like a great book with a lot of great information. As a source for a research paper, however, its layout isn't helpful. Cryptic chapter titles and a lack of sections or section headings mean that one must, in essence, read the entire book to obtain valuable contextual information.
Bottom line - it's written more like a novel than a documentary. I don't have the time to appreciate that.
Not Enough
Maynard does a splendid job analyzing Detroits's current problems but ignores some important history. The industry as a whole was badly damaged by the great depression and later even more so by the FDR, The NRA, and the new dealers. Once upon a time American cars were like their Japanese and European counterparts in the sense they were precision machines loaded with engineering inovations, Cadillac offered 3 engines in 1931. V-8, V-12, V-16. By 1941 Cadillacs were nothing more than Chevrolets in basic design but grown longer, wider,and fatter. The American auto industry in the 1920's & 30's was like Europe's auto industry today building all different kinds of cars in all different price ranges. There were cars like the Doble and Stanley that were steam powered, in 1935 there were about 20 different car makers other than the big 3. The Depression coupled with sky high New Deal taxes destroyed the fine car makers like The Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company of Buffalo NY, Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg leaving the way for the Europeans to grab this important market starting in the 1950's after the economy began to recover from the war. Low cost car makers like Studebaker were hated by the UAW because they could not afford to pay the same wages Ford, or GM could. Ther biggest part of this whole tragedy is the art of making, desiging, well crafted cars died with the Pre-WWII generation From 1946 - 1973 American cars were been big, heavy, rolling pieces of costume jewelry. When oil prices after 1973 made building the cars in this manner no longer possible, Detroit has struggled since as to what to do. No longer able to fool people with cheaply made cars disguised to look well made under tons of steel, they have had to re-invent the way they build cars. To Detroit's credit they have made some progress over the years. The problem they faced in the 80's was they had not had to build anything remotely resembling a sophisticated engine in over 50 years. Up to the early 80's the 1928-37 Indiana made Duesenberg Model J still held the title of most technologicly advanced American car, when Detroits new front wheel drive engines could not match Toyota fuel economy they had to remove weight off the cars to make them lighter, since most consumers know nothing of engineering and only judge cars by what they see and feel, American cars were dismissed as being Tin Cans on four wheels, to quote my mother. In recent years Detroit has made some progress. Cadillac seems on the mend, the XLR is a wonderful car but like the Allante before it, way over priced. The new Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky are really nice but GM blundered big time dropping Oldsmobile.Ford has not been doing so well, the new Mustang is a 1967 Mustang front end and 1970 Mustang rear-end redone in plastic. YUK ! Mercury is almost dead. The new Lincolns are hideous. Chrysler has benefited from it's association with Damiler Benz. The Chrylsler 300 is the nicest sedan in it's price range. Time will tell if things turn around. The U.S. Auto industry has been written off before and has come back.
Maynard is the Oracle of Detroit
Here we are, March 2006 and reading this book for the second time will give one chills! Wagoner had a road map predicting the demise of GM and yet stayed the course. This book combined with The Toyota Way makes the unfortunate End of Detroit painfully clear and often sheds more light on cultural paradigm than business sense!
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