Ford is looking to sell off its Jaguar division, and possibly others.

At first I was surprised to read this but as I went through the story, that lessened considerably. I drive an SUV of sorts, my wonder Roo is a Chevy Trailblazer EXT as you all know. And yes, with current gas prices, it is a hard hit on the wallet at the gas pumps come fill-up time. I continue to drive it knowing and accepting this fact. I simply cannot afford to buy a new vehicle right now, but if I could, it probably would be a Toyota (the company kicking Ford's ass right now in the US). Toyota has done what the fat cat, dinosaurs of the US refused to do; they made vehicles that people wanted, vehicles that used less fossil fuels and were good to the environment. While Toyota strived forward to make it a realistic fact, GM, Ford and Chrysler continue to offer piecemeal, scattered product instead of a true lineup that the enviromentally conscious consumer would want to purchase.

With more cars being bought of the type, thus bringing down the price of entry, Toyota has been able to expand its Hybrid line-up to the types of cars people want to buy. Not only do you have the somewhat odd Prius, but you can buy a Civic and even a Lexus Hybrid model; yes, a luxury vehicle without the luxury tax. This should have been the focus of the Big Three ten years ago. Ford should have more than a Tribute-clone sportute to offer. GM should have more than experimental fleet vehicles in isolated pockets of the country. Chrysler should simply be ashamed of itself.

I won't use this post to bash the auto-workers union which is taking a hit hitself in terms of the amount of people to be laid off from all three companies by 2012; the writing was on the wall and they turned a blind eye to it. Their contribution aside, they can look at their respective companies refusal to get dirty and get the job done as a big reason sales continue to slide for everyone but the imports. Do I love North American built vehicles? Of course I do. I would buy another Trailblazer in a heartbeat. Will that be my next vehicle? With the price of gas rising, probably not. Europe, Africa and a lot of other places learned long ago that diesel was the way to go. So, if I am capable, it will be a diesel Mercedes Benz or a Hybrid Toyota in our driveway next. That is, unless the Big Three would actually like to tell me something new by then.

Peace.


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