[aruanan]

If you don't believe me, compare the emissions of a 2002 Honda Accord with a 1973 Buick Skylark. And remember that in 1973 Detroit engineers were saying you couldn't build cars that get the mileage the Accord does and reduce the emissions.

So, who are the real luddites?

The 2002 Honda Accord cannot be driven in CA without emission controls, even though it doesn't need any emission controls to satisfy CA's extreme requirements. Also, you're getting the cart before the horse. Water, air, and other things, such as workplace safety, were improving at a faster pace before the massive federal bureaucracy was put in place supposedly to ensure such things. Who are the real Luddites? The environmentalists.

[Regulator]

If your complaint is that the regulations are contradictory and capricious, I would agree. But having worked for a GM factory dealer in the 1970's, I can tell you that they are necessary, if you want to effect any change. GM would have never done anything on their own.

Partly that's their corporate culture, partly just a rational response to a market: you might remember all the fear over switching from leaded to unleaded gas. Initially it was a tough sell, largely because it was higher cost; but in the end it was a lot of hoohah over nothing. The vehicles work fine.

That's what I mean't about the Ludditism. You can talk till you're blue in the face, tell me that the market should do it, not the government, yadda yadda yadda. And you might be right, but it wasn't going to come out of Detroit. I worked with those fools and there ain't nothin' that they were ever going to do except at the brink of disaster. Detroit in the 1970's was so insular and thick headed you couldn't get anything through their brains - like how hard it was to push their junk.

The Japanese cars built then and since then are quite simply better designed and built. As an engineer, I can say that that is my somewhat informed opinion. As an owner, I can say that the 2000 Accord that sits in my driveway - the second Honda Accord I've owned, and the third Japanese car - is a phenomenonal piece of value. Somedays, I think the damn thing manufactures oil, since it never consumes any.

If you want to point me to a comparable Detroit designed and built vehicle, do so. But millions of people have tried and voted with their wallets, and the verdict is in. And Detroit didn't win.

So that's where the comment came from. Maybe things are different there these days (the designs are certainly a lot better, but the quality on the car side...welll...the trucks are a lot better), but that was only because they were dragged kicking and screaming to the party. I know. I was there. It's one of the reasons I left. Don't like arguing with slow people. "Luddites".