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"FacebookPinterest\n\nOn the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world\u2019s number-one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories. And together, the entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs.... Soon, there will be new cars on the streets of Seoul imported from Detroit, and Toledo, and Chicago.\u2014President Obama, Tuesday\u2019s State of the Union Address\n\nI don\u2019t see how anyone could argue that the American auto industry hasn\u2019t got its groove back, thanks in no small part to federal dinero and the bankruptcy declarations that let them burn the old union agreements. They were smart, and made the most of their mulligan. You\u2019d be hard-pressed to point at any of the Big 2.5\u2019s product lineup and find a weak spot. (PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE CHRYSLER 200 BEHIND THE CURTAIN.) They\u2019re all finally competitive with the imported stuff. Look at the Ford Fusion and Dodge Dart shown off at the Detroit auto show a few weeks ago\u2014the Fusion looks like a mini Jag (and a Camry killer), and the Dart, one of the first results of the Chrysler-Fiat marriage, is a Civic in an impeccably tailored Italian suit.\n\nThat said, while our auto industry is wholly responsible for finally cooking up cars that people want, rather than settle for\u2014and for getting that opportunity by way of Barry and Co.\u2014they\u2019ve had a little outside help. Both Toyota and Honda were already faltering on quality control when the tsunami completely ravaged their production lines. Volkswagen Auto Group (which includes Audi, Seat, Lambo,\n\n Bentley, Buggati, and Skoda) passed Toyota to become the world\u2019s second\n\n largest car manufacturer by making their cars more cheap(ly). That helped us close the gap from above.\n\nOh, and the recession kinda gave the Big 2.5 something of a home-field advantage, making it cheaper to manufacture cars here in the U.S. again. Foreign companies were forced to either build factories here in the States (VW\u2019s just about done with its new Chattanooga plant), or watch their profit margins disintegrate as the dollar got its ass kicked.\n\nObama should trumpet that success. He saved a metric shitload of jobs, pumped money into the economy, preserved what little we have of a national manufacturing industry, and ensured that we have home teams holding the line against foreign companies that receive constant and unwavering support from their own governments. You think Japan\u2019s ever going to let Toyota or Honda go the way of the eight-track? Hell, no. Kinda baffling that the same conservatives who rant about how we need to be less dependent on foreign oil wanted to put a bullet in the U.S. auto industry, making us more dependent on the foreign companies who build the cars that burn the oil."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/obama-saves-the-auto-industry>