Small is beautiful

I went to pick up the car part at the auto dealership.  It was simple enough an installation that I decided to do it myself.  One of those rare moments when I feel able and competent to work with my hands.

"You are not a real man unless you work with your hands" joked a friend recently. 

"Hold it ... how many real men cook and clean as I do with my own hands?"

We laughed.

The man behind the counter was wrapping up a phone call with another customer. He was perhaps in his late forties.  I looked at his name tag.  "Hans."

Hans?  A grown man named Hans?  When was the last time that I ever had a student named Hans or run into anybody named Hans in this country?  Never!

Hans is like many of the traditional names that are becoming rarer by the day.  It seems like fathers and mothers go overboard trying to come up with a new name for their kids.  In my extended family, everyone younger than thirty has names that practically none of us over thirty have.

Hans was done with the call.  "To pick up the car part" I told him.

When I ordered the part a couple of days prior, Burt, who was at the counter, told me that the small car that I bought a couple of years ago is no longer sold here in the US.

"It is such a wonderful vehicle.  Why is it not sold anymore?"

"Americans don't want small cars.  Correct that.  Most consumers do not want small cars.  They want big pickups and SUVs" he said.

"Even young people starting their lives?  Isn't a small car more affordable?"

Burt shrugged his shoulders.  "The cars are still sold in Europe and Asia.  Not here in the US though."

"I guess I have a knack for buying cars and models that are great, but people don't want them.  I drove a Saturn for years, which I traded in to buy this one."

He chuckled.

In my autoethnographic approach to understanding the world and commenting on issues, I authored a commentary in the local newspaper about this car purchase in the context of the former guy's illogical trade policies.   Well, when it was still the old family-owned respectable newspaper. 

I wrote in the commentary: "When it came time to retiring my rapidly aging Vue, I did not have the option of buying another Saturn — the company folded after the Great Recession of 2007-09."

Automakers have discontinued numerous small vehicles in recent years after consumers abandoned them:

Ford and General Motors axed virtually all of their small cars in recent years, except for a few performance models like the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette. Gone are small cars like the Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Focus, Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit.

That is how the market system works.  So, don't blame the manufacturers when American consumers are making it clear that they want bigger and even bigger!

Unlike Saturn, there is no danger of Honda folding.  But, small cars in America are doomed to fail given the consumer preferences and government subsidies for fossil fuels.  I suppose the real surprise is that Honda even sold the small little car for a few years!