DETROIT — Forget official titles for this year’s North American International Auto Show, taking place this week in Detroit.
The real name should be “Detroit After the Fall.” Its real purpose is the reintroduction of two companies resurrected from the automotive graveyard while showcasing a third, Ford, clearly on a path to a brighter future.
This is Detroit after its fall, a pitiless unraveling that dramatically changed General Motors and Chrysler, hardened Ford, tempered suppliers, shocked auto communities and fundamentally changed the Michigan economy. The show marks the official start of the second and arguably final chance for GM and Chrysler, each slimmer, more focused and under bracingly different leadership than they were last year.
More than a reintroduction, though, this year’s show is a crucial opportunity for the leaders of Detroit’s Big Three — especially GM and Chrysler — to begin to answer the most important questions of all: Are they charting credible paths to viability? And do their leaders have the energy, vision and toughness to get them there?
Ideally, the show heralds a reboot of Detroit because so many crushing problems have been relegated painfully to the past. Going or gone are massive debt loads, uncompetitive labor costs, surplus brands, bloated workforces and excess dealers.
GM’s balance sheet, a horror of punishing corporate debt, is on its way to becoming the envy of the industry. For the first time, Detroit’s labor costs truly are nearing par with the best foreign automakers.
Ford is delivering solid quality, an exciting product line, rising U.S. market share and black ink in each region of the world.
Assumptions of where the industry was headed just a few years ago are less certain this year than last or the year before that. Triumphalism? Hardly, because it’s way too soon to declare a Detroit revival. But the makings are there.
