Detroit’s lesson in the ways of Washington

By Warren Brown

WASHINGTON — I pity Detroit.

It doesn’t get it.

It doesn’t understand that Washington takes Hollywood seriously.

It doesn’t know that the nation’s capital places more stock in symbolism — the grand gesture — than it does in relevant discussions of policy.

It is an ignorance for which the leaders of Detroit’s automobile industry paid dearly during their recent sojourn to Capitol Hill. The poor, naive darlings — they came with so many misconceptions, chief among them the belief that America’s politicians consider Detroit’s companies vital to the nation’s business.

The Detroit executives could not have been more wrong. Before coming here, they should have had someone scout out Capitol Hill — its side streets, garages and parking lots. They would have found that America’s politicians and their staffers, and that most motorists in America’s capital city buy very little of what American car companies make.

The place abounds with Acura, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo cars. Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler models constitute a distinct minority. Real numbers support that empirical observation. An astounding 76.9 percent of new car registrations in the Washington Metropolitan Area are foreign makes, according to the latest retail figures compiled by the Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association and R. L. Polk & Co., a marketing research firm.

Here’s the kicker: Washington is fond of accusing Detroit of being truck-crazy. Detroit, in fact, dominates the truck market. But that dominance means relatively little in Washington, where import/foreign brands account for 53 percent of the sales of new light trucks — vans, minivans, sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks.

Is it any wonder that politicians and so many media pundits in Washington hold fast to the fiction that Detroit makes nothing people want to buy?

The bigger picture

Truth is, as reported in this space several times, GM, Ford and Chrysler still hold an estimated 48.1 percent of the U.S. market for new vehicles. That’s respectable, considering the United States is the world’s most wide-open market for sales of import cars and trucks.

It’s not so much that American car companies make nothing people want to buy. Their vehicles sell quite well in the Midwest, Deep South, Southwest and Northwest. But the problem is that for many people — folks in Southern California and the District of Columbia are good examples — American cars lack a certain cache. It is a feeling that stems from what I call the Middle America Rejection Syndrome (MARS).

It works like this:

Let’s say you were reared in Crete, Neb. You went to the local high school. If you were smart, you matriculated to the University of Nebraska. If you were ambitious and smart, after college graduation, you got a job with a politician heading to the U.S. Congress.

In Crete, you did as Crete citizens did. You went to church. You bought Nina Ricci cologne from drug stores. You, your family and friends drove Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler cars and trucks. But in Washington, you embraced sophistry in the pursuit of image. You stopped going to church. You started buying your colognes from Bath & Body Works, Nordstrom and other upscale stores. And you dumped your American automobile for something with more panache — maybe an “I’m-not-stupid” car such as a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. You surely didn’t bother looking for the union label.

All of this is puzzling to Detroit’s automobile executives. They live and work in communities where almost everybody drives American, where everybody understands the importance of the domestic automobile industry, where “rapprochement” means a good working relationship with the United Auto Workers union.

And thus the Three Unwise Men from Detroit came here — sincere, hardworking, honest gentlemen all — so intent on delivering their message, so desperately in need of a federal loan, they didn’t know they were setting themselves up for ridicule by rushing here in separate corporate jets.

A welcome diversion

Washington loves that sort of gaffe. It provides the comic relief necessary for escaping the burden of shaping meaningful industrial and energy policies. It sparks endless commentary. It supplies ready villains in a town that rejoices in pointing fingers.

An aside: It should not go unstated here that no one on Capitol Hill, at least not publicly, made the same demands for business plans from Citigroup that were requested of the Detroit executives. The big bank was in trouble. The U.S. Treasury, with enthusiastic support from the Bush administration, opened its coffers and poured in billions to help keep Citigroup afloat.

Washington understands money-changers. It doesn’t understand stuff makers.