The pols are gone — bring in the trucks.
Few pictures better illustrate the gulf between America’s elites and the public than the cars displayed in the Ford displays during the press and public weeks of the Detroit Auto Show. As my Detroit News colleague Manny Lopez notes, Ford trucks — the engines of Ford profits — are virtually non-existent during press week when pols and the press (and Ford’s uber-green chairman Bill Ford) demand politically correct electric and small cars. Ford execs oblige, pushing trucks to the corners of the display.
But as the pols depart and the gates open to the public, the best-selling Ford F-150 & Co. are back with a vengeance. At Saturday’s public opening, Ford trucks dominated the North Entrance of Ford’s display.
And no wonder, Ford’s iconic F-150 is by far the biggest-selling U.S. vehicle at a time when SUVs have once again taken over the majority of the market. Even the green New York Times admitted that “visitors to the show . . . might trip over all the cords to the plug-ins on display, perhaps a disconnect from a market where buyers cooled to costly electric alternatives as gas prices ebbed.”
Goodbye, green. Hello, greenbacks.