The consumer and the automobile: Auto buyers don´t always choose what´s best for them, nor do makers always “read” consumers accurately

The U.S. automotive industry may be embarked on its most exciting era since its pioneering days, but not at the behest of the consumer. Pressed by the exigencies of the unfolding energy crisis and by legislative fiat, the automotive industry is developing new generations of vehicles that might best be described as “engineers´ cars” — efficient automobiles that are by some standards in better taste and more value for the money. However reasonable this outcome may sound, it was arrived at in a way that flies in the face of the historic relationship of the industry to the market, a relationship in which, by a series of complicated, long-developed soundings, sensings, checks, and balances, the industry produces what the consumer indicates he wants. That is not the same as what he may accept, and the difference is a very significant one for many reasons, all of them serious.