Smart Bomb

Tech in automobiles is exciting - to me and about a few billion others throughout the world. Incorporating the latest engine tweaks, suspensions, aerodynamic forms and links to a broader tech-world are fascinating to men & women everywhere - a soccer that even Americans slavishly follow and crave.

When it became clear that SMART, those real teeny sideways-parking "cars" were coming to the USA, I was excited for two reasons.

First, a Eurocar with an amazing compact styling was deemed saleable to a US audience.
Second, our German newspaper (yes the Amerika Woche) could be at the lead of the newsrush and potential advertising bonanza a new Mercedes line implies.

So now, February 2008, I see some SMARTs on the road, not too many actually, and while I am curious, I don't crane my neck too harsh an angle, nor do I see passers-by do anything similar.

Few adverts are filtering into my domains (webpages, occasional TV show, radio) and a lack of buzz reminds me of the strange honeybee disappearance from last year.

Perhaps in a stalling economy, SMART is biding its time until macro conditions and housing disasters settle foundationally - but wouldn't the great gas mileage be a huge selling point in these days of Middle East War and more importantly to most - high gas prices.

Turns out, the SMART isn't quite so magnificient with gas mileage, not like a motorcycle getting 100MPG, nor is its base selling price all that inexpensive. Combined with minimal internal space, little peppiness and Americans fear of traversing the road with anything less than a HUMMER, serious public realtions are in order.

We, at Amerika Woche, have written, called, pleaded to let us bring some spin where possible and reasonable - including an offer for review, available dates, dealership locations, etc.

Not one peep back.

Any potential advertising bonanza, or perhaps a classified advertising some after-market parts, ahs to date not materialized.

Sadly, and I don't know why I thought this product would be different, I believed that SMART would reach out to the German-Austrian-Swiss community and seed loyal emigrants with at least a token word or two about their Teutonic-creations. Instead, like Lufthansa, BMW, Siemens, et al - the silence booms and shudders. "We couldn't care less about you."

We accept it, move on and ponder why this policy of non-Germanness is thoroughly ingrained and considered reasonable.

Other European countries support their communities in the USA, for positive public relations and ultimately to better their economic and cultural interests. The giant German industrial base along with German governments consider German-Americans to be an anachronism, just fine enough for feeding with an occasional Bach concerto, 300-year-old opera or re-re-reading of Goethe's Werther. If you're lucky.

Smaller German companies - such as the airline LTU - support us, and we in turn them, by informing our readers of their progress, their great services and business decisions. (Air Berlin recently bought LTU - which should drop transatlantic flight costs even further, and increase the number of cities one can fly direclty into.) I only hear anything about Lufthansa when a reader writes in to say how horrible their service is these days.

So with great regret, I think the SMART will not do well in this US market. Not just out of spite for spurning us, but because their marketing execution and product offerings are silly, overpriced and plain wrong for the USA in 2008.

I am in the market for a compact car in the Spring, and I think I may try a hybrid of sorts (American based, German entrenched) - a 2009 Ford Focus.

Credit Problems - Not very German

Dare mention the word "Recession" and heads spin, sweat beads on exposed foreheads (in middle of Winter) especially if you tend worry about such "news".
So much has already been written on mortgage meltdowns, improper credit actions, over-leveraged consumers... well, how does that affect us, that little band of immigrants, quietly unassuming, risk-averse "German-Americans"?

Way too much!

Higher fuel prices while dollars tumble in value, bailout costs - which have to come back soon as increased taxes, and the malaise felt a few wee hours after the booze runs out.

Those lucky to have invested in Germany since 2003 have been rewarded for the euro's surge... the blue-chip stox are doing OK, property is as stable as ever, and while angst increases over the upper class / working class income gap, exports and manufacturing adapt as well as ever.

In short: we in the USA could use such troubles!

This election year will see all sorts of pandering bailouts, debt-increasing moves to temporarily fix the gluttony imposed upon the greedy and the needy. For those who were modest in their desires, and subtle in their consumption (perhaps you, dear reader?) - you will be asked to pay for the mistakes of the overly optimistic, nee insanely wild, expectation manipulators.

At this point - it is too late to do much other than write a check, then write some more...

Looking ahead, whatever the reason, let's hope some Germanic tenderness (expressed through balanced budgets and contented mild materialism) enters into the American consciouness.

Message from the Publisher

Dear Readers !

Thanks for visiting my new blog here - a place for me, as Publisher of the Amerika Woche, to connect with you, the readers of our newspaper and website.

I hope to post comments on issues of the day related to German-speakers in the USA... and matters connected and related to the "day-to-day" of Amerika Woche.

This Blog is in English - did you notice :) - but posts and comments can be in German or English. I, as Publisher, am American and use English more often in the operation of our fine paper.

That doesn't mean you have to - of course! Please feel free to express yourself as you see fit, and we will do likewise.

Thanks again for visiting - stop back soon and see some ideas and issues affecting German-Americans, and the opinions surrounding them.

Tschuess !

Peter Lobl

Publisher
Amerika Woche