Manny Lopez

Obama’s rip on auto infamy is a clunker

Barack Obama’s auto ignorance rolls on.

The Democratic senator from Illinois, who is running for president on a platform seemingly based on bashing Michigan’s leading industry, told an Indianapolis radio station recently that the 1970s Ford Granada he drove was perhaps "the worst car that Detroit ever built."

Now we know that Obama’s auto knowledge is enough to fill up an ashtray from the sedan he bashes, but c’mon, senator — Detroit built wayworse cars than that.

Give credit where credit is due. There’s the Pinto, the Edsel, the Fiero, and the Gremlin to name a few. (The Mustang II and Plymouth Horizon remain on my list, too, despite the pleas from some who, after I called them flops last week, suggested that their sales numbers alone classified them as successes).

And who could forget the Le Car or the Yugo?

Obviously it wasn’t just Detroit. France, Yugoslavia and other countries cranked out a few beaters, too.

But before all the Francophiles send hate mail and defend the minicar’s fuel-efficiency attributes or its sales of 18,862 units in 1980, know that it might have been fine for the times, but it’s not something most people remember fondly — like their first driving experience in a Granada.

"This thing was a tin can," Obama was quoted as saying about his grandfather’s Granada. "…It would rattle and shake. You basically couldn’t go over 80 (miles per hour) without the thing getting out of control."

So much for fuel efficiency and speed limits, eh, senator?

The Granada, by the way, sold 306,517 units in 1975, according to Ward’s Automotive Yearbook.

But it was a bucket, Obama said. When you fly first class and ride in SUV style, a Granada is simply just gauche.

Minus the muscle cars, few rides survived from back in the day, but the Granada and others arguably survived well beyond their expected years of service.

Of course, it might have taken a screwdriver and an assistant to start the car, but it worked. If you’ve never had to pop the hood, stick a metal rod into the carburetor or some other automotive orifice and have a buddy pump the gas pedal a few times to turn over the engine, you haven’t fully experienced 1970s automotive engineering.

Sure it was a pain in the keister, but it was better than buying another beater.

Obviously it was no way to run a car company, which Detroit’s automakers eventually figured out. Ford Motor Co.’s reliability numbers are on par with Toyota’s today, a fact lost on Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and to a lesser extent, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

But it’s Obama who is out front in this parade, using a campaign tactic that belongs in the backyard up on blocks.