Respect Authority

While everyone was eying the Big Three, Toyota was secretly prepping itself to post its first operating loss - no small shakes, considering the loss is about $1.7 billion. If it plays out the way the company is predicting, the loss would be Toyota’s first since 1938, a year after it was founded and way before people realized foreign cars are da bomb. Moreover, it’s a pretty big blow to a company that made $28 billion in profits in 2007. 

And what about the question no one is asking? Wouldn’t all of these automotive problems be totally and completely solved if someone would just go ahead and invent the flying car already? I mean, barring hybrids — which have yet to trump the ever-present SUV as cool-car of choice — there hasn’t been a whole lot by way of massive technological innovation on the vehicle front. I mean, I know, J.D. Power and Associates seems to be forever giving someone a new rating because of their rear breaks, or shatter-proof glass, but that’s (clearly) not good enough anymore. We don’t need to improve upon the existing car structure, we need to invent a NEW one. The fact that the majority of this country’s 20-somethings have been waiting for flying cars since, well, forever, only adds to the likelihood that such an innovation will yield big bucks for the carmakers — you know, once we all have money again to afford things.