THE MOTOR CITY MIRAGE.(American automakers' domination of the SUV market provided profits in the 1990s, but foreign automakers are now producing good SUVs of their own )

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 25-NOV-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

In January, 1994, Detroit turned its annual auto show into a giant coming-out party for the American automobile industry, a kind of Crystal Palace Exhibition for the Big Three. The previous decade and a half had been dismal for Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors; at times it had looked as though they might not survive. But by improving quality and design, and by taking hold of the new market for minivans and S.U.V.s, they had rebounded. The 1994 auto show was meant to demonstrate how far they'd come. With great fanfare, Chrysler unveiled the Dodge Stratus, a stylish four-door sedan, which, along with a higher-priced sibling, the Cirrus (there was, alas, no Cumulus), was Detroit's latest answer to the little juggernauts from Japan, the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord.

So many show ponies turn out to be mules....

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