By Peter M. DeLorenzo
Editor’s Note: Next week (June 1) marks 22 years of Autoextremist.com. Since next week’s issue doesn’t fall on the actual day, it looks like we’re going to mark the milestone over the next two weeks, judging by Peter’s column today. I’ll let you in on a little inside knowledge too. I have no idea if this website will continue after next week’s issue. Peter and I have gone back and forth about the possibility of bringing this site to a close over the last few months, and frankly, it’s a tossup at this point. I know Peter has other interests involving writing, but he still loves bringing this site to life every week and he still loves bringing it, period. So, here we are, 22 years later. I will never forget that April morning when Peter called, furious at what had just transpired in a creative meeting with the Chevrolet client, fed up with his own agency's “executive” stumblebums and their serial incompetence, and telling me, “I can’t do this shit anymore.” I then reminded him that it might be time for Autoextremist and that we could do it on the Internet instead of messing around with a print magazine. Six weeks later we were up and running. And now, it's our 22nd year. -WG
Detroit. Longtime readers have heard this story before, so I’m not going to regurgitate all of it. How I grew up in a serious car family rooted in the heyday of Detroit, with a special emphasis on anything and everything to do with GM; how I hammered away in my automotive advertising/marketing career for over two decades, trying to make sense and make a difference in an environment - and a town - that was rapidly descending into a giant sinkhole of irrelevance; how I came up with the idea for a car magazine called “Autoextremist” in 1986 that wouldn’t have any advertising so we could say exactly what needed to be said about the cars and the business of designing, engineering, building and marketing cars; and how I had to shelve that idea because I was still toiling away in the midst of my ad career. And how, disgusted with what car advertising had become – both with the clients and ad agency side of the equation – and tired of watching “Detroit” wallow in its own serial incompetence, I resurrected that car magazine idea thirteen years later and honed and polished it for the Internet.
The result? Autoextremist.com debuted on June 1, 1999, as a weekly Internet magazine featuring my perspectives, insights and commentaries on all things automotive: specifically, the people, the products, the marketing, and all of the good, the bad and the ugly that entailed.
Working under a pseudonym while my ad career was winding down, my “Rants” in Autoextremist.com blew the lid off of the oppressively staid auto business as practiced around these parts – as well as the rote press release regurgitation that passed for news coverage back then – and changed the way the business was covered, talked about and assessed.
My early columns – “White Boy Culture,” which was our debut, excoriated what the Detroit mindset had become and why it was contributing to the industry’s descent into madness, and “The Sad Saga of Saturn,” blew the lid off of the fiefdoms and the egomaniacal game-playing that dominated GM’s rigidly obsolete culture and contributed to the demise of the once-promising Saturn division – set the tone for what was to follow.
As I said in my book The United State of Toyota, Autoextremist wasn’t for everybody, and needless to say, it wasn’t for the faint of heart: "From Day One, the real essence of Autoextremist.com was the fact that I said what others were merely thinking or would only discuss in 'deep background' and in 'off-the-record' conversations. It was never a 'touchy-feely' publication that coddled its readers and genuflected at the feet of the car companies. There's plenty of pabulum in this world. And if becoming a lifetime member of the 'Milquetoast & Crumpets Afternoon Tea & Automobile Society,' while sitting around the fire chatting about Renault Dauphines floats your boat, there are plenty of other automobile publications out there to satisfy your primordial need for blandness. But that's not Autoextremist.”
I continued: “Born out of a defiance and frustration with the status quo that I believed was stifling creativity and squeezing the very life out of the automobile business - particularly as practiced here in the Motor City - and then fueled by my passion and vision for how great the business could become again and what was necessary in order for it to get there, Autoextremist.com was not only a labor of love for me personally - it became an influential force to be reckoned with in this industry with an impact far beyond my most vivid imagination."
And today, on the eve of the 22nd anniversary of this publication, I am immensely proud of Autoextremist.com and what we’ve accomplished with it. And I’m even more proud to say that, despite countless imitators, Autoextremist.com is still the force to be reckoned with and still the destination for the kind of commentary and insight about this business that simply can’t be found anywhere else.
I should pause here to say that it hasn’t always been easy. We set a high standard here from the very beginning, and at times “bringing it” every week has proven to be difficult. The odd hours, the intermittent – at best – sleep, the relentless cadence knowing that the moment an issue is finished I have a few hours before I start thinking about the next one – it has been a relentless grind. But then again, if I had to do it all over again, would I have done it any differently? Not a chance. When I left advertising, it was time to go, and even though the only “plan” I had was to say what needed to be said about this industry, I think it worked out pretty well.
Observing this industry after being immersed in it from a young age has given me a perspective that not many can bring to the table, and I am grateful for that. My insights into the auto executive mindset have been well-documented – as WordGirl says, “It’s like a gift” – but I doubt if some of those execs on the receiving end of my searing insights appreciate it. Too bad.
It’s no secret I’ve been edgy of late. I know I should be mellowing, according to what “they” say, but that just isn’t happening. My fury is growing, in fact. I am impatient with the Grand Transition to electrification. Every vehicle announcement of late is so premature that it is laughable. Any time a model year is given for a vehicle to arrive in-market you can add another year to that. As I’ve said before, at this rate 2025 is going to be bangin’. If we’re still awake for it, that is.
No matter what, the industry wheels keep churning. But pay attention, promises are being made that can’t be kept. A reminder: Just because a car company has a glittering press conference does not mean that they will be able to follow through in a given time frame. That has been a proven fact of life in this business time and time again. And electrification or no, that is not about to change. I am gratified about one development of late, however, and that is that people are finally realizing that mainstream autonomous vehicles are decades away, and I view that to be exceedingly good news.
After creating the content for Autoextremist.com all of these years, I am reminded of one of my all-time favorite songs - Watching The Wheels - written by John Lennon from the album “Double Fantasy” (1980). I have been thinking about this song a lot lately. It makes me think about what life might be like on the other side…
People say I'm crazy
Doing what I'm doing
Well, they give me all kinds of warnings
To save me from ruin
When I say that I'm okay
Well, they look at me kinda strange
Surely you're not happy now
You no longer play the game
People say I'm lazy
Dreaming my life away
Well, they give me all kinds of advice
Designed to enlighten me
When I tell them that I'm doing fine
Watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time, boy?
You're no longer on the ball
I'm just sitting here
Watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
Ah, people asking questions
Lost in confusion
Well, I tell them there's no problem
Only solutions
Well, they shake their heads
And they look at me as if I've lost my mind
I told them there's no hurry
I-I'm just sitting here doing time
I'm just sitting here
Watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go
And that’s the High-Electron Truth, 22 years on.