Editorial: How Can the Aftermarket Get Out of its Slump?

Image courtesy of Mustangs Daily

Working in the cargo and logistics industry, you tend to get a pretty good gauge on how business is doing for various industries that import their products from other countries. One of the industries I happen to have some customers in is the aftermarket auto parts industry. Being a car nut, this is an industry that I am pretty interested in. For the last few years, the aftermarket auto parts industry seems to be in decline. One of my customers, whose company sells aftermarket suspension parts for import cars, has noticed the slump and shared some of his reasons behind why he thinks the industry as a whole is slowly dying.

Editorial: The future of green cars - how the Tesla Model S changed everything for me

The perfect example of the horrid looking EV, the
Mitsubishi i-MIEV (photo courtesy of Mitsubishi)

I was not a fan of green cars. To me, they were always pitifully under-powered, insect-looking, miserable little cars that could never meet the real needs of an enthusiast. When I was growing up, electric cars were little more than glorified golf carts and hybrids had been adopted by such a particular set of buyers that being remotely associated with that group made me sick to my stomach. Deep in my psyche, though, I knew that the era of the fossil fuel swilling internal combustion engine would have to draw to a close someday, quite possibly within my lifetime, but as an enthusiast, I saw no viable alternative.

Tesla Roadster (photo courtesy of Tesla Motors)

Then, a ray of hope breached the gloom, illuminating an underdog manufacturer scrambling to demonstrate that electric vehicles did not have to be horrible, whiny, plasticky pieces of junk that crept along at a snail's pace. The arrival of the Tesla Roadster marked a turning point in my paradigm, opening the door to a whole world of possibilities of alternative energy powered vehicles. Sure the Lotus-derived roadster had some rough edges and the range was still far below that of a fossil fuel powered car, it at least demonstrated that electric cars could not only be fun, they could be stylish as well.